Beyond Passion: How Canadian Small Business Owners Can Create Growth Opportunities from Operational Challenges
Without the right resources, small business owners too often have no choice but to spend their time navigating compliance and administrative work when they’d rather be serving customers or pulling strategic levers to scale their business.
Operational necessities, ranging from payroll and employment compliance to financial planning, can divert energy from innovation and growth.
For example, ADP’s Potential of Payroll survey of Canadian business leaders found they spend an average of 21 hours per week managing data flow between business and payroll systems. 21% of Canadian businesses spend 31 hours per week on this same task, nearly a full-time employee’s workload.
In addition to bandwidth spent on manual operations, small business owners across the country must navigate evolving provincial and federal regulations. From workplace safety and harassment policies to payroll accuracy and employee classification, compliance is more than paperwork – it’s a critical factor in small business survival.
Falling short can result in fines, legal exposure, and hours lost that could have been spent building the business. Moreover, it can drain the energy and engagement from the business and workforce.
For a small business, these repercussions can be hard to recover from, if not impossible. However, it can be difficult to find time in the small business owner’s day to stay on top of changing regulations while ensuring the day-to-day business is working at the highest possible level.
Take a pizza shop owner. On top of sourcing the right ingredients, training waitstaff, managing delivery orders and running a marketing campaign, they need to keep a watchful eye on compliance. There’s simply not enough time in the workday to do both.
The good news is these challenges can be turned into opportunities for growth.
It starts with technology; small business owners don’t need to manage compliance, HR and payroll alone.
Having access to the right HR and payroll technology can help streamline many essential functions like running payroll, accounting for taxes, and managing employee benefits. Not only can technology help the small business owner save time on these tasks, but it can help provide peace of mind that they’re being done accurately.
The same goes for small business compliance. Small businesses have the option to outsource compliance to industry professionals who can manage compliance regulations across the country and help small business owners meet their compliance obligations to avoid penalties and reputation damage.
On top of this compliance support, it also takes another responsibility off the small business plate so they can get back to strategic decision-making.
With technology and outsourced support freeing up bandwidth for the small business owner to roll-up their sleeves and give their business undivided attention, this is when the opportunities for growth come into play.
For example, there’s now more time to focus on their employees because no one ever made a great business without a great workforce.
Small business owners can invest time and resources into skills development and training to help employees build critical skills to help the business flourish. Instead of doing manual payroll, the small business owner is helping an employee develop marketing skills to help promote an upcoming sale.
Data shows investing in employees can pay huge dividends for a business. According to ADP Research, 17% of Canadian workers feel their employer invests in the skills they need to advance their career in the future.
And according to the research, workers who feel strongly their employer is providing the training they need are nearly 6 times more likely to recommend their company as a great place to work. They’re 3.3 times more likely to say they’re highly productive.
Finally, when workers who are confident in their skills and feel their employer is investing in them, they’re twice as likely to say they have no intention to leave compared to workers who are confident in their skills but lack on-the-job training opportunities.
So, if a small business owner can free up some of their workload from operational necessities like payroll and compliance and reinvest that time into strategic opportunities like investing in employee training and development, they could see their business benefit through higher productivity, higher retention, and higher reputation.
In terms of getting started on employee training and development, ADP Canada’s Small Business Toolkit states “tools like digital learning platforms or learning management systems (LMS), make training more accessible, flexible and personalized, allowing employees to learn at their own pace, from any device.”
This October, during Small Business Month, Canadian entrepreneurs should take stock of their operations and ensure they have systems and processes that support both day-to-day management and long-term growth. With the right guidance and resources, operational complexity becomes less of a burden and more of a strategic lever, turning red tape into opportunity.
General Manager, Small Business Services Mohamed Basma leads the Small Business Services division for ADP Canada and oversees the complete client journey from implementation to Service. Mohamed’s mission is to make sure Small Business Clients are satisfied and successful with their HCM solution.
