Do you own, run or manage a Small to Medium Enterprise? If so, you’ve probably got a lot on your plate. There’s profit to make, staff to coach, clients and customers to appease and amongst all that you need to try and grow as well! And one thing that can slow profits and growth is unnecessary expenses. Today we’re going to take a look at ten simple tips on how to cut them out.
Get rid of your accountant
This sounds harsh, we’ll admit it. But your accountant is costing you money. Lots of it, actually. Consider replacing them with some small business accounting software. You can use it to track income and outgoings and it will generate awesome reports for you, to show you what matters.
Maintain good morale
An engaged workforce is a productive workforce. A productive workforce is one that’s making you money. Keep your team’s spirits high with incentives and bonuses and you’ll see a reduction in absenteeism, sick days and presenteeism.
Outsource or automate your payroll
Your payroll team is an unnecessary expense, too. You can save some dollars by outsourcing it to a third party, or automating it with software. Having second thoughts about sacking those folks? This is business, baby.
Review your costs on the regular
Are you reviewing your expenditure? Any SME worth their salt sets regular review dates and tracks their outgoing and cuts it when and where they can. Establish quarterly or six-monthly meetings to go over your financials and see where you can save.
Negotiate
Talk to your creditors and suppliers. Ask for discounts. Consider buying in bulk to save. You might even find a good wholesaler. Switch your stationery supplier to one who can give you that extra percent off and negotiate a contract for your ICT equipment needs. Squeeze every penny and you’ll see your margins grow.
Fleet and fuel
Running fleet, and spending heaps on fuel? See if you can find a fleet provider that will give you a good deal, and consider switching to fuel cards with one petrol outlet. Another option is to scrap the fleet altogether, and insist on staff using their personal vehicles. You’ll need to reimburse them a certain amount of cents to the dollar for petrol, but this is often cheaper than maintaining your own fleet.
Put it on the cloud
Got stacks of servers holding your data? Think of all the money you’re pumping into maintenance and tech staff. Find a cloud storage provider and save that space and money.
Review your wages
This is a tricky one. If you pay too little, you run the risk of your staff underperforming. If you pay too much you may be bleeding money. Look over your expenditure on staff wages and come to a decision. Be careful though, you don’t want to lose your talent!
Get eco-friendly
Just how much are you spending on energy? Are your heating and cooling bills through the roof? Did you know you could save money by investing in environmentally sound upgrades for your business? You might spend a bit on solar panels, proper insulation, high energy-star rating equipment and the like at first, but you’ll see a substantial return on your investment in reduced bills.
Reduce onboarding costs
Training new staff costing you too much? Replace face to face training with videos and online interactive systems.
Follow these steps and save
There you have it – from investing in eco-friendly solutions, through to re-thinking your fleet and payroll, you have a series of options to cut costs and boost your profits. Now, the question remains – are you game enough to take action and get ahead?
James Hendrickson is an internet entrepreneur, blogging junky, hunter and personal finance geek. When he’s not lurking in coffee shops in Portland, Oregon, you’ll find him in the Pacific Northwest’s great outdoors. James has a masters degree in Sociology from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Bachelors degree on Sociology from Earlham College. He loves individual stocks, bonds and precious metals.