You might feel plenty busy dealing with today’s needs and challenges to place much thought into future planning. But investing time and resources into building a future-proof business strategy now can not only keep your organization sustainable but also reduce the number or severity of future issues.
Nobody can fully predict the future, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take practical steps to keep your business more agile, adaptive, and ready to capitalize on opportunities. This article will discuss what a “future-proof business” aims to accomplish and some potential considerations for a future-proof strategy.
What is future-proofing?
Simply put, future-proofing is an attempt to analyze and respond to the types of changes that might lie ahead for your business. Once possible challenges and opportunities have been identified, you can then develop a plan for mitigating problems and getting the most returns from investments.
What kinds of changes should a business anticipate within a future-proofing strategy? There might always be surprises as times change, but general factors to evaluate include:
- Technology. How do advances in equipment, systems, and software affect your production and costs?
- Talent. What will your workforce need in the future? How many properly trained people will be seeking the type of employment you offer?
- Trends. How might economic forecasts affect your industry? How might cultural shifts affect the ways customers approach or need your products?
Isolating specific factors can be difficult, as each significantly influences the others. Economic trends and changing technology can affect the talent pool, for example. A change in the available workforce can inspire technological changes. It is all connected and worth evaluating broadly, particularly if you will need to explore financing options to enact future-proofing strategies.
Putting a future-proof business strategy into practice
Building a future-proof plan is less about establishing stepping stones and more about considering an overall trajectory. Your strategy should arc toward overall goals but remain capable of adjusting investments when necessary.
Here are some actions to consider as part of an overall future-proofing strategy:
Analyze your data
Information fuels more confident decisions, and your business’s own data might be able to tell you a lot about what the future may have in store.
We have previously discussed data-informed decision making and building data-driven processes in regard to financing, but similar tactics can be used for building future-proof strategies as well. Gather data that can help identify strengths, weaknesses, and trends within your business, as well as keep a close eye on your finances.
More data is better, as long as that data is useful in targeting your goals. Collecting data simply for data’s sake can lead to more time sifting through numbers than taking actual action.
Identify tasks that can be automated
Speaking of time, automation is a trend that is often more likely to provide safe returns on productivity and resources.
Investments in certain technology, software, or equipment can step in for humans to handle repetitive tasks, freeing up time for more intricate work. However, be considerate in your automation choices. Which options are more likely to stand the test of time, and are the initial disruptions with integration worth the long-term results?
Work toward integrating your systems
Automation and other system advances can be highly beneficial to your future productivity but can also cause obstacles and delays if they do not communicate effectively with each other.
A future-proof business should always consider how the different parts of a plan interact with each other before investing in them. Actions that are more compatible and consolidated will cause fewer disruptions and will often be easier to adjust if the need calls for it.
Human connectivity is also a critical part of integration. When considering changes, factor time into reviewing your employees’ needs and expectations with any systems they will interact with, as well as time helping them adjust to new tech and procedures.
Explore diversification options
As your business considers trends and shifting resources, you might see opportunities to expand products, services, or even the industries you cover.
If making such considerations, it’s important to evaluate what new or updated equipment your business might need to finance to expand. The more flexible and adaptable that equipment is, the better positioned your business may be to take advantage of change.
Whatever diversification options you consider, evaluate how they will hold up to your established brand and values. How might your identity evolve – if at all – as you progress and finance new initiatives?
Invest in a More Future-Proof Business
When you are ready to act on a future-proof strategy, Team Financial Group can help you finance the equipment and technology to move you forward. Our flexible financing options can help keep you better prepared to pivot when the situation demands, as well.
Let’s discuss how we can help your business adapt and excel over time. Contact us or fill out our simple application form to get the ball rolling.
The content provided here is for informational purposes only. For financial advice, please contact our commercial financing experts.