If you’re a small business owner, you already know how important it is to save some money however you can – and the best answer isn’t cutting your employees’ healthcare plans because that’s bad for everyone involved and makes you seem more miserly than thrifty.
That aside, there are definitely a number of effective ways to reduce your expenses and save you a bit of money when you own a small business without forcing you to cut costs where it truly hurts. Saving money where you can is an important factor that can make or break a small business, so here are some tips and pointers. And if you’re still worried that your small business won’t make it without some additional help, don’t hesitate to consider financial assistance.
1. Don’t spend money on things that you don’t need
You might think this one is a little obvious, but it still needs to be said because a lot of people spend unnecessarily for their businesses – on either things that they don’t need or on things that they could have saved a bit of money on. For instance, a receipt printer will set you back anywhere between $30 and $400 on average – but do you really need to spend $400 on a device that you could get for not even a quarter of that?
Cutting back expenses is necessary, but don’t cut costs in places where it would hurt: if safety is part of the equation or if a device really does a lot for you and saves money in the long-run then there’s absolutely no reason to cut corners. Sometimes you really don’t need a particular device for your business at all, and so it would be prudent to avoid wasting any money at all on something that’s completely unnecessary for your business to function successfully – in that cause, the obvious solution is just not to spend on whatever that may be at all.
Otherwise, you might be tempted to cut your employees’ benefits in order to cut costs – this does not fall into the category of unnecessary expenses, and so you really shouldn’t do something like this unless you’ve been running at a serious loss. Saving some money where you can is one thing, but doing something unethical entirely crosses the line. So keep in mind what costs you’ll be cutting, and if those cuts come at some other cost.
2. Find lower-cost alternatives to traditional advertising
Traditional methods of advertising can be expensive, and there’s no guarantee that you’ll even get the response that you’re looking for even if you follow this route. Fortunately, technology has made it a lot easier to advertise at a lower cost as well as giving you the ability to do a lot of the work yourself without needing to search for outside talent.
Facebook and Twitter can make promoting and advertising for your business simple and easy, and the good news is that using these platforms means both a wider reach and significantly fewer expenses than more traditional methods of advertising like newspapers, radio, and billboards. Tools like MailChimp are free and can help with email based advertising, so don’t hesitate to try these things out as well – there’s a good chance that you’ll have an easier time of reaching your target audience if you do.
3. Go paperless
There are a number of advantages of going paperless and in addition to saving trees, it will save you on some costs. It’s much easier to keep virtual records than paper on so many levels, it’s much easier to find them, and of course, it’s a lot easier to store them. This means you can save money on paper, on printing, and you needn’t invest in a filing cabinet either. That should go quite a way in cutting down your costs and thus helping you increase your margins without a whole lot of effort on your part.
4. Hire an excellent young team
A great team can make your business successful, and if they’re particularly skilled and efficient this can save you a bit of money as well. You shouldn’t hesitate to hire a young team either because this can offer you a group of dedicated people who don’t have the experience to demand the higher wages that would come with experienced staff. Don’t worry about having to teach them the ropes – if they’re eager to learn it’s definitely worth the effort.
5. Use interns
It’s true that there are a lot of unpaid internships out there and that this can be a bit of a problem if you’re broke and try to start a career when all of your opportunities are unpaid ones, but this is good news for a small business owner who’s looking to cut down on costs. Internships can provide inexperienced folks some desperately needed work experience though, and they can help you out by providing someone to do some of your work for free when you’d otherwise have to pay someone.
6. Use technology when you can
While it’s already been mentioned that you can go paperless and utilize online advertising to your advantage when trying to cut back on expenses, there’s a lot more that technology can do for you beyond that.
These days there are a lot of free tools available that can help you run your business and save some money in the process. There are also a lot of free or low-cost task management and productivity platforms that you might consider using, and of course, Google’s free tools have nearly become ubiquitous because of the advantages they offer in tandem with not costing you anything to implement.
7. Take a loan or grants if you need
Sometimes your cost-cutting measures just won’t solve all of your financial difficulties, and if you’re stuck between having to shutter your operations or taking a loan it can definitely be sensible to do the latter. There are a number of loans and grants available for small businesses if you really need them, so don’t hesitate to consider this option if you’re sure that it can help you out in the long term.
