Business Back-Office

Developing Your Business Back-Office Is a Critical Part of the Business Building Process

Your business back-office is where the business is run, even if it is the part that customers never see; it is the dynamo behind the company's pretty face.  Front-offices are set up with tasteful décor, attractive and friendly reception staff and soft furniture and it is the place where your carefully cultivated corporate identity is presented to visitors to best effect.  In fact, the front-office may just form the PR link with the public and be situated at an entirely separate premises than where your actual business operations take place. 

All-encompassing Business Building Process

Of course, our business building process takes cognisance of the fact that both the business back-office and the front office are equally critical in delivering a complete package deal: while the product and service should be sound and sellable and the business case water-tight, these would be worth little without a public face.  In fact, these four development areas are all critical:

• Business – the potential of the business to make a profit has to be analysed and then the appropriate strategies and business plans have to be developed that will ensure that the business meet these profitability goals; it would include factors like growth strategies and access to funding.
• Operational – this business back-office area includes the design and documentation, as well as the operation of the business' activities as a professional and legal entity.
• Market – in order to fully exploit the potential of your services or products and design and deliver the strategies that will achieve this goal, you need to understand the market in all its aspects.
• Technology – this entails the actual design and development of whatever services or products your business is offering the customer.

These are the four most important parts of the business building process that we focus on when developing a new business.

Business Back-office and Front-office Functions

As we have previously mentioned, these two office functions have different goals and are often not even placed on the same premises; front-office functions would typically include:

• front-office, customer-facing personnel
• the reception area
• sales personnel

The back-office includes operational functions like:

• office administration
• human resources
• accounting and bookkeeping services
• IT
• research and development
• manufacturing

Both these functions should operate in harmony to render an effective and profitable business.

Our Services and Goals

We assist upstart businesses by providing business back-office services like:

• business and technology coaching and mentoring
• shared resources
• Internet access
• networking opportunities
• access to professional service providers
• skills development interventions (like functional business discipline training)

Besides these, we also provide assistance like shared reception and meeting facilities and plug-and-play office space in a secure environment.  It is our goal to see South African SMMEs succeed and we are geared to help you maximise your ideas.  Businesses within our incubator are in varying stages of progress, but we have the same aim with all of them: to help them stack the building blocks in order to establish a sustainable and optimal business venture.

And for that, a superbly efficient business back-office is critical.