DAY-TO-DAY operations often take priority for small businesses, making it difficult to invest the time and resources needed to grow and innovate. A little help can go a long way.

Global technology firm Xero has stepped in with the inaugural Xero Beautiful Business Fund (XBBF) to help empower small businesses in four areas: Innovating for sustainability, trailblazing with technology, strengthening community connection, and upskilling for the future.

Four of Xero's customers in Singapore were awarded $15,000 each to help them take the next step in growing their businesses. The winning companies are Art Outreach Singapore, Oriental Remedies Group, Oysterly, and Style Theory.

Globally, the XBBF has offered more than $620,000 in total to 28 companies based in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, the US and the UK.

"Supporting and celebrating small businesses and their owners is at the core of Xero's mission, and we're energised by the opportunity to empower these trailblazers with funding that can help them achieve the next level of success," says Xero chief executive officer (CEO) Sukhinder Singh Cassidy.

"We're pleased to be awarding funds to help our customers take their next step in areas like sustainability or exploring new technologies, where they may not have had the cash to do so."

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Hoping that the funding will energise the winning SMEs to reach greater heights, Koren Wines, managing director of Asia at Xero, says: "Singaporean entrepreneurs are innovating creatively and strategically to energise the local business community while supporting inclusive programmes that drive positive change.

"We are very proud to be able to help nurture these fantastic initiatives and are thrilled to help these companies with the tech and funding they need to thrive."

Bringing more art workshops to children

Art Outreach Singapore, a non-profit dedicated to promoting art appreciation in Singapore, won the XBBF "Strengthening Community Connection" category. The charity runs various initiatives, including art workshops for underprivileged children and free art spaces for emerging artists to build their professional portfolios.

Mae Anderson, who chairs the organisation, says: "We believe in the power of art to promote critical thinking and fill gaps in education, particularly in maths and science-focused curricula. Nurturing a vibrant art community is critical to Singapore's holistic growth, and making creativity inclusive at an early age is vital.

"Art is more than just paint on canvas. It's a bridge that unites people, a platform for change, and a force for civil society. As an art charity, funding is one of our toughest challenges."

The $15,000 will cover a year's worth of electricity bills, as well as two months' rental at Art Outreach Singapore's Gillman Barracks premises. The venue hosts a 93 sq m gallery space, offices and a library for artists.

Anderson adds that the XBBF funding will make "a big difference" by freeing up precious funds to support art workshops for about 300 more children. These workshops are part of Art Outreach's long-running programme to support young beneficiaries from across 14 welfare organisations.

Uplifting people and upgrading digital systems

Oriental Remedies Group, a firm that combines traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with modern technology, places a strong emphasis on investing in its staff members. The group won the XBBF "Upskilling For The Future" category.

The group plans to divide the funding between raising staff compensation, creating upskilling programmes, introducing more staff training sessions, and developing a new knowledge management system, according to the firm's co-founder Beatrice Liu.

"By investing in our team, we empower our people to make a lasting impact on our patients' lives," she says.

Liu adds that the group's physicians receive in-house training from senior medical professionals, who bring together perspectives from TCM, Western medicine and functional medicine. This helps Oriental Remedies Group's physicians better deliver patient care.

The company also engages external trainers to coach staff in patient communication and bedside manner.

"By offering a diverse range of training opportunities, we empower our team members to continually enhance their skills and provide the highest level of care to our patients," she adds.

On the need for a new knowledge management system, she says this will serve as a multi-functional platform for looking up ailments and remedies quickly, managing patient cases and disseminating training materials. Currently, these functions are spread across different platforms and systems, making the workflow laborious for the staff and slowing down care delivery.

"The system will act as a centralised hub, fostering seamless collaboration and information sharing among our healthcare professionals. This accessibility to a wealth of medical and non-technical knowledge enhances diagnostic accuracy, treatment efficacy, and the overall patient experience."

Accelerating content creation with AI

Oysterly, a digital marketing agency specialising in helping businesses grow their reach on TikTok through organic user-generated content, won the XBBF "Trailblazing with Technology" category.

The agency's founder, Melissa Laurie, says: "What makes us unique is that we create user-generated content by working with content creators who help bring these types of videos to life. Every week, we produce a substantial volume of TikTok videos, as well as Instagram and Facebook Reels."

Crafting viral videos and growing a brand's social media presence requires a lot of work behind the scenes, which requires Oysterly to operate at a rapid pace to stay at the forefront of current trends.

Each video submitted by Oysterly's content creators needs to be checked manually for issues like typos, cut-off logos and incorrect use of brand colours. This long manual process and time-zone differences due to content creators being located across the world can result in delays in the approval process.

The XBBF funding will enable Oysterly to engage an external developer to create an artificial intelligence tool that can perform basic quality control, allowing content creators to receive instant feedback.

"We couldn't find any existing tools that meet our needs, so we believe it's best to develop a custom solution tailored to our unique approach in creating high-performing videos that deliver a return on investment for our clients," says Laurie.

Going green with fashion subscription

Renting an outfit or bag from fashion start-up Style Theory is simple on the surface. Subscribers pay a monthly fee to gain access to an "infinite wardrobe" of clothes and bags which they can have delivered to and picked up from their homes.

However, beneath the surface is a dizzyingly complex logistics and accounting workflow, especially when external partners are involved. Style Theory works with brands to list their products for rental on its platform, but many processes still need to be done manually, making it difficult to scale up such partnerships.

The firm's co-founder, Raena Lim, says: "Today, to send the brands a data report on a monthly or quarterly basis, our team has to pull the data from our internal database and input photos to provide better context.

"The process of paying brands their share of the revenue made on every single item every month is also calculated manually based on the number of days items are rented out."

A solution is in sight thanks to the injection of funding from the XBBF. Style Theory was awarded $15,000 under the "Innovating for Sustainability" category.

"With the funding from Xero, we plan to automate and streamline the onboarding, monitoring and data reporting processes, facilitating the scaling of this programme," Lim says, adding that the company will work with an external tech vendor to develop a new system for its partners.

The system, which is expected to be launched in April or May 2024, will enable Style Theory's brand partners to automatically generate data reports from a dashboard. Their revenue share will also be calculated and paid out automatically.

With the new system, which would have taken at least until late 2024 to develop in-house, Lim hopes to scale the firm's fashion sustainability programme. She adds: "Brands can utilise our platform to facilitate rental and resale of their products, truly embracing sustainability, not just for marketing but as an integral part of their business model."

Find out more about the Xero Beautiful Business Fund.