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There are plenty of reasons why a business struggles to expand, remaining at a standstill while similar businesses flourish.

Granted, the past year has thrown an unpredictable spanner in the works, however, there are a few tools at your business’ disposal that can assist in recovery and more importantly, growth.

As we continue to embrace the move towards digitisation, it’s important for any business to stay ahead of the curve — it’s much easier to keep ahead of the market than it is playing catch-up.

For instance, growing SMBs are 139% more likely than stagnant or declining SMBs to say a CRM system is helpful for attracting new customers, indicating that the adoption of new technology and updated systems makes a significant difference.

Below are some resources that could assist in business growth and development.

Have a growth strategy

While you might already have a solid grasp on the market, it’s never a bad idea to have a quick refresher and potentially tackle your business growth with a different perspective.

Available through Salesforce, the free Small Business Growth toolkit covers everything from charting your path to growth, increasing productivity, testimonies from a slew of Australian and New Zealand trailblazers and even tips on finding a business partner to split the responsibilities.

Rather than reel off a long list of buzzwords, professionals like CXC’s Ingrid Webber take a far more realistic approach: “The real test for an organisation is how it responds when things go wrong. Of course, no one goes looking for failure but, when you’re growing a business, mistakes are part of the process. So there’s no point in hoping for the best. Instead, plan and prepare for failures so you can address them efficiently, learn from them and move on.”

Once you’ve read through the 19-page toolkit, you can move forward with an educated plan, working alongside Salesforce to use its expertise and resources to entirely overhaul your business — from automation to software and an upgrade from outdated processes to a system that’s streamlined and modern.

No one’s expected to be a business guru straight out of the gate, so while not exactly a physical tool, asking for advice can be an obvious — yet often overlooked — tool at your disposal.

This goes beyond chatting to another SMB in a similar situation, look to Salesforce, where its entire job is to provide you with the tools and help your business could benefit from.

System consolidation

To streamline your operations and increase productivity, consolidate your systems.

Not only will a consolidated system declutter your day-to-day experience, it will minimise the possibility of wires getting crossed (figuratively) and lessen the risk of overlooking a certain process in the chaos of it all.

In the same vein, this can be applied to businesses that store data like customer and order information. Instead of having this information in a thousand separate spreadsheets, take the time to transfer that data into a single location.

Similarly, system consolidation grants employees the ability to work on projects together, at the same time, allowing for consistent and current contributions, discussions and feedback.

AI-powered automation

Accurate reporting and forecasting are essential for businesses looking to grow, but it also serves the purpose of preemptively handling looming, unexpected threats.

As is expected, businesses that handle an unannounced issue poorly will be less likely to grow — or stay afloat — so managing your data and watching the market movements in real-time provides that buffer between your business and whatever speedbump presents itself.

AI-powered tools like Salesforce’s Tableau gives you all of those insights that will help you manage your business more effectively.

Beyond real-time tracking, SMBs can also utilise Salesforce to implement automation across the board — by alleviating a small business of some of the more trivial tasks that can very easily be completed with technology, employees and the owners will have more time to focus on the bigger picture, instead of being bogged down by minor, yet time-consuming responsibilities.

With the use of Salesforce’s Pardot, for example, companies can personalise their messages to clients across the board — that removes the finicky task of manually personalising the messages yourself, plus it’s a nice touch to make clients feel appreciated.

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