How To Cut Costs In Your Small Business Without Cutting Corners
Yet when you cut costs, you don’t want to also cut the value you are providing your customers and you don’t want to cut anything that is making your business as effective as it is. With this in mind, we encourage a clever and surgical approach to cost-cutting, maximizing what you get with your resources as opposed to trying to make do without things. Here are a few strategies we think you should employ:
Get Creative When It Comes To Marketing Strategies
This will slightly depend on your industry and location, but you probably don’t need to be spending as much money as you currently are on marketing campaigns and professionals. Online marketing and social media marketing are nearly free if you can do them yourself, and success in those fields is more about putting the right effort in than throwing money at the wall. Research SEO and fine-tune your website so that it attracts not only plenty of visitors, but the visitors likely to engage with your business.
If you need to market locally to succeed, there are a few options available to you. Hosting or helping out with community events can be great (and cheap) publicity. See if you can trade off flyers and other marketing materials with other small businesses in the area. Engage more directly with customers, find out how they found out about the business. Most importantly, encourage word-of-mouth marketing, as in most cases it is extremely effective.
Keep It Simple And Focus On What Works
Many small businesses might want to try out a series of new products and services, hoping to capitalise on what made them successful in the first place a second time. Yet small businesses can overextend themselves and put out products no-one is demanding. Additionally, when it comes to management, some managers might be a bit overzealous and micromanage everything to the degree that the time spent simply isn’t worth the return.
We recommend you list out every process and product currently in place and for each ask yourself the question: “Is this contributing to the main goal of my company?” It’s a simple question, but you might be surprised at how often you answer “no.” Expand carefully and focus on what either the customers specifically want or reinvest in making your main focus better. The same goes with managing your employees. Trust them to do their jobs and give them a solid focus.
Consider Using Remote, Freelance And Part-Time Workers
The freelance and remote economies are booming, and if it doesn’t require a physical presence in your office, you might want to consider finding a relatively cheap freelance worker or two online, even if they’re outside of your area. You will still get what you pay for, but you will likely get more value for your hires.
Additionally, to cut costs without cutting corners, start keeping track of when help is actually needed (perhaps the busiest times of the year and day) and only keep staff around during those times, adjusting hours as needed.
See What Planning Ahead Can Get You
There are quite a few deals you can score for your company if you plan ahead or know what you’re going to want a year from now. Discounts can be found in signing up for services for a year and buying in bulk is an option for some businesses, especially when it comes to ordering products or supplies.
Good planning can also help prevent logistical errors that would be very costly to fix in a short time frame, simply because you’re paying for urgent service. Some time spent planning today will seriously help you save money in the long run.
Invest A Bit Into Time-Saving Technology
Technology is here to save us time and money, and automation is often absolutely worth the investment. Consider the following examples to start with:
Investing in payroll software can save you hours of work (hours that can be spent elsewhere) each week.
Switching over to a few online management systems, and effectively using them, will help prevent confusion and reduce the time you spend on needless management paperwork.
Using programs and online services to help you build your web presence if you’re not sure what you’re doing can not only be more efficient but also prevent a headache.
On a simpler note, investing in technology and online platforms can reduce the amount of paper and related supplies you have to buy.
Conclusion
The best way to cut costs for your business will depend on your business’s unique situation, but we expect that at least a few of the ideas presented above will apply to you. We encourage you to try them out (most are easily reversible) and to start simply asking yourself where the waste is occurring and what activities aren’t either profitable or contributing directly to the success of the business.
Once you get the ball rolling, we expect you’ll find a great deal of success and mind the money to keep your business afloat or reinvest into new and worthwhile ventures.
Guest Post from Kevin Conner
Bio: Kevin Conner is the founder and CEO of Vast Bridges, a customer acquisition and lead generation company in the home services arena. His strengths lie in creating a strategic vision and leading a team to successfully execute that vision. Most recently he and a small team have launched broadbandsearch.net, the U.S.’s leading home services (broadband and TV) search engine.
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