There’s ample reason to expect that consumer spending may slump in 2023. You only need to look at the disappointing half-year results from major retailers like JB Hi-Fi to realise that cash-rate rises and inflation are causing the average Australian to curb their spending habits.
For business owners and start ups this may present a concerning outlook. But such unique conditions also provide opportunity — and if you can nail your online strategy then you end up standing head and shoulders above your competition. Here are four steps to prepare your business online for the year ahead.
The most important thing any business owner can do right now — no matter what industry you operate in — is to sit down and make a plan for the year ahead. But beyond putting together a generic 12-month strategy, you should clarify what your critical path forward is.
“When you are running a business or running a team, there are always distractions and it’s really easy to slide off-course,” says Chris Dahl, co-CEO at Pin Payments. “So knowing what your critical path is will help reveal the key levers that will make your business successful in the year ahead.”
Business owners who are struggling with cash flow right now may be worried that they won’t be able to attract top talent simply due to their financial constraints. While it’s true that some candidates will be more focused on the compensation than the role itself, Dahl says you can discover who will be a good fit by focusing on other areas during the hiring process.
“What is your mission? What are your goals?” he says. “If you share those specifics with jobseekers and you find that their interests and their career goals match up with what you can offer them, that’s a really powerful connection.”
For retaining your existing talent, think about what you can offer them — beyond the monetary factor — to ensure they stay engaged with their work and your business going forward.
“You might have the right people on board already, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are in the right place,” Dahl says. “It could potentially benefit both your business and your employees by offering lateral moves”
Especially in the context of running your business online, integrating the right technology into your daily processes is key.
“If you’re running a fully online business, look at ways to automate as many back-office processes as possible,” Dahl says. “That will give you back the time to focus on your team, your customers and growing your business.
“And if your existing systems aren’t great, commit to upgrading them as soon as possible. It’s 2023 – your business software should be doing a lot more for you than just storing records.”
Including an option for card payments on your invoices, and providing Google Pay and Apple Pay are just some of the ways that a business can optimise their payment efficiencies. For platform businesses, monetising payments is something they should consider as a new revenue stream.
In particular, start looking into what’s going to hit the market later this year: real-time business payments via PayTo.
“When you want to transfer money to a friend on your banking app, it’s done in real-time with the help of services like Osko,” Dahl says. “You could think of PayTo as the business version of that. Most business transactions happen on ‘old rails’ where the money takes a long time — in the context of fast-paced business — to reach the recipient. So a client might pay you and it will be debited from their account straight away, but you won’t know if it’s been successful for another two days.
“By adopting a real-time account-to-account payment solution in your business, you’ll be able to divert funds from someone’s account just like a credit card — you’ll know instantly if the money is there. We’re looking to offer PayTo in the market later this year – offering our customers increased efficiencies with accepting more payments online.
Read now: How Paytron automated payments to become one of Australia’s fastest growing startups
Pin Payments is Australia’s first unified approach to payments for small to medium-sized businesses. It supports over 12,000 businesses in Australia and New Zealand to accept payments from debit and credit cards bearing the Visa, MasterCard and American Express brands without requiring a merchant account.
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