Has your company suffered during the pandemic? Have you had to lay off or furlough employees? Fortunately, those aren’t your only options for saving your business money. Here are a few more things you can do to reduce your operating costs.
1. Focus on Free Advertising
One of the first ways you can save money is by not paying for advertising. Start building up your social media following and use things like hashtags to increase your reach. Be sure to respond to comments and questions from your followers. That way, you can encourage people to buy from you, but you don’t have to spend money doing it. You can also use a blog on your website to promote your products or services, and you can optimize your posts for search engines.
Then, you can increase your web traffic, and you can direct people to your sales page. If you can get people to that page, you can use the text there to make people want to buy your product or service.
2. Go Remote
If you have an in-person office, you can shut it down. Not only is this safer for you and your employees, but it can save you money. When you close down your office, you won’t have to pay for power or utilities. You and your employees can work from home or another safe location, and you can use the internet to communicate. Remote working can seem hard at first, but it can be a great way to save money.
Your employees will all use their own power and utilities. While you may want to pay for an email or messaging program, you can find some for free. That way, you can still have a productive workforce.
3. Sell Online
If you have a retail store, you can also close that in favor of an online store. A lot of people love shopping online, so you can reach people who aren’t in your city or country. As long as you have space to store your inventory, you can pack orders and ship them out as they come in. You don’t need a huge storefront to do that. While you may need a storage space, that will be cheaper than an entire store.
You can go to the storage facility to pick up items when you get orders. Or you can have an assistant do that work so that you can focus on marketing or other tasks. That way, you can keep your business going and save money.
4. Invest in Affordable Equipment
As you transition to remote work, you may need new equipment, like a laptop instead of a desktop. You can spend a lot on a new laptop, but a used, rugged laptop can work just as well, especially if it’s only a few years old. Other equipment to get includes a printer and a workspace to be productive at home. If you have a larger home office, you may also want some lighting and a relaxing chair.
Your new office equipment doesn’t have to cost a lot. It can even help you save money on your taxes because it all falls under your business expenses.
5. Re-evaluate Your Employee Benefits
If you have employees, you may want to rethink the benefits you offer. You should still offer things like health insurance, but you can reduce costs in these areas. You can lower your 401(k) match to save money. Don’t reduce these benefits to the point where you lose all of your top employees. But don’t be afraid to cut a little bit since everything you can reduce will add up.
6. Outsource Tasks
If you need to hire more help, you can save money by working with freelancers instead of hiring more part-time or full-time employees. With freelancers, you don’t have to pay for things like unemployment insurance or workers’ compensation coverage. You also don’t have to pay employment taxes since the freelancer will be responsible for all of that.
Freelancers can also save you money because you can hire them for just what you need. You’ll only need to pay them when they work, rather than for a set schedule.
7. Switch to Free Software and Tools
If you still need to save more of your business money, see what paid tools you can quit or downgrade from. Some tools have both free and paid options, and you may not need the extra features, so you can stop paying for the premium subscription. If your tools don’t have a free option, you can switch to a different free tool. You should still pay for your website hosting and email, but you don’t need to pay for everything.
Running a business can be a great way to work, but it can be stressful, especially when you aren’t making the profit you want. Keep these things in mind if you need to cut costs during a pandemic or long after.
