The Ledger No. 48: Reinvesting in Your Business

Welcome to The Ledger where we sum up the latest finance and accounting news and trends for you. On this week’s entry, we’re diving into the topic of reinvesting in your business – whether that’s in technology, your employees or in another aspect of your company. Read on to explore why employees are your smartest long-term investment, best practices for reinvesting in your company, how to get buy-in for new technologies and why investing in your employees can help improve your company’s intellectual capital.

The Smartest Investment You’ll Ever Make: Your Employees

Businesses are made up of moments called microquakes and macroquakes. Microquakes are rarely felt by employees and easy to move past. However, macroquakes have a significant impact on a company’s bottom line, including its customers. Many of these instances come in the form of a global crisis (think Covid), a market collapse, labor shortages and even industry-shifting innovations. And in today’s changing landscape, we’ve experienced many macroquakes that have been felt on a global scale. Up to this point, most companies felt that the true success of their organization resided in how they navigated these microquakes and macroquakes (and how they made it out). But a paradigm shift has happened and now companies are having to rethink their long-term strategies; they’re having to invest in their people. Here are a few tangible and non-tangible ways businesses can invest in their employees:

• Fostering an environment of continuous learning. This can be done through bringing in guest speakers, setting aside self-learning time, organizing employee-led workshops or starting a training-and-development department.

• Provide tools needed to sharpen skills. This can be in the form of hands-on-mentorship programs, continuing education stipends or tiered skilled compensatory systems.

• Start with “Why?”. Leaders must develop a storyline that will resonate and remind employees of their why while also fostering a culture of learning.

For more on why investing in people can create an impactful change for companies, their clients and employees, read the full article on entrepreneur.com.

Best Practices for Reinvesting in Your Business

An area that many business leaders struggle with is being excessively penny-pinching with their money. Sure, it’s fine to contain costs, but when it’s starting to hinder the growth of your company, then it becomes a problem. Here’s some areas where you should be willing to spend some money on as your organization grows:

• Hiring new employees. What areas of your business could benefit from a new employee? Are you overloaded with your current workload? Are you cutting corners just to hit a deadline? If you answered yes to the above questions, it’s time to hire help.

• Paying employees well. Just like you wouldn’t purchase the cheapest car or house on the market, you shouldn’t do the same for your employees. When you pay your employees well, they’re more productive and take their job more seriously.

• Software, equipment or tools. Can your team do their job effectively with outdated technology? Probably not. And in order for your business to scale, you need to upgrade your tech stack.

To learn what areas of your business you can reinvest in, head over to forbes.com to check out the full article.

Getting Technology Buy-In from Company Leaders - Reinvesting in Your Business

Thanks to the pandemic, many businesses opted to adopt new technological processes to further the growth of their company. But while many small-to-medium sized enterprises took the leap, a good portion were less willing to make that investment. So what’s causing a resistance towards digital adoption? For starters, cost and the availability of skilled workers can cause a delay in pursuit of digital strategies. Add in a skepticism towards technology and many organizations refuse to pay into this resource.

A Xero study showed that a great number of businesses still grapple with the “hassle factor” when it comes to investing in technology. And while that might seem surprising, it’s actually quite normal. Many leaders are comfortable with the status quo because it’s easier for them to find comfort in the safety of predictability. With so many hurdles to effective decision-making, how can leaders embrace digital transformation? Start with asking “Which technology do you want to adopt?” instead of “Do you want to adopt technology?” This method – dubbed the nudge theory – plays on core facets of human programming such as FOMO (fear of missing out). Taking it one step further, you can prime decision-makers by sending them reminders or by asking them to imagine a scenario in which technology is or isn’t adopted. For example, you’re an accounting professional that is spending copious amounts of time performing menial tasks that can be automated. In this case, technology adoption is a no-brainer.

To take a closer look at how industry stakeholders can encourage technology adoption throughout their business, check out the full article on hbr.org.

Investing in Your Employees Means Investing in Your Company’s Intellectual Capital

Why are so many people leaving their jobs during an unstable economy? A LinkedIn report found that a majority (94%) of workers said they would stay with an employer – and be more engaged – if their employer supported their individual development. But don’t lose hope. Just like you invest money into the stock market, there’s a more valuable asset within your company: your employees. Investing in your intellectual capital by providing a training and development program for employees improves your brand’s reputation and attracts (and retains) new employees. But what do you gain from investing in your employees’ growth and success?

• It improves the team. There’s more risk to the business in having poorly trained employees versus investing in employees who may leave.

• It improves leadership. Don’t overlook leadership training. Giving your leadership team the tools they need to do their jobs well produces the best results and improves retention.

• Improves job satisfaction. By giving your employees the time to spend on developing their skills (and learning new ones), you’re showing you value them – it also enhances business loyalty.

To explore how your employees are your most valuable business asset and why investing in them improves your company’s bottom line, head over to forbes.com to read the full article.

Find out how a successful business partnership enables your business to reinvest in what matters most.