Business like never before, will need to be adaptable and prepared to change to suit customer behaviour. Start now by scrutinising your business operations, building customer loyalty and business resilience, and looking for growth opportunities. 

Some essential strategies are:

Assess and adjust to changing conditions - revisit your business plan, is it up-to-date or does it need adjusting due to changed economic conditions? Have you increased your networking activities to utilise advice, expertise and support from your industry associations and other support networks? To assist you with business planning, the Business Resource Centre offers a range of products and services including PlanSmart Kits, financial benchmarking and the Think. Plan. Grow. planning tool.

Make customers your priority - review your client service strategies to increase sales. Are you doing everything you can to build and keep customer loyalty? Why not complete the Understanding customer needs quiz to assess how well you understand your customers and what motivates them.

Revisit your marketing plan - don't stop marketing, just use your marketing dollar more effectively. Review your marketing plan to make every dollar count. Think. Plan. Grow. provides a sample marketing plan to get you started. Consider where your growth will be and focus on activities that will achieve significant growth. Use this period of uncertainty to your advantage and see it as an opportunity to achieve higher growth and strengthen your business' market share.

Focus on profitability - ensure that you have accurate, up-to-date financial information about your business e.g. cash flow forecast, breakeven point and forecast profit budget.

• Analyse expenditure and sales figures for your product/service lines.
• Review all your business expenditure and consider what can be reduced, rationalised or even cancelled.
• Look for new opportunities or ways to diversify (for example, have you thought about tendering for government business?). Complete our Winning new business, selling to Government quiz to be better prepared to tender for government business.
• Manage debt by regularly following up with debtors. Consider whether a debt collection service would be suitable to convert debts into cash.
• Know your cash reserves and position with the bank. Build productive relationships with both your bank and suppliers.
  

Effectively manage your HR requirements - ensure you have an up-to-date Human Resources (HR) Plan. If you haven't started a plan, consider purchasing the Think. Plan. Grow. planning tool. You can use your HR plan to detail motivational strategies and reward systems to minimise staff turnover. Take our quiz, Recruiting, managing and developing staff to assess how well you currently manage your staff and how you might improve. Use your plan to detail your staffing costs which in turn will allow you to accurately cost your products/services.

Develop innovative practices in your business and watch your profits grow. There are five principal types of innovation found within organisation: product, process, management, marketing and business model innovation - but most businesses only practice one or two. By harnessing your workforce creativity, you can build a culture that supports innovation.

Providing the best working environment, encouraging group creative thinking, communicating about innovation and recruiting people who have creative thinking abilities, helps to create an innovative culture and benefit your bottom line. Take our Bright ideas for business quiz and discover more ideas about implementing innovation to your advantage.

The Department has a range of useful resources including business fact sheets, financial spreadsheets, business planning products and Smart Skills learning subjects. Review our online quizzes to assist with your preparation such as Surviving economic challenges, Understanding customer needs, Winning new business, selling to Government, Business succession and exit planning and Product and service warranties. To build business resilience, our business continuity planning information will assist you and your business to prepare, respond and recover from crisis events. Queensland Government's Small Business Solutions can also provide one on one mentoring for your business.


Top business fact sheets:

• Managing your stock effectively
• Networking
• Control your cash flow
• Customer service
• Developing competitive advantage
• Increase your sales