Have you reached a stage in your business where you’re looking at ways to become more cost-effective and reduce spending? You’re not alone. Everyone should have this goal in fact. Whether you are an already-established business or a start-up, making a conscious effort to reduce business costs is important and can have some great benefits over time.
Reducing costs doesn’t require huge change – there’s no need to reduce your workforce straight away, for example, you can make some simple changes which can save you quite a lot.
Here’s how to save smartly:
Use technology
Technology is your best friend and you can utilise it in many ways to save you some money. One way it can help is by reducing traveling costs. Instead of traveling to meetings, conferences and business trips, utilise video calling software and use that as your go-to form of meeting people. You can still meet in person, but you have the choice to prioritize and only use travel expenses when they are essential. After all, research shows the average business trip costs $1,293.
Go paperless
Another simple way to reduce business costs is to go paperless. Research shows that, on average, an employee uses 10,000 copies or prints each year, which can cost a business upto $1,200 annually. You can go paperless by completely removing your printer from the office or have a printing limit for each employee. You can then implement printing rules to ensure waste is reduced such as:
- Only print double-sided
- Don’t include pictures
- Try to print black and white where possible
- Keep a list of important documents that are the only ones to be printed.
These may seem like small changes but even a switch to black-and-white printing, for example, can make a difference as color cartridges cost substantially more to replace.
Consider where your business is based
If you run your business from a brick-and-mortar building, you will have many more outgoings compared to someone who operates online-only. If you can switch to online-only and operate working from home, you will reduce costs by eliminating things like rent, building insurance, utilities, and much more. This is easier for small independent businesses but can make a huge difference over time. You might even be able to downsize and rent a smaller space while switching back office functions to your home address. Wherever your business is based, it can be beneficial to check around brokers for new utility contracts or business insurance such as car traders policy. You might be able to get a better deal for roughly the same cover and save some costs that way too.
File your taxes on time
Being organised has big rewards for a business – especially when it comes to filing your tax forms. If you’re late submitting your W-2 or W-3 forms, you can incur hefty charges for the IRS (starting from $50 for every late form). Get organised by ordering pre-printed W-3 forms and introduce a calendar system to help avoid wasting money on fines.
Cut back on subscriptions
Subscriptions all start to add up. If you are a subscriber to any software which has a free version or regularly receives industry magazines which are available online – it might be worth cutting back on these. While a few dollars a month may not seem like much, over time they add up. Find out your software renewal dates too – it’s easy to end up paying for another 12 months of something you no longer need, for example.
We hope we have shown you that reducing business costs does not require big changes and the smallest things can make the biggest differences. Save some cash in these ways and you’ll free up funds for the things that matter.