The objective of any business is to make as much money as possible and minimize their expenses. Unfortunately, many business owners and administrators get overly engrossed in the sales front and forget they have expenses to keep tabs on. A good business owner should pay as much attention to cash outflow as they do to inflows. This way, the company will make the most out of their efforts and ensure their headway isn’t slowed by invisible expenses. Read for six ways to minimize business costs, without impacting your workforce’s efficiency or compromising your business objectives.
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1. Reduce your Internet bill.
When it comes to monthly expenses, one that always seems to be at the top of the list for most small businesses is the Iinternet bill. Decades into the digital era, there’s simply no circumventing that you ought to have an Internet connection to compete favorably. However, that’s not to say you have to part with a fortune every month just to keep your business’ network running. There are loads of techniques you can adopt to trim your Internet bill. These include buying your own modem router, reducing your broadband speed, and bundling your services. You can visit review sites to check out routers and broadband providers for a more guided decision. Side-by-side comparisons such as the one on the usave broadband page are perfect if you want to find the cheapest and most suitable solution for your business.
2. Adopt technologies.
Technology is here to simplify work, and staying abreast of the trends can reduce your business costs and put your head and shoulders above your rivals. Consider installing customer relationship management (CRM) software and using free digital tools such as Trello, Basecamp, and Google Docs to organize your company’s documents. Tools such as digital sales and marketing funnels can reduce your marketing costs as they help you tell high-ROI strategies from low-ROI ones, ensuring you spend your money only on what has the potential of paying back. For conferences and business meetings, consider installing tools such as Skype and Zoom to avoid costly and time-consuming in-person meetings.
3. Switch to digital marketing.
This should go without saying, but many businesses are still reliant on conventional marketing techniques, which aren’t only ineffective but also costly. Digital marketing approaches save you on labor costs as you only need a small team of personnel to formulate and run the campaigns. Since marketing is a continuous thing in the contemporary corporate world, it’s best to assemble an in-house team rather than hire an independent marketing agency. This will reduce your costs in the long run, and ensure your marketing campaigns are run by people who know your business and have its best interests at heart.
4. Create a budget.
Budgeting is one of the simplest and most effective ways of cutting back on personal and business expenses. A budget gives you a picture of the amount of money coming in over a specified period of time, helping you decide how much you can allocate to costs without compromising your profit objectives. A good budgeting approach focuses on avoiding simple mistakes that can add up to set the business back a fortune.
5. Adopt a BYOD policy.
IT infrastructure can be expensive to obtain and install for a business that’s still in its infancy. Many businesses have gone around this problem by adopting a strategy where employees can use their own laptops and phones for work. You can try it, too. All you need to do is ensure that everyone is happy and comfortable with the policy, and you have a robust cybersecurity strategy to curb data breaches. Studies show that most employees actually prefer using their personal devices for work, meaning it shouldn’t be hard getting your workforce to accept and ease into a BYOD policy.
6. Outsource non-essential services.
For functions such as payroll management that you need once in a while or on an ad hoc basis, having an in-house department may not be the wisest idea from a cost standpoint. Full-time employees require a monthly wage, whether they work or not, as well as insurance and other rights that anyone who falls under the definition of “employee” is entitled to. Independent contractors, on the other hand, work on a per-time basis and send invoices for payment, rather than work for a predetermined salary. Perhaps the best part about hiring independent contractors is that you can change them anytime you want.
7. Find smaller office space.
Rent is a massive expense for many businesses. Unless you own your premises or work from a home office, there’s a good chance you’re paying your landlord more than you should. This is because either you’re in an overpriced space, or you aren’t using your space efficiently. A small business should make sure each square foot of their office space is used well. The reception area should be enough just to accommodate the human traffic the business expects per hour or so, and there shouldn’t be too much spacing between employee desks. If you have a closed office layout, merge smaller and related departments to ensure no spaces are unutilized. Lastly, consider adopting a remote working policy for employees whose jobs don’t require them to be physically present in the office.
8. Hire interns.
Interns are either paid significantly less than the standard industry wage rates or not paid at all, depending on the company policy. You can use their services for non-technical jobs or positions that don’t require prior experience, such as customer support. This can help you cut back on labor, and free up your core workforce for more important tasks. Who knows? Perhaps a few of those interns might prove worth keeping in the end.
Endnote
Keeping business costs low should start with identifying unnecessary outflow channels and formulating ways to patch them up, without affecting the normal running of your business. The above tips provide an excellent place to start if you’re looking to do away with the most obvious unnecessary expenses first.
