There are two ways for your business to earn more money. First you could increase your sales and income, secondly, you could reduce your expenses.
Increasing sales requires a great deal of planning, strategy, and many moving parts to get online, but reducing your business expenses is something you can do very easily; all you need is a little time. Here are seven ways to do it:
1. Move your office to a more accessible area
Thanks to the power of the Internet, not all businesses need to rely on locations with access to highways or heavy traffic to be successful. Consider changing your business location to lower your monthly rent. Often times, especially in larger cities, the further you are from the action, the lower the cost of the rent. While this won’t apply to every business, it’s something to consider if you don’t have walk-ins and are serving a non-local consumer base.
2. Convert your phones to a cloud-based system
This is advice geared more toward freelancers and solopreneurs, rather than larger companies, but it’s something small teams can consider as well. You can eliminate the cost of desk phones and high monthly plans by switching to a cloud-based system that routes calls through a smartphone.
Most consumers prefer to communicate via email, social media, live chat, and web forms, rather than using a phone. Take a look at your current business use of the phone and, if it’s minimal, consider moving to a cloud-based option.
3. Check your monthly subscriptions
Most companies subscribe to many SaaS software applications, but never use them. Sometimes you sign up for a free trial and then forget to deactivate the charge, which is a small income that you do not consider month after month. If it’s a small item, the amount may go undetected for an extended period of time before you realize you’ve been wasting money.
It’s a good idea to audit your company’s bank statements often, at least quarterly, to see if you can spot any unnecessary expenses. Canceling unused subscription products or services can end up saving you several thousand dollars a year.
4. Turn unused office space into a co-working space
Do you have any unused office space that is just collecting dust? Consider subletting it or converting it into a coworking space. Not only can this help absorb some of the leasing costs, but having more businesses in the same space can help spark creativity and can help develop new partnerships and business opportunities.
You will need to check your current lease to see if subletting is allowed, and you will most likely have to submit a joint work proposal from the current owner to see if it is possible.
5. Take advantage of credit cards
You might be thinking, “Credit cards? Are you crazy? I want to save money, not accumulate more debt.” But there is a big difference between smart credit card use and irresponsible and dangerous use.
Channeling all your business expenses through one or two cards, and then paying the balance in full each month, is an easy way to accumulate enough points to save a huge amount of money on airfare and hotels for your business travel needs. . Even if you don’t travel, there are many cash-back opportunities that can lead to lower overall spending.
6. Search multiple offers
It’s always a good idea to look for additional offers when working with a vendor or manufacturer. Yes, it takes longer, but in the end the savings can have a big impact on your bottom line.
I’ll give you a real life example. A startup that I am involved with in the health and beauty sector found a manufacturer with whom they were going to place a large production order. Only two companies were contacted and then the “least worst” supplier was selected.
It took me a day of making calls and sending hundreds of emails, but in the end I was able to find a manufacturer that charged 45 cents less per unit. That, at 10,000 units per order, translates to a savings of $ 4,500. Don’t be lazy. The extra work you put in can drastically reduce your expenses.
7. Constantly review, measure and optimise your advertising spend
If you have an “old-fashioned” mindset when it comes to social media investing, pay-per-click (PPC), and media buying, you’ll end up with a lot of wasted ad spend. Through my company, I consult with many brands, and nine times out of 10 I find wasted ad spend simply because no one was spending enough time reviewing, measuring, and optimizing campaigns.
