Businesses have begun to return to an adjusted normal after the coronavirus pandemic. Through reduced budgets and transitions to remote environments, many companies not only survived but came out stronger. After a sluggish winter and spring, profits soared at the end of 2020. It’s now time to think about 2021.
There’s a lot to consider. Should you expand your payroll? How many products do you want to release? What type of investments are required to move your company past the bursting point to a new level?
To get some answers, here are a few examples of how to make smart business investments in 2021.
Factor In Inflation
There’s no doubt some form of inflation is going to occur this year. With businesses reopening, stimulus checks, and unused savings, things may get expensive. If you compare them to 2020 inflation rates, found at sites like CPI Inflation Calculator, they’ll seem significant.
This is where you need to start. If you don’t price your products or services according to the market then your investments won’t go anywhere. You might have to raise your numbers due to material and shipping costs. What you need to do is make it digestible for both new and existing customers.
Perform A Risk Management Audit
The biggest investment for your company is your IT infrastructure. Without it, you don’t have the tools to manage your clients or produce new items for sale. On the other hand, when you have an IT infrastructure you’re at the risk of cyber extortion.
Hence, the reason why you need to perform a risk management audit on your technology infrastructure. This reviews the current environment to discover potential outlets for malicious intrusion. From this comes recommended solutions to minimize hacks and cyber extortion. When a risk management audit is successfully done it strengthens your IT infrastructure and saves you money in the process.
Implement The Agile Theory
Agile development was first introduced in the software development world. Instead of wasting time releasing completed products, companies are urged to create base-level items. Success is placed on incremental updates that fix problems and introduce new options.
Even if you aren’t a software company, implementing agile theory is a smart business investment. Overall, it changes the way your company operates. It promotes cooperation and communication between departments. Furthermore, it encourages each member of a team to contribute to a project. As a result of this employee productivity and retention increase.
Look Beyond 2021
It’s great that you’ve projected out to the end of 2021. Things are lined up for a good year. However, what about 2022, 2023, and beyond?
If there’s one thing the world has learned from the coronavirus pandemic it’s you can’t predict the future. What you project can be sideswiped at any time. Thus, to incorporate smart business investments, you need to plan for the best and worst-case scenarios. Have contingency plans in place to prepare for the unexpected.
Look At Other Companies
There’s a good chance you started your business because you were impressed by another company. In fact, you probably modeled some of your investments and procedures on their setup. However, those concepts no longer work for your growing business.
To make smart business investments in 2021 you must look at other companies thriving in the new economy. In particular, examine the steps some of the most successful start-ups have followed. These tend to be owned and staffed by forward-thinking individuals that see business differently.
Go Green
Though your company moved to a virtual environment during the pandemic it doesn’t mean you’re now environmentally conscious. There are probably things you use or do that don’t help the climate. Thus, the smart business investment to make in 2021 is to go green.
Hold back on returning to the office. If things have gone well for you remotely then stay that way. Ask your employees for their ideas on how to reduce the company’s carbon footprint. Provide incentives to workers who make significant changes to their lives.
It takes time to make smart business investments in 2021. Don’t be in a rush to implement all of these suggestions. The more methodical you are the better shape you’ll be in for 2022.