The COVID19 pandemic has had far-reaching consequences on the world economy. A lot of companies have gone bankrupt and many struggling startups had to shut shop. No wonder everyone is looking at ways to reduce expenses in order to stay afloat.
Many large organizations have resorted to downsizing, but for small businesses that is not an option. If you are a small business owner looking at ways to cut costs, you are at the right place. Here are five innovative ways to reduce expenses to increase the success of your small business:
- Go remote:
Although the work-from-home or remote work culture has been forced by the pandemic, it is actually a very cost-effective solution for the long term. Instead of investing in a space and spending on the office setup, your team can work from their homes and stay connected through a cloud-based system for communication.
When you go remote, your employees too save time and money spent on traveling to the workplace. You can easily manage and monitor their work through open source project management tools. Depending on the size of your business, this could mean a significant reduction in costs without impacting work efficiency.
- Explore online marketing:
Marketing your business online on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc is a highly affordable alternative to offline promotion solutions like print advertising. It has a wider reach as almost everyone has a smartphone and is using some or the other social media platform. Email marketing is an inexpensive yet effective way of gaining customers.
You can also create a website for building a distinguished online presence and promote it on your social media handles. By publishing relevant blogs regularly and using good social media marketing tactics you will get relatively quicker results with very minimal investment.
- Go paperless:
Businesses spend a lot of money on paper for a lot of manual processes like publishing important reports, payslips, marketing material, etc. It takes up a lot of storage space and requires a lot of maintenance. You also need to spend on resources like wholesale printing, printers, ink cartridges, printing paper, mailing supplies, document filing cabinets, etc.
Going paperless by using digital solutions is a highly cost-effective solution. Automating processes like payroll with the services provided by payroll software companies not only eliminates the use of paper, but also simplifies the complex and tedious process of payroll. It’s a highly affordable solution that allows you to make workforce management easier.
- Improve time management:
One way to lower your business costs is to boost your work productivity. A lot of businesses lose revenue due to inefficient workflow caused by lack of time management. Yes, time is money and managing it well also brings you money.
The better you manage your time, the more things you get done in a day which increases your business productivity greatly. Using free time tracking apps is a great way to track how you and your staff are spending their time. This prevents you from wasting your time and allows you to schedule work better.
- Be diligent with payments:
There is a fine for late payment for every service now. Vendors and suppliers have due dates mentioned on invoices so that they receive payments on time, and paying them late can burn a huge hole in your pocket. It is important to be diligent about these due dates.
A lot of vendors now offer discounts for those who make early payments and you must make good use of this policy to save money as well as to always stay on their good side.
Conclusion:
For small businesses to cut costs without feeling the pinch, it is important to think outside the box. The above mentioned ideas will help you lower your overheads and prevent you from a cash crunch.
