Managing your budget while also keeping on top of all your work can be difficult when you’re a small business. You need to ensure you don’t fall too far into the red to have a successful, prosperous business in the long term. Here we’ve put together a list of five ways to reduce your costs, to help you along the way.
Streamline Your Software
Small businesses will often utilize various forms of software to help support the function of certain departments, like accounting or marketing. But depending on the software, you could end up using one invoicing service, with a separate expense track and separate online payment tool. Not only is it more expensive to use multiple tools, but it can be costly in terms of time and effort. Some small business invoice software options, like FreshBooks, offer comprehensive financial services and have an integrated online payment app to keep all your accounting information together and save time on all that tedious data entry. You should assess all the different software you are subscribed to and either eliminate or streamline your services to reduce the costs.
Go Paperless
Using invoicing software, as mentioned above, can help your company to go paperless by emailing invoices directly to the client and having an online function with which they can pay. In addition to this, make sure you are making good use of emailing and other online forms of communication to save on printing costs, postage, and storage of physical documents.
Lower the cost of your office space
The renting of an office space can be a huge expense for a small business and if you can make the move to working remotely, without your quality of work being affected, then you definitely should. It’s important to consider where staff members can work effectively from home and possibly operate on a rota in order to reduce the amount of real estate required.
However, sometimes an office space is essential depending on the type of services you provide or simply to boost productivity. So, ensure you are getting the best price in terms of rent and bills. Visit comparison sites and possibly switch providers if needed; don’t be afraid to negotiate with landlords or service providers. Opt to use energy-efficient light bulbs and perhaps look into sensor-operated lighting if you can. Alternatively, you can look into renting part of a shared office space – you will have less control over the utilities but you will only have to pay a fraction of the shared service cost.
Create a Budget and Stick to It
Creating a budget does not just help to allocate your money and reduce wastage, it can help you keep track of all your incomings and outgoings. You need a full picture of all the money you have coming in and going out each month in order to make smart financial decisions and budget accordingly. Creating a “business budget” can help you track and reduce the cost of your business.
Use the Internet
As well as enabling remote working and helping work towards a paperless office, the internet can be a powerful marketing tool. Digital marketing is a fast-paced, ever-expanding industry that guarantees results at relatively low-costs. How much you invest in online marketing is up to you and you can even utilize free marketing tools like HootSuite or MailChimp if your business is small enough.
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