10 Tips to Cut Cost for Businesses
After a year of Covid, closing for a time and losing customers, many business owners are not sure where their hard-earned business’ will be in the next couple of years. Nicole Fallon’s article on CO website covers “10 Ways to Cut Your Overhead Costs” for small business owners. Although you might not be able to adapt all these pointers some of them might be easy and helpful to apply.
Before going into the ten tips, Fallon says a useful way to assess expenses is by printing off the expenses from the past 12 months. Comb through things and find where there might be excess or waste. Then try to do this practice more often to improve the budget and become more cost-efficient.
- Make permanent shift to remote work.
This could help with the overall costs of keeping the offices running, such as water and electric bills. Although you might not be able to have everyone work from home it may help to see who all could. Having a reduced number of in-office employees could mean you could downsize to a smaller and cheaper office space.
- Audit your software subscriptions.
Though monthly subscriptions for many cloud-based systems you use may be as low as $10 each, that definitely adds up! Opting for the free versions for online tools when you are able and finding one subscription that has all the functions you need can help save a little more each month.
- Scale down your variable costs.
In a world where many people are working remotely, things like office supplies, business travel, and food can be reduced or cut. Now that the business world is more Zoom friendly it allows companies the advantage to save money and time for traveling expenses.
- Automate administrative tasks.
Try to automate simple tasks such as invoicing, appointment scheduling, client follow-up, and other small tasks. This might seem strenuous at first, but it is an investment that will save you from hiring a person to do these tasks.
- Negotiate with vendors.
Many Vendors and Suppliers often are understanding, during this time, toward their small business clients and are willing to cut them a deal. It is worth contacting your technology and service providers and find out if they are willing to discount your subscriptions.
- Invest in culture to reduce turnover.
In this crazy world of Covid it is so important to remember to keep the good employees that you can. Employees leaving their jobs costs U.S. Businesses $1 trillion per year. It is worth investing in you team to keep them happy and faithful and give them a greater sense of purpose in your company’s goals.
- Evaluate your marketing strategy.
Review your marketing channels and review what all you are spending and gaining from each. This can help you to see if you are targeting the wrong marketing channel. If one does not seem to be working, then allocate your budget to what the data is showing you.
- Tap into the gig economy.
If you are finding your company is still forced to lay off full time employees but you still need a lot accomplished, try looking into freelancers. The advantage of a freelancer is you do not need to cover benefits, you can find someone who can fit your budget, and they can be extremely flexible. Just make sure they have a portfolio for prior work that you can review.
- Go paperless.
An all-digital system can eliminate multiple printing costs and can help will organization.
- Hire an accountant.
Even if you are confident in your business’ budget, a second pair of eyes never hurts. An accountant can offer an analysis of your budget that could potentially help you save more on overhead costs.
The Alliance to Save the American Dream is a non-profit organization dedicated to three core goals.
1. Develop an Ideas Factory to give small businesses and industries a centralized place to share innovative ideas that must be considered.
2. Build a unique Resources portal for small businesses to go to for answers or resources that address a wide range of issues or challenges.
3. Offer a new networking opportunity for small business owners to connect while also giving them a platform to share their own personal stories.
For more information, visit savetheamericandream.com.
