Guest Post | Jul 28, 2021
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Over 80% of enterprises fail due to cash flow problems.
The figure is a dead giveaway of why you need to minimize your expenses. After all, reducing your business costs has a direct impact on your cash flow.
Not only does it help you pocket more money, but it also bolsters your business financially.
If you’re looking for tried and tested tips to reduce your business costs, consider following the tips below.
1. Invest in preventive measures
Risks are inevitable for businesses, and when they happen, they often eat up a considerable chunk of your profits.
To avoid experiencing the financial nightmare that comes from unforeseen threats, you must set preventive and protective measures to mitigate risks.
For instance, if you invested in creating an app for your business, you need to ensure your critical business codes are protected against system failure or cybercriminals. An effective way of doing this is to back up your codes regularly.
To avoid spending countless hours running your backups, which increases your business cost, run automatic DevOps backups. That way, your backups are done with very little to no workforce hours needed, and you know your code is always backed up on time.
Investing in preventive measures, such as backups, gives your business an added level of security that protects you from forking out thousands of dollars should anything unfortunate happen.
2. Trim your workflows
The more steps you add to your workflows, the more time it’ll take your team to complete their tasks. The chances of committing errors and delays are also higher. All this translates to added, unnecessary costs.
That said, the best way to streamline your workflows is through automation.
To begin trimming, list your departments’ daily business processes.
Next, identify the menial, tedious, and repetitive steps, and look for online tools to take care of them for you.
For example, to bill and gather online payments from customers, use platforms with robust features that let you create invoices quickly, send automatic reminders, get paid in a single click, and more.
Also, leverage tools that instantly integrate apps, so you don’t need to jump from one tab or program to another to accomplish tasks.
3. Create a project wiki
If your team members don’t have a system for sharing project information and updates, their collaboration will not be cohesive. Because they’re unaware of the essential project details, they are likely to duplicate tasks, miss out on deadlines, and waste time, effort, and money along the way.
To prevent that from happening, you need a project wiki -- a page that multiple team members can edit. It also serves as a central filing document with resources accessible anytime. It’s also where you can store, share, and archive bits of handy information for ongoing projects and future applications.
Use project wikis’ management capacities, admin insights, automation and integration abilities, and other features to categorize information and stay on top of your knowledge sharing.
4. Invest in asset maintenance
Maintaining your physical and digital assets lengthens their lifespan and usefulness to your business. It also protects your company’s sustainability -- especially if they are your primary revenue sources.
For example, if you’re running an equipment rental business, you should ensure your machines are kept in their optimum condition. Otherwise, your repair costs will skyrocket and you’ll need to keep procuring new equipment earlier than you ought to.
What’s more, your malfunctioning equipment could harm your clients, and if they do, you run the risk of being sued. You’ll then have to spend heaps of money to settle legal bills.
To prevent that, you must run regular equipment inspections. Leverage cloud-based equipment inspection forms available on the market. This heightens the accuracy and efficiency of your equipment inspections, ensuring you get the correct results, and ultimately saves you time, money, and labor.
What’s more, when your equipment maintenance records are on the cloud, you can access your records from anywhere as long as you have access to the internet.
5. Outsource
If you’re living in first-class cities, especially in first-world countries, you need to pay thousands to get premium talent. The same thing happens when you acquire equipment in your local area.
Instead of going that route, you can opt to outsource.
For example, if you’re looking to run a video marketing campaign, look for a marketing agency that offers its services at reasonable rates yet produces exceptional results.
By outsourcing, you can avoid having to buy your own camera, video editing software, etc. Most marketing agencies offering video marketing services have the equipment and tools needed to get the job done so you can avoid procuring equipment that you might not necessarily need in the future.
6. Offer exceptional customer support
It costs about 4 to 5 times more to get new customers compared to selling to existing ones. You spend more on referrals, PR, events, and other fees to convince and acquire new buyers -- whereas already loyal shoppers spend up to nearly 60%.
That’s why you must invest in exceptional helpdesk software and customer support. That way, you can nurture your relationships with existing customers and sell to them easily.
With exceptional customer support, you can reduce your marketing spend and still get truckloads of sales since you leverage your relationships with existing customers.
Additionally, create loyalty programs, communicate proactively, uncover your shoppers’ sentiments, and interact with them on social media. These tactics make your customers feel extra valued and effectively drive engagement -- both of which are necessary for retaining them.
7. Switch from paper to digital methods
Expenses for paper, ink, mailing supplies and other materials (including postage and courier) can seem minimal, but they accumulate to considerable amounts if you don’t monitor your usage. Statistics reveal that these line items can reach $400,000 annually for an average company.
Instead of paper-based processes, switch to electronic systems. That way, you can save up on associated costs and equipment, reprinting due to edits, and physical space for keeping the materials. You can also get rid of the stress and clutter that can hamper your revenue-generating productivity (not to mention being environmentally friendly).
Documents that you can digitize include invoices, billing statements, quotes, receipts, progress reports, onboarding files, vacation and sick leave requests, reimbursement forms, and more. By going paperless (or paper-light), you reduce this recurring business expense -- and use the money to invest in more profitable resources.
Work on reducing your business costs now.
The tips shared in this guide are far from complete.
However, if you endeavor to take action and follow the tips, you are bound to see an improvement in your business expenses.
You’ll spend less on staffing hours, you can avoid needless expenses caused by accidents or unforeseen challenges, and you’ll even see your productivity and bottom line increase.
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