On Wednesday, October 31, local businessman Mark Charter of MF Chartered Accountants delivered his keynote speech to local business owners at the last Digital Enterprise Program breakfast for 2012.
With a particular appreciation of the issues small businesses face, Mr Charter highlighted in clear terms how embracing technology has evolved his firm and the steps that he and his business partners have taken to maximise the opportunities presented by the rollout of the National Broadband Network.
Mr Charter outlined to the audience the common mistakes that many small business owners make.
“Involve the right expertise around you and use services that fasttrack you – too often small to medium business owners are trying to be jack of all trades and falling into the trap of attempting all the IT and telecommunications work themselves. By outsourcing, you can free up what you are good at,” said Mr Charter.
Key tips for business owners keen to embark on the digital journey included planning and developing a strong strategy that is beneficial to end users and users internally. He acknowledged that most small to medium enterprises are time poor, so planning is critical. “However, rather than being, a 42-page strategy, it can be something as simple as getting the whiteboard out. Simplistic ap-proaches work best and businesses are more likely to review this if the Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS) approach is used.”
With offices in Ballina and Armidale and affiliates in Melbourne and Sydney Mr Charter’s breadth of experience was welcomed by the audience and his message to Armidale business owners was uncompromising.
“Develop a strong strategy, it is going to happen whether we like or not, this whole moving of information and data and technology to the internet,” said Mr Charter.
“Embrace it and see how your business can benefit from it rather than being fearful and being potentially compromised in the future by not adapting.”
