7 Easy Ways to Cut Small Business Expenses

As a small business owner, you have the responsibility to cut as many expenses as possible. Cutting costs doesn’t always have to equate to sacrificing quality. It also doesn’t have to feel like an ongoing deprivation marathon to save money. Technology is on your side if you want to take the best action to maximize your company’s potential.

#1: Saving Office Utility Costs

If you can manage customer expectations, you can manage customer relationships. By overpromising and under delivering, you set your business up to fail.

The office is one of the biggest expenses for any business. Let’s look at how your office could be draining your profit.

If you do need to keep the office, find which utilities are running even when they’re not in use. Computers, monitors, coffee machines, and printers can be put into sleep mode when not in use. This will save energy and the electricity bill. In fact, turning devices completely off for the night increases their overall lifespan.

Lights are another utility you should pay attention to. Turn off lights in a room when not in use. Consider using task lighting and natural lighting whenever possible.

Consider using a service to evaluate the energy efficiency of your business. Energy Star works with service providers to do just that.

The savings you reap from implementing low-cost ideas over time can allow you to replace equipment down the road. Then you will help you save even more money in the long run.

Instead of buying small quantities periodically, purchase in large quantities to benefit from discounted retail costs.

#2: Analyzing Your Office Space

Ask your team:

Are we paying for an office we don’t need?

Could we move to a cheaper location?

Could we move into a coworking space?

Are we paying for a coworking space we never work in?

Could we switch to a virtual coworking group and get the same benefits?

Company meetings can use heavy expenses including commuting and accommodations. Use integrated communication tools like Skype, Discord, and GotoMeeting to decrease the expenses of meetings. Luckily, 1CRM integrates with Skype and GotoMeeting, so you can schedule and hold your calls or meetings without even leaving the platform!

#3: Automate Your Business Processes Using 1CRM

Not only will these customers provide your best reviews, but, without external marketing, other customers will come from them.

Automating tedious processes as much as you can will save you the cost of hiring multiple people. A customer relationship management tool like 1CRM saves time and money. You can start a 30-day free trial here.

Think of all the time you’ll save when you no longer have to send manual emails. 1CRM also makes information instantly available for employees to be able to do their jobs at peak performance.

#4: Online Advertising Savings Opportunities

Keep innovating because no matter how innovative your product is, with technology changing every day, your product will become outdated. If adaptation is integrated into your business strategy, you can build a company that will outlive its products. The biggest mistake you can make is having a short-sighted business plan.

Take the time to know your target audience with pinpoint accuracy. Once you know the perfect people to be targeting and where to find them, you can streamline your ad channels to the most effective hits.

Don’t spend money advertising everywhere, especially if you have a niche market. This will save you ad costs and maximize each marketing campaign.

#5: Analyze Your Profits and Losses

Heartfelt and personal thank-you cards are not only for your friends and family; they can be a powerful source of positive emotion to transfer from your company to customers. Not only will your business stand out as unique in the customer’s mind, but they will also have a card that they won’t know what to do with, so they’ll stick it on top of the fireplace or pin it to the fridge. This will keep your brand in their minds and in their homes. What could be more personal than that?

Perform a financial x-ray to look into your business finances and analyze what is going on. Write a profit and loss statement. See if you are making any mistakes or just get a true assessment of what is coming in and going out. Monitor your inventory to see exactly what’s coming in and what sells out.

If you have difficulty in accurately tracking your inventories, use an inventory management software to make the job easier. You want to know funds are available, what should be in the bank, and how to accurately track if funds get lost. With accounting software, tracking financials can be easy and affordable.

#6: Don’t Overhire

Be proactive and solve issues you find before the next customer experiences them. But we have to acknowledge that no business will ever be complaint free, so it’s important to note that 95% of complaining customers are likely to purchase with you again if the problem is solved in their favor.

Growing staff too quickly might just be the #1 mistake entrepreneurs make.

It’s so easy to get caught up in a growth cycle. Remember to hire for the business you’re running, not the one you have in mind for the future.

Successful businesses keep the employee staffing levels at the bare minimum, even during growth phases says Tom Corley, author of Rich Habits. He points out that long-running companies depend a core team that handle 80% of the workload Seasonal and part-time help can bring in the remaining 20% of the sales.

When paying your staff becomes a burden, cut down on your workforce and/or hire freelancers to carry out some of your operations. Hiring sites like Upwork make it easy to get jobs done overseas.

Not only will you not have to secure office space for telecommuters, you’ll also save monthly wages. Outsourcing is on average 60% cheaper than local hires and provides a range of services including programming, telemarketing, transcription, and accounting.

1/3 of your work time is spent doing admin tasks. This is a great stream to outsource so that you can use time to generate revenue and drive expansion.

Alongside outsourcing, interns are another way to save on hiring as they don’t require a high salary.

#7: Keep Track of Subscriptions

Participate in a charity marathon, participate in hashtags, and share team progress. People want to do business with humans, not robots. Your customers will mirror the content and emotion you evoke. By showing your experience, you can create their experience.

Another cost-cutting method is to integrate products so that you’re getting the most you can out of the subscriptions you have. 1CRM integrates with over 30 products, providing you with all the tools you need to manage your business within just one platform.

Cancel services that you don’t use. Check your credit card statements to see if you are being charged for a service that isn’t giving you results. And cancel it.

As you proceed through analyzing, cutting, and integrating, make sure you’re cutting the right expenses. If a service has been offering you enough value for its investment, keep it.