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    How do I know when to invest in my business?

    As a small or medium-sized business leader, investing further – both in terms of time and money – can be a strain. What if you don’t get a good return on your investment? Luckily, many other business leaders have been where you are now and all recognise the importance of knowing the right time. See how you can identify the optimum time and place.

    Ways to help you deal with it:

    Action plan

    Knowing when it’s the right time to scale your business

    Effort : Medium
    Impact : High
    How do you know it’s time for the next step in your company’s growth? It’s a big question. Our five-step guide will help refine your thinking.

    ACTION PLANS are a structured list of steps designed to help you approach tackling a particular business challenge.

    • We explain why each step is important
    • Customise by setting your own completion dates and assign tasks
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available

    Action plan

    Decide how to invest in your business

    Effort : High
    Impact : High
    Use our five-point guide to help you identify the business investments which will have the most impact in the long-term.

    Action plan

    How to define what success looks like for your business

    Effort : Medium
    Impact : Medium
    Follow this step-by-step action plan to help you define what success means for your business.

    Action plan

    Learning to prioritise your internal strategies

    Effort : Medium
    Impact : Medium
    Use our five-part action plan to prioritise your internal strategies and improve your accountability as a leader.

    Action plan

    Are your company’s processes fit for purpose?

    Effort : High
    Impact : Medium
    If you’re worried about how efficient a process is, our five-step plan can help you work out whether or not it’s fit for purpose.

    Action plan

    Which parts of your business need support?

    Effort : High
    Impact : High
    A step-by-step action plan to help you understand the parts of your business which are slow or inefficient and how to provide the right support.

    Action plan

    How to predict future trends in your industry

    Effort : Low
    Impact : High
    Follow our action plan to learn how to predict future trends that could affect your business.

    Guide

    An introduction to figuring out when it’s the right time to invest in your business

    Getting the timing of investment decisions right makes all the difference to whether a business prospers. But how do you know when it’s the right time?

    GUIDES break a challenge down, providing important context and real-world experiences.

    • Based on SME experiences, not corporate jargon
    • Filled with real-world stories
    • Achievable steps every business can take

    Other support that's available

    Investing in your business

    Investing in your business

    As your business grows, you’ll need to make further investments. Before you get started, read Shopify’s guide on the need-to-know essentials.

    Knowing where to invest

    Knowing where to invest

    You’re ready to invest in your business, but where should the additional funds be directed and why? Biz2credit has some suggestions.

    How other businesses have tackled something similar

    Naeem Alvi, Notepad

    Real business story

    Investing in your business is the key to a lasting future

    Before taking the plunge and investing in the business, Notepad planned thoroughly, know its finances and set clear goals..
    Larkin Cen

    Real business story

    Focusing on the big picture is key for scaling successfully

    Looking for signs of growth and planning thoroughly has been essential to scaling up Woky Ko, a Bristol-based restaurant..
    Claire Ladkin

    Real business story

    Work on your business, not just in your business

    Working on the business, not just in it, has been an essential learning for the leaders of All About The Cooks and Woky Ko..

    The questions lots of businesses are trying to answer

    What issue is keeping you awake at night? A bit of targeted support is often all you need to overcome those challenges.

    Select a topic

    Digital

    How can I improve the digital presence my business has? How should I go about collecting data to improve my business? How should I use the data I have to improve decision making? How can I streamline and automate some of our business processes? How do I work out the best digital sales channels to use? How do I assess and choose the right technology to improve business operations? How do I effectively seek external digital support? How can I understand what digital tools or support my business needs? How do I know if my technology is robust enough for growth? How should I best budget and plan for new technology investments?

    Leadership & Strategy

    How do I learn to become a better leader? How do I improve the communication in my business? How do I get staff interested in our vision and values? How can I reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses as a leader? How do I give my team autonomy and get better at delegating? As a leader, how do I learn to trust others within my organisation? How do I apply learnings from other businesses to my own company? How should my role as a business leader evolve with the company’s growth? How can I balance short-term needs with long-term targets? How do I get better at noticing and reacting to warning signs?

    People & Team

    How can I improve my hiring and onboarding practices? How can I develop the skillsets of my workforce? How can I develop career paths for my staff? How can I run a better appraisals process? How should I performance manage my staff? How do I deal with a challenging member of staff? How can I increase staff engagement and motivation? How can I keep my best members of staff? How do I manage an effective remote workforce? How can I reduce employee turnover?

    Planning

    How do I better inform my business plans? How do I know when to scale up my business? How can I define and communicate my vision for success? How do I ensure my business can navigate a dip in trading? How do I know when to invest in my business? How can I get better at looking internally at my business? How can I get staff interested in the financial situation? How can I make my business more resilient to change? How can I balance ambition with setting realistic goals? How can I work out what required skillsets are missing in the business?

    Sales & Growth

    How can we develop new products and services? How do I develop a clear unique selling point? How can we better serve our most loyal customers? How do I financially plan for new opportunities? How do I build a network to support my business? How can I get a better return on investment from my marketing? How can I identify new customers to target? How do I create targets and KPIs for my staff? How do I make sure my team and processes are ready for growth? How do I benchmark my business against competitors?
    All