Digitisation the key to resilience through the pandemic and beyond

Alexandra Cain

Nov 29, 2021 – 6.00am

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There’s been a mass adoption of digital technologies by sole traders and small businesses over the last two years, helping many smaller entities to thrive throughout shifting lockdowns and uncertainty.

Digital marketing strategist and website designer Melissa Willcocks is an example. She started her business in March 2020, right before the pandemic. Willcocks uses digital technologies in her own business and also helps other small businesses to benefit from tech tools.

Tech puts big opportunities into the hands of small business owners, like digital marketing strategist and website designer Melissa Willcocks.

“I’ve worked with many small businesses over the last 18 months to help implement digital strategies, update or create websites and build a loyal social media following. These activities were crucial during a time when many businesses were forced to close their physical doors,” she says.

Xero’s One Step research – a new behavioural science study that uncovers and seeks to overcome the beliefs and barriers preventing small businesses from embracing tech’s full potential – shows the difference digitisation can make. According to the findings, small businesses that adopt new technologies enjoy 120 per cent more revenue compared to businesses that don’t. Tech also makes a difference in how business owners feel, with 27 per cent of respondents more likely to wake up excited about work. The research shows, however, there’s an opportunity for more small businesses to embrace tech. Only 19 per cent think of themselves as keen adopters of new technology.

A long-established boutique is an example of an enterprise that used the pandemic as an opportunity to go digital. “They had been in business for 12 years and over that time had built a loyal client base. But once the pandemic started, they had no way to connect with or sell to their customers because they had not previously invested in digital technologies. I built them an e-commerce website, set up systems for the business owner to send electronic newsletters and developed a social media presence.

These tools helped connect the business with existing clients and attracted new ones,” Willcocks explains, adding her own business has benefited through the pandemic as a result of digital technologies. “My website and social media presence has allowed me to form strong connections with colleagues, clients and followers when face-to-face meetings were not possible.”

Xero’s Tipping Point survey of 1000 existing and aspiring sole traders backs up Willcocks’ experience. Of those surveyed, 40 per cent attribute their success to digital tools. Additionally, 64 per cent of those who used cloud accounting software during the pandemic say it played a key role supporting their business.

Willcocks says she will continue to implement technology-driven strategies to develop her business. “I’ll do this by testing and analysing the way I serve and distribute content to ensure I am connecting with my audience in the most effective way. I’ll invest more into creating video content and maintaining a highly-accessible service for small business owners.”

She relies on Xero to keep track of her finances “It saves me time, increases my accuracy and has so many features like reporting and integrations. Best of all, it’s user friendly.”

Working smarter, not harder, with the help of digital tools

Similar to Willcocks’ enterprise, Andy Wang, accountant and founder of Clarico, which provides business advice to the health and wellness sector, started the business in the pre-pandemic world of October 2019. Given the circumstances of the last two years, he’s grateful technology was always the business’s backbone.

“Everything was digital and cloud-based from the start, which has allowed us to establish a global team. It set us up for the pandemic and meant we were able to work with clients in other states and team members in other countries.”

User-friendly software like Xero supports small business success for Andy Wang, accountant and founder of Clarico.

Four of the eight-strong team are in South Australia and four are in Manila. “The level of work they achieve is remarkable and just not possible without technology,” Wang says.

Xero is the only accounting software the practice uses, although it also uses digital tools including Practice Ignition for proposals and billing.

“We also use tech so we’re not overwhelmed by work. I encourage my team to block out time to do work and turn off notifications. I also use Inbox Pause so I don’t see any new emails until I turn it off. Now, I schedule time twice a day to deal with emails and we encourage the team to do that too,” he adds.

Wang says he wants to pursue a realistic growth path. “We don’t just want to get a whole bunch of new clients because then our quality of work drops, our communication becomes terrible and our growth comes at the cost of client satisfaction. We want to make sure we’re growing sustainably.

The way we’re doing that is by breaking up our organisation into different groups. Some team members get the work done, and that’s what they really want to do. We have a group who love the management, organisational, workflow side of things. Then, there are people who love the client-facing side. Digital tools come into play to measure different groups’ KPIs.”

It’s a smart strategy, with talent retention set to be one of the main challenges firms face in the year ahead. This, along with Wang’s digital focus, should set up the business for a successful 2022 and beyond by allowing the team to focus on doing what they do best, reduce burnout and maintain high levels of productivity.

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