The planning stage of any business can be an exciting one. It can also be intimidating. Traditional accounting strategies in particular, can fall short of expectations when the planning stage is over and businesses actively start to flourish. Unforeseen financial setbacks and obstacles are inevitable in business, however holistic business strategies such as Six Sigma advocate a holistic hands-on approach to navigating common issues with regulatory, staffing and marketing accounting.
Finance and Marketing
First off, let’s define proactive vs. reactive strategy. Proactive planning deals with the possibility of future events occurring with continual improvement, going above and beyond the current requirements. Reactive planners wait until something occurs to then engineer a process. Health and wellness companies dealing with the mind, body, spirit can range from small proprietorships with small advertising budgets to larger conventional medicine practices with many doctors on staff. Some business may have the advantage of word of mouth through community, family, and friends, however, Taco Bell budgets usually don’t apply here.
During planning stages and beyond, consulting with a business strategist familiar with your particular industry and demographic can be a positive learning experience in terms of the holistic process. Tools and practices that continually improve the business will decrease the amount of money spent on reactive accounting strategy. For example, a company initially offering specific services may want to consider future growth and how to best serve that process through saving and use of current resources. Another area where holistic strategy works to reduce the amount of time and effort spent on a process is taxes. We can all vouch for the difference that responsible and consistently managed funds makes at the end of the year.
Regulatory Planning
Regulatory issues can also affect financial strategy in health and wellness industries. These issues can represent hidden financial risks that threaten even the biggest companies on the block. We hear about large industry giants getting audited and fined for regulatory violations all the time in the news. A sound business strategy in the should acknowledge new processes down the line. Historically, common business practice entailed crafting new processes alongside the old ones as new regulations came about. These processes would address each individual regulation. Using a more holistic approach would allow businesses to leverage various existing data points and processes to meet regulatory requirements, giving the business more options in addressing these regulations and easier budgeting parameters down the line. Using a point-by-point process is over-engineering and lack efficiency and fluidity. This could possible strain existing resources, increasing overhead costs.
Teams and Technology
Long story short, don’t count on the computer to safeguard you from potential risks involving the business. It takes an experienced team to run a new or existing business. While many accounting firms are getting more and more technologically advanced, the old way of accounting has remained largely unchanged and linear, while sustainable economic approaches are clearly needed now more than ever to grow the businesses of the future. Technology can boost this effort by allowing automation of certain processes that should occur during certain peak periods or in preparation for future business dealings. A business experiences varied cycles of growth and will need pre-existing and holistic approaches to “expect the unexpected.” Health and wellness is one vertical industry that changes according to new research trends, so this is very important. Getting everyone on the same page doesn’t involve an elite number of the organization’s finance team members; it will involve the entire team.
This isn’t a defining guide on what business strategies are best for your enterprise, as specific industry data should be taken into consideration. However, qualified and experienced professionals are available to address some key areas within your business that could be stronger in the long term. While there are many ways to define services, luckily accounting can be pretty straightforward once processes are in place to ensure the business has room to grow, and even make some mistakes along the way.
