6 Ways You Are Wasting Money On Your Business (And How To Stop It)

Considering the uncertainty of the economy we’re currently experiencing, any cost reduction practice can easily lead to an increase in revenue and positively impact the company’s profitability margins. Fortunately, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a large-scale endeavor and often it only takes a few steps coupled with some common sense to decrease expenditures for any small business. That said, here are a couple of excellent tips you can use to cut down on your business’ expenses and increase the profits.

1. Workout a decent telecommuting plan
You might not realize this, but telecommuting has enormous potential for cost-cutting, particularly when it comes to up-and-coming small businesses where every cent matters. Furthermore, flexible work arrangements and telecommuting allowances have rather positive implications for the overall job satisfaction and employee morale and directly improve the productivity levels. Telecommuting greatly reduces individual travel expenses, as well as the time it takes for each worker to get to work, so make sure to give it a fair chance before you completely dismiss the idea.

2. Update your marketing strategy
Although paid advertising works very well when utilized appropriately, there are some cheaper marketing alternatives you can use to cut down the overall expenses. For example, referral programs and customer mailing lists are more likely to produce a lead or a sale than traditional marketing efforts. Additionally, social media marketing is an excellent alternative to traditional advertising means as not only costs way less, but it also generates excellent results considering the amount of time and resources needed to make it work.

3. Lower your financial expenses
Financial accounts and insurance policies can be looked over and further optimized to cut down expenses. If possible, try to consolidate both the bank accounts and insurance policies and save additional resources by comparing insurance providers and asking the current provider to match the rate of their competitors. Have in mind that debt has a negative effect on your company’s rating, its interest rates, and future money borrowing capabilities. Avoid getting into debt and perform an in-depth analysis and financial forecasting in order to streamline any future expansions to your small business venture.

Another great idea for improving your finances is creating a passive income stream which is easily doable task in the digital era. Depending on the niche of your business you can generate money while you are sleeping by creating and selling various products online.

4. Reduce the use of paper
Just like reducing water and energy usage, decreasing the use of paper waste does wonders both for the environment, and your company’s expenses. There are multiple ways to accomplish this, but the best place to start is to invest in an electronic file-exchange service instead of relying on courier services. The same can be said for any invoices, reports and mailing lists you might still be printing on paper before every meeting. Even if you continue using printing paper, try to copy and print double-sided and reuse the waste paper for notes. Alternatively, you can shrink down the fonts you use and tighten up the margins for additional cost efficiency.

5. Readjust cost plans with actual usage
Every business has to pay for the essential services such as bookkeeping, cloud storage, and telecommunications. But what most business owners fail to realize is that these plans should be reviewed at least twice per year, or even better, on a monthly basis. Paying for a capacity which you don’t regularly use makes no sense. It may be better to downsize and get a cheaper plan to accommodate the use. On the other hand, regularly surpassing the current plan results in paying far more to cover those additional expenses than it would to simply get a bigger plan.

6. Use the office space efficiently
Office spaces are becoming more and more efficient in the last couple of years. Whether it’s by using collaborative workstations, using conference rooms as break rooms when they’re available, conducting a virtual meeting in order to minimize the travel expenses, as well as completely eliminating the need for traditional, physical space. Experts in this field recommend hiring an office designer to completely redesign your office space and make it even more efficient, as well as a commercial cleaning crew to keep the space clean and maintained. It’s rather difficult to use the space efficiently if it’s in a state of constant mess, so try to keep it as clean and as organized as possible.

Finally, focus on quality instead of quaintly, particularly when it comes to your workers, products, and services. A good employee is not the one that works the most, but the one that works most efficiently. Consequently, maintaining the high-quality of your products and services ensures that your current customers are satisfied and increases sales using repeat purchases and referrals. This means you have to devote less time and resources to advertising and use them to further improve your small business. Remember, a good reputation, high-quality services and efficient spending of company’s resources is the only real way to cut down on necessary expenses and increase sales and revenues.

Leila Dorari is a marketing consultant and a freelance writer. She currently advises companies about the benefits of hiring furniture removalists Sydney based company for their company’s budget. When taking a break from making new marketing slogans, she is either window shopping or exploring new ways to make her life more meaningful.