Founding, managing and growing a business is a BIG commitment.

For most business owners, it will take years to build a customer following, turn a profit and create a truly scalable business. It’s a journey that can sometimes be pressurized, stressful and risky. – But when your plan really does come together, there is the chance of real success, a legacy and a business that delivers on your initial dream.

So, how do you know when you’ve truly achieved your goals for the business?

1. Has the business met its growth targets and scaled up as intended?

You’ll have seen your business idea grow from being a fledgling startup, to an established business and on to become a scaled-up, ambitious enterprise with a solid customer base.

If you’ve met these growth targets, then you know you’re on solid ground as a business. Your idea clearly has legs and you’re delivering a product and/or service that your customers see as valuable – and which they’re willing to part with their hard-earned cash to purchase.

2. Are you running a profitable enterprise that’s in good financial shape?

Running a tight financial ship is crucial. You need solid revenues, positive cashflow and good liquidity to keep your business ticking over.

In the early days of being a startup, cash will have been tight. And your own personal income as a founder and director will probably have been scarce too. But as the business has become more established, you should have found that your business revenue became more stable and predictable – and that your own personal wealth also followed this same reliable pattern. If the business has a solid balance sheet, great cashflow and meets your intended profit targets, you’re onto a good thing – and can be sure that your financial position is in good shape.

3. Do you have a stable customer base who say good things about you?

Without customers, you don’t have a viable business. Finding your first customers as a startup was probably a significant turning point in your journey. A good customer base brings with it the bonus of new sales, fresh revenues and a business that can turn a profit.

When customers engage with you and buy your goods and services, that confirms your original faith in your business idea. You’re providing something they value and want to purchase, and you’re also building a community of like-minded people who all think your brand is great.

4. Do you have a team who can operate the business without you?

In the early days, you’ll probably have become a jack (or jill) or all trades. You’ll have run the sales and marketing campaigns, taken care of all the main operational tasks and dealt with the many invoicing, accounting and bookkeeping tasks. Turn the clock forward, and you probably have a team of people around you to take care of these jobs – but could they function with you?

This is really the acid test of whether you’ve scaled and succeeded. If the business is still reliant on you, personally, you have a problem. To be a saleable proposition, a business needs to function effectively without the founder. If not, you’ll never be able to sell up. To make this possible, you need a team of engaged and talented people around you – people who share your vision and talents and who can keep the ship on an even course, even once the original captain has set sail on fresh, new adventures.

5. Do you feel you’ve achieved what you wanted to achieve?

In your formative years as a founder, you’ll have sat down to draw up a startup plan. In that plan you’ll have outlined a clear vision for what this business was going to achieve.

This vision might have been:

• To scale up over five years, sell-up and retire
• To deliver a new kind of technical widget and make it the global standard
• To help your target audience improve their lives, helped by your product/service
• To provide the income needed for you to live your desired lifestyle
• To plough your profits back into the local community and be a force for good.

We all have different goals, and whether they are financial, personal or moral comes down to the individual. The important thing at this point is to assess whether you’ve met the vision that you set out to achieve. If your aim was to sell for a profit and then retire, are you ready to do this? If the goal was to become a household name and move your sector forward, do your customer engagement figures, and market share stats reflect this?

Deep down, only you and your fellow founders know whether you’ve truly met your intended goal. But if the consensus is that you aced it, then it’s time to think about the future.

What’s the next chapter in your business story?

If you can answer yes to all five of these questions, then congratulations! You’ve built a successful, stable and profitable business.

But what do you do now? Do you continue to plough this fertile furrow and live off the profits? Do you find a buyer for the existing business and start on your next business idea? Or do you sell up and look at retirement and enjoying the benefits of your money and lifestyle?

It’s a good idea to talk to us before you make what is, essentially, a life-changing decision. If you’d like to talk through your options, do get in touch.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

We live in a golden age of business software.

There’s an app for everything—task management, time tracking, team communication, invoicing, reporting, forecasting, and even apps to help you manage all your apps. It’s the digital equivalent of walking into a hardware store and buying every single tool, if having them all will somehow make you a better carpenter. Spoiler: it won’t.

Instead of increasing efficiency, software overload is quietly killing your workflow. It’s called app fatigue, and it’s the modern workplace’s productivity killer.

The Problem: Too Many Tools, Too Little Time

At first glance, adding new software seems like the logical solution to business challenges. Need better project management? Add an app. Struggling with communication? Get a new messaging tool. Want better analytics? More software!

The issue is that businesses often end up with a tangled mess of disconnected systems, each promising to be the magic bullet but ultimately creating more work, more confusion, and more logins (seriously, how many different passwords do you need?).

Here’s what app fatigue looks like in real life:

• Constant context switching – You’re updating the CRM, checking Slack, answering emails, logging time, scheduling meetings, running reports… all before you’ve even started the work you’re actually paid to do.
• Notification overload – Your laptop sounds like an arcade machine with the sheer number of pings, dings, and pop-ups.
• Duplicate data entry – Entering the same information across five different platforms, all while wondering if you work for your software or if your software works for you.
• Integration nightmares – Half your tools don’t talk to each other, leading to manual workarounds, broken workflows, and the slow death of your patience.

In short, more software ≠ more productivity. Often, it just means more complexity.

The Hidden Costs of App Fatigue

Beyond frustration, there are really financial and operational costs to using too much software.

🔹 Wasted Time – Constantly switching between apps eats into your workday more than you realize. Instead of focusing on meaningful tasks, employees spend too much time jumping between platforms, searching for information, and re-entering data. The more tools you use, the more time gets lost in the shuffle.

🔹 Higher Costs – Many businesses subscribe to tools they don’t even use properly. SaaS subscriptions are easy to accumulate but hard to justify when no one knows what half of them do.

🔹 Decision Paralysis – When everything requires a different tool, decision-making slows down. Instead of working, people spend time choosing where to work.

🔹 Employee Burnout – Keeping up with multiple platforms is exhausting. When tech is meant to help but adds stress, employees disengage.

The Solution: Simplify, Integrate, Automate

The good news? You don’t have to scrap all your software—just be smarter about it. Here’s how:

1. Audit Your Tech Stack – Take a critical look at all your software. What’s being used? What overlaps? What’s creating more work than it’s saving? Kill the dead weight.
2. Prioritize Integration – If your software doesn’t talk to each other, you’re wasting time. Look for ecosystems that play well together (think the Xero add-on marketplace).
3. Automate Repetitive Tasks – Tools like Zapier can bridge gaps between software, eliminating duplicate data entry and manual admin work.
4. Choose Multipurpose Tools – Rather than five different apps for small tasks, try and opt for one platform that does more. Less jumping around means less lost time.
5. Educate & Train – Your team can only be efficient if they know how to use the tools. Training is just as important as choosing the right software.

Less is More: Focus on What Works

Software should be a solution, not another problem. If your workflow is buried under a pile of apps, it’s time to step back and simplify. Choose wisely, integrate where possible, and remember: the best tech is the one that makes work easier—not more complicated.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Looking around at the business landscape, it’s evident that Artificial intelligence (AI) is starting to make meaningful changes to the way the average small business works.

Over a third (38%) of small businesses have used, or are considering using, AI according to new research from Small Business Britain and the global hiring platform Indeed.

AI may be the new kid on the block, but what are the actual, tangible benefits?

Let’s dive deeper into the advantages of using AI tools in your business.

1. Speeding up your admin and operations

AI loves the tedious, process-heavy tasks we hate. If there’s a laborious task that’s eating into your business time, the chances are there’s AI to automate that process.

AI-powered tools like Otter.ai can transcribe your meeting notes in seconds, while Google’s Smart Compose can automate your document creation and emails. This AI automation frees up your time and delegates many low-level tasks to your software tools.

2. Connecting manual procedures

Manual processes are slowing down both your efficiency and your accuracy. Connecting up your operational procedures and different software systems is one way to solve this.

AI-powered workflow automation platforms like Zapier can connect disparate apps and manual processes. This means you systemize tasks like data entry between spreadsheets and CRM systems, reducing errors and saving time.

3. Automating time-consuming customer tasks

Connecting and interacting with your customers is a key part of building your brand. But not all customer interactions need to be person-to-person in the first instance.

AI chatbots like Fin by Intercom can automate your customer service inquiries, and AI phone agents like Lucy by Curious Thing can pick up your phone and answer FAQs. AI scheduling tools like Calendly can even automate your appointment booking, keeping you connected to customers but without taking up your own business time.

4. Reducing your headcount

Being able to run your business with fewer employees is now a reality. You can grow and scale up, without the need to hire new people. Instead, you can put your AI agents to work.

For example, AI-powered marketing automation platforms like HubSpot Marketing Hub can automate your email campaigns and social media posting, without hiring a social media executive. This greatly reduces your need for a dedicated marketing resource.

5. Using business data for insights

Picking out the most important data insights from your business information can take time. You may well miss the prevailing patterns, trends or big-hitting numbers in the data.

AI-powered analytics tools like Tableau or Google Analytics 4, with their AI insights, can automate the whole process. These AI tools can analyze your sales, customer and operational data to identify the most important trends and opportunities, so you can take action fast.

6. Driving informed strategic decisions

Using the insights from your AI analytics tools, you’re in the perfect position to make informed, evidence-based decisions that can drive your strategic plans as a business.AI-powered market research tools like MarketMuse can even analyze market trends and competitor strategies. This helps you make data-backed decisions around what content marketing to generate, what topics to write and when to post to get engagement.

Talk to us about introducing AI into your business

Want to make the most of AI, but don’t know where to start? In this series, we’ll run you through the basics of AI, the main terms and the AI tools and agents that can transform your business.

And if you’re hungry to know more, why not talk to our team about the AI agents and AI-driven apps that would be most appropriate for your industry, niche or business type.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

A business budget is one of the essential tools in managing your business finances and actively building your business.

A budget shows what you plan to do with your cash over the next year.

For a complete picture of your business health, you need to review the profit and loss statement, the balance sheet, the cash flow forecast and the budget. Taken together, these reports allow you to make informed business decisions and monitor performance.

Why have a Budget?

• • • Forecast sales and expenses according to monthly or quarterly variations.
    • Evaluate performance over time, including changes or patterns.
    • Get really familiar with where your money goes and where it comes from.
    • Clarify targets and goals and use the budget to help you focus and achieve those goals.
    • Comparing actual figures to budgeted figures allows you to see potential problems early and plan for unexpected costs.
    • A budget will help you to see the big picture and stay motivated over the long term.

Where to start

A basic budget takes known income and expenses, then makes certain assumptions about the timing of income and planned expenditure. The basic budget is based on cash in and out of the business.

Over time, as you start to see the benefits of using a budget, your budget should evolve into a more sophisticated version that includes non-cash elements such as provisions and depreciation.

Most businesses will start with one budget but soon move to having three budgets:

1. Business as usual – the next year’s budget is based on current year income and expenses, with perhaps a small adjustment for consumer price index increases.
2. Worst case – budget is based on a pessimistic view of next year’s performance.
3. Best case – budget is based on an optimistic view of performance over the next year.

A budget is usually for a financial year, but you can also set up budgets for two to five years.

Once you have one budget (or more) set up, you can then run your current financial reports against the budget to see how you are tracking. This allows you to make rational business decisions in real time to adjust accordingly.

Your can run your financial reports monthly and adjust your budget as needed.

What Next?

Now is a great time to put a budget into place for the coming financial year. Book a time with us to help you create a meaningful budget in your accounting software so that you can use it as a proactive part of your business management, strategy and your success.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Uncertainty can be a major threat to your strategic financial planning.

Being unsure of what lies around the corner makes it difficult to make those important financial decisions around operational budgets, investment and growth funding.

But by using forecasting and scenario-planning, you make it easier to manage your finances and reduce some of the financial uncertainty.

Looking to the future with your financials

Analyzing your cashflow statements, profit and loss reports and quarterly management accounts gives you an indication of where you’ve been as a business. But these reports don’t tell you much about where you’re going, and what your financial future may look like.

By looking forward, rather than backward, you can start to get a better idea of the landscape that lies ahead – including future cashflow, revenue, profits and operational budgets.

Five key techniques you can use to reduce your financial uncertainty

1. Cashflow forecasts

Cash is king, so having a detailed overview of your cashflow trajectory is vital.

With cashflow forecasting apps, like Fathom, you can predict your cash availability and spot potential cash shortfalls – while there’s still time to plug the hole. By cutting expenses or seeking short-term funding, you can keep the business in a positive cashflow position. It’s this forecasting and foresight that keeps you trading, despite the uncertainty in the market.

2. Revenue forecasts

Knowing the future patterns in your sales and revenue data helps you keep your income stable.

Revenue forecasting apps, like Clari analyze your sales data, revenue trends and market shifts to anticipate fluctuations in your revenue. Armed with this future view of your potential revenue, you can adapt your pricing, invest in more marketing and make your income more consistent.

3. Scenario-planning

There’s always more than one potential outcome of any business situation. Having a plan B (or C, D and E) allows you to understand the multiple potential possibilities – and plan for them.

An app like Modana helps you model potential ‘what-if’ scenarios, so you can see the possible outcomes of an economic downturn or disruption to your supply chain disruptions. This kind of scenario-planning makes it easier to make contingency plans and mitigate the potential risks.

4. Profit projections

Being a profitable enterprise is important for several reasons. It shows lenders you’re a low-risk borrower, allows you to invest in the business and drives your dividend payments.

A tool like Teamwork helps you track your performance and estimate future profitability, factoring in variable costs, sales and market changes. This helps you determine your price point, drive cost-cutting measures or make investment decisions that keep the profits rolling in.

5. Budget forecasts

Tracking and forecasting your budget performance keeps your expenses in check.

Budgeting apps, like Jirav, help you build dynamic budgets and remain on budget to achieve your financial goals. Budget forecasts help you track your performance, control your expenses and cut any unnecessary spending, keeping you on track with your agreed budget.

Making your financial future clearer and easier to navigate

With so many ups and down in economic conditions and the costs of raw materials and labour, getting serious about financial forecasting really is a must.

Come and talk to us about the key areas of financial uncertainty in your business – and find out how we can guide you through these uncertain times and out the other side.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.