Selecting and implementing business technology, whether software applications or IT infrastructure, often leads to unexpected complications ranging from budget blowouts to a failure to meet business needs.
In today’s competitive economic climate, organizations of all sizes must find new ways to control costs—and achieve more with less. With most small and medium-sized companies typically spending between 45 and 65 percent of their sales revenue on the procurement of raw materials , fine-tuning your purchasing processes—and shaving off even a small percentage of your procurement costs—can go a long way in better positioning your business for the road ahead.
You’ve spent countless years—and money—investing profits back into the business in an effort to stay ahead of the competition. Or maybe the simple fact is, people want what you have and organizations have started knocking at your door. What are your options?
Fundraising is never easy, even for serial entrepreneurs let alone budding first-timers who may be putting their life’s savings or sustained sources of income at stake. Given the stage we are at in the fintech revolution (or evolution), not many have the luxury of claiming to have done it before. But there comes a time in most evolutionary cycles when there is a now-or-never moment and the plunge is worth taking. The focus often tends to be on preparing swanky business plans and presentations with little attention given to fundraising itself – the amount, investors, staging, and so on.
At some point or other along the life cycle of your technology business, it is likely you will need access to additional capital to help realise your growth plans. This funding may be required for sales and marketing, developing your technology, growing your team or other strategic ambition.
So we are all familiar with digital? It is part of everyday life, from Facebook to phone-based payment services to a-million-and-one apps. How does a business reach out to its customer base, encourage them to maintain that brand loyalty and make money from just being ‘liked’?
Debt can play a pivotal role in helping to grow a business—but only if you do it right. That means financing your working capital needs with short-term debt—like operating loans and accounts payable, funding capital assets with term financing or leases, and matching repayment terms on your loans with your business’s cash flow ability. These five steps can help you properly structure your debt most effectively:
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” said leadership guru, Peter Drucker. Certainly a polarising statement; it seems strange that culture could be so important for success. Surely clear strategy, good products, market positioning, world-class execution and sound financial management are the keys to success? Yes and no. All of these elements of course have an impact, yet culture seems to transcend them all. Culture is the environment in which all human systems operate. In the same way that variables in the environment critically affect a plant's growth (sun, position, rain, etc) so the culture of an organisation dictates its growth.
