If you aren’t carefully monitoring your business spending, you could be easily wasting money on unnecessary things. The easiest way to reduce business costs is to eliminate spending that is unnecessary. When you look at a cost, ask yourself the following, “Is this a long-term sustainable cost?” “Could I establish my own process to eliminate this?”
Fees
In business, every dollar counts. Absorbing the cost of credit card processing fees can make a real impact on a small business’s bottom line. There are ways to reduce your credit card processing fees. You can reach out to specific credit cards and see if you can get a better deal by exclusively accepting their services. You could also add on a surcharge to customers that pay with credit cards. Depending on your business model, you could offer alternative payment methods that don’t involve fees. As you consider the different options, just make sure that you come up with a solution that is convenient for your customer.
Waste
There are several different kinds of waste that you can be eliminating. The two major ones are physical waste and time waste. If you have a lot of wasted materials, you could try selling them. For example, there are companies out there that buy cardboard, paper, and metal. If you are throwing those items away in large amounts, it might be worth selling them to these companies instead. It’s easier to reduce wasted time than physical waste. You can work on eliminating time waste by learning about and employing LEAN business principles. Just make sure that you set a good example of efficiency as you try to employ them. You should also keep in mind that you may need to incentivize your employees to not waste time.
Marketing
Eliminating paid advertising isn’t smart, but there are some cheaper alternatives that you should explore. Network! People like to work with companies that they recognize. So take on all the networking opportunities that you can. You can network efficiently by boosting your social media presence. Just make sure that you choose the right platform for your business. As you are posting, don’t just do it randomly. Take the time to put together a planned content schedule. This will help you put together a cohesive message to your prospective clients. Just ensure that you’re being genuine and connect with your audience. You can also use social media to run contests that give you leads and referrals. Referrals from current customers are much easier to convert to sales than leads with no prior connection to your business.
Eliminating costs doesn’t have to be about making major changes to your company. Eliminating costs is about finding all the little things that add up over time. These can often be fixed with a few policy adjustments and a little training.
Read this next: How Your Business Can Lower Operating Costs