2024 is just around the corner. With that comes a sense of anticipation, excitement, and perhaps some nervousness. While a new year is usually synonymous with a fresh start, it’s also full of the unknown.
Businesses will likely be finalising their plans for 2024, exploring what tweaks they can make to ensure another 12 months of success. Of course, part of this planning will be anticipating any challenges that might arise.
But what hurdles might present themselves next year?
Access to funding
This year, VC funding in the UK tech space fell by more than 50% in comparison to 2022. A continued 12 months of economic turbulence has meant many funding streams have been reined in, with funders’ risk-taking dropping.
Indeed, 77% of brokers said that high street banks are reducing their appetite to fund SMEs, and 40% of brokers have seen an increase in applications being rejected.
The economy is expected to slowly, but surely, begin to recover. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, inflation is expected to drop to the UK government’s target of 2% by 2025. However, despite this, we may not see an increase in VC funding streams next year.
For businesses that need to fundraise in 2024, planning is key. Think carefully about your offering; how does it stand out from others in the market? Make sure you have granular detail within your business plan, investors want to be sure they are spending money wisely. Lastly, make sure that fundraising is the right stream of funding for you. It may be that you would be better applying for alternative investment, like grants or start up loans.
Recruitment and getting the right people
Recruitment remains a challenge. Nearly 9 in 10 organisations in the UK have found hiring competitive in 2023. Start-ups face this difficulty ten-fold, as they need recruits that are comfortable wearing lots of hats to support the growth of the business with only a small team around them.
There’s also the obvious point that many start-ups will be out-competed by larger organisations on salary. However, that isn’t the be all and end all for select talent.
Alternative remuneration packages may stand out above a company that only offers a high salary. Whether it’s flexible working models or a great maternity/paternity package, health insurance options or improved employer pension contributions, there are many other assets that may entice a person to your company over salary.
The outside world
Everything is more complicated and more uncertain than ever before. No one in 2019 was sat, planning for 2020, expecting a global pandemic to be the greatest risk to their business. And, unfortunately, without working crystal balls, there will be events that we simply cannot plan for.
However, what we can control is how our businesses would function if a key revenue stream was taken away. Ensuring there’s enough slack in your organisation to cover a major change is crucial. Do you have enough spare in savings to cover a loss, or do you have the support from teams, internally and externally, to pivot a full 180 degrees if change happened quickly and unexpectedly?
Spin the challenge to make opportunity
It’s easy to get sucked into the feelings of doom when you begin thinking about everything that could go wrong in 2024. Don’t.
Whichever analogy you choose; every cloud has a silver lining; where there’s rain, there’s a rainbow; when one door closes, another opens and so on, the bottom line is that there’s a positive to be found in every negative.
You simply need the right people behind you, with the right expertise, to help you turn hurdles into opportunities. People like us.
With a wealth of expertise in business strategy, we’re here to help you make the right decisions at the right time to not only navigate any upcoming traffic jams, but to ensure your path remains the route to success.
Contact us today to start 2024 with a clear journey ahead.