How Your Business Can Save Money

On a tight budget, which most small business owners are, it pays to save. If you’re struggling to cut costs, here are a lot of money-saving ideas to boost your business’s bottom line, from promotions to staffing. Some tips will save more than others, but the result of your attitude to money could quickly add up.

Promotions

Piggyback Your Advertising

Including advertising material in other mailings, such as invoices, saves on postage and other costs. Make the most of your point-of-purchase opportunities by putting coupons in with newsletter or promotional fliers into the bag with a customer’s purchases.

Be A Good Neighbor

Split the costs of promotion and advertising with another neighboring business. Promote a sidewalk sale together, or take the alliance even further by sharing your mailing lists, distribution channels, and suppliers with businesses that sell goods or services that complement yours.

Ask The People You Know For Help

The kind of support that you would most like to get from your contacts is referrals. These are the names of the specific individuals who need your services or products. Your contacts can also pass your details to any prospects they know of. As you get more referrals, you get more potential to increase the percentage of your business generated through referrals.

Share Reviews

Tell others what customers have gained from your products and services, either in presentation or informal conversations. Reviews can encourage others to use your products or services.

Make A TV Appearance

Local cable TV stations often have very reasonable rates for advertising. You might not be able to afford a prime-time slot, but you will make an impression where it counts and gets in front of more potential customers.

Offer Expert Advice

Teaching a class, speaking at a community meeting, or writing an article for a local paper will make you look like an expert and is a low-cost way to get attention for your business.

Internet Ideas

Cut Costs When Setting Up Your Online Store

Some businesses worry that taking their business online will be very expensive to do. You can start out selling items for almost no cost on auction sites like eBay. Suppose you want to create a more professional-looking storefront for your website. In that case, there are lots of solutions available that are very simple to use, even for beginners, usually for a low monthly fee.

Start Chatting

Find newsgroups that cater to your audience and join in. Many business owners initially start participating in online discussion groups to stay up-to-date with relevant news and find information on various subjects for themselves, rather than as a way to generate business. However, it can actually be a very effective marketing tool. All it has to cost is your time. Always include your business URL in your signature, but don’t do any hard selling. Most groups have strict rules about advertising, so you’re likely to just find yourself quickly banned. Instead, join the discussion when you have something useful and relevant to contribute. Providing useful information will encourage people to want to click on your website to find out more.

Spread The Word Yourself

Are you letting people know what your website is? Put your website address on your letterhead and business cards, and include it in all your email signatures. Put it anywhere where potential visitors are likely to see it. Include it on your employee’s uniforms if they have them, any promotional items you give out, all press releases, and company vehicles.

Location

Get A Deal

You don’t need to run your office full-time from an executive office suite to the benefits of its services. Many home-based entrepreneurs find that executive suites meet a range of different needs, including access to a private mailbox and a receptionist to answer or forward calls to your home office. A small office or part-time use is cheaper but still gets you access to those perks.

Be Mobile

The costs of setting up a permanent retail location can be steep. You can easily have to spend up to $100,00 or even more, with leases spanning three to ten years. Instead, you can try a cart, kiosk, or temporary spaces to get your foot in the door for a lot less risk and less money. The upfront investment for a cart or kiosk ranges from $2000 to $10,000. License agreements for carts and kiosks are much shorter and are renewed every month for up to one year, depending on their location. This arrangement is a lot easier for entrepreneurs to try it out for a month, and if it doesn’t work, you can more easily try something else or close up and move somewhere else.

Office Overheads

Buy Recycled Printer Cartridges

Try to find a local supplier or recycled printer cartridges. Recycle your own cartridges after use, or have them refilled to reduce waste and cut costs.

Find Free Forms

Instead of having to buy forms at your local office supply store or spend a lot of time creating them yourself, which could be spent on more critical areas of the business, you can find a lot of free forms online that you can download, customize for your needs, and print off as you need them.

Get Free Software

There are hundreds of software products out there that you can use for free, either through trial downloads, freeware, or limited versions of the entire product. This way, you can test out any software to make sure you like it before parting with any money, or you may even find something suitable that is always free to use. Start with the manufacturer’s website. Many offer free trial downloads of their software.

Buy Used Equipment

Instead of buying new, you can save a lot of money on kitting out your office by using used computer equipment, copiers, and office furniture. Look out for sales going on around you as other offices replace old equipment. Auctions and newspaper classified ads are other good places to find used equipment.

Employee Economics

Aim To Lease

Employee leasing is when you turn over your workforce to a professional employer organization that then leases your employees back to you. It can save you a lot of money on employee benefits, as someone else can handle that part for you.

Go With The Flow

You could consider an alternative working week schedule, such as the 9/80. Rather than paying for employees who don’t have enough to do when business is slow, you could fewer people and bring in temporary staff when you do have a surge of business. Check out 9/80 work schedule examples to see if it might work for your business.

Make Experience Count

Look for low-cost or even free help for your business and pair up with your local college. Students can learn the ropes by working with you as an intern, and you can develop the next generation of talent for the future. Some of them may even choose to come back to you when they graduate.

Use Independent Contractors

Employers usually don’t need to withhold or pay taxes on payments to independent contractors. Be careful that your contractors fit the definition given by the IRS, or you could face penalties.

Commission Your Sales Force

Overhead, salaries, incentives, training costs, fringe benefits, and expenses soon add up when hiring a sales representative. Contract independent manufacturer’s sales reps instead. They can be paid only on commission, so they’re less expensive but usually just as effective.