Our budget response: when you’re battling headwinds, become more streamlined

If you’re a business owner, the Budget hasn’t necessarily added to our woes but it hasn’t given you much to cheer about, at a time when the UK’s small businesses are already feeling under pressure.

Vacancies are at their lowest since 2021 (when Covid restrictions were causing major problems). Small and medium-sized businesses were hit in April with increased employer National Insurance Contributions – which will cost UK businesses over £25 billion a year – as well as rising National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) rates. 

Then there’s the looming Employment Rights Bill, which many business owners fear will add to costs both directly and indirectly, for example through changes to unfair dismissal and Statutory Sick Pay. According to a survey from the Federation of Small Businesses, a third of small employers plan to reduce staff before the Bill comes into force, and two thirds say the proposals will make them reduce new hiring.

All in all it’s no surprise that businesses are not recruiting right now. But the Budget also highlighted another factor which is holding back UK businesses – productivity. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has downgraded its productivity forecast this week, causing the Chancellor even more headaches. Poor productivity growth has bedevilled the UK for years and it looks set to continue. 

But… this represents an opportunity.

If you can improve productivity and your competitors can’t, you can steal a march on them.

This will also help you counter increased employment costs.

We know one proven way to make a step change in productivity. A bespoke software system that functions across your business, tailored to the way you work and your particular workflows. A system like this will have instant impact. For example:

• Faster, more accurate customer service.
• More effective stock management.
• More efficient recording of tasks completed.
• More efficient job allocation.
• Better decisions based on easy access to business-critical data.
• No more manual keying data from paper records.
• No more data entry duplication across different software systems – for example the sales team keying in a new prospect’s details, and later the accounts team doing the same thing.
• No more time wasted searching through spreadsheets or emails for key information.   

Too good to be true? These are simply the results you get when you have a software system that connects up different teams and software tools into a single central system that contains all your data. At a stroke you 1) cut out a whole series of unnecessary processes and 2) improve coordination and efficiency. 

Here’s what one of our clients said of their new bespoke business system:

“Our efficiency and therefore profitability has increased. Our business has grown but we haven’t needed to increase the head count because the staff no longer need to do those mundane, time-consuming tasks.”

So if you feel that you’re facing problems, there is a potential solution. And one where the initial outlay could be as low as £10k.