There are essentially two ways to increase the profit of your company. You can either increase revenue or reduce costs. A lot of companies focus too much on the revenue and forget to step back for a moment and optimize their spending. As the company grows so do the expenses, so often times businesses need to review their spending habits and optimize in order to progress. Here are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to the operating costs of your business.
Cut supply costs
When it comes to supplies, don’t just go for the first deal that you find. You should always be on the lookout for discounts and better opportunities. As the market changes so will the costs of all your supplies. Maybe the supplier that you were buying from isn’t the most competitive one, always compare costs and see if you can find better deals. If you have a good relationship with your suppliers, make sure to ask for a discount before you consider buying somewhere else. Often times the supplier will value the long lasting revenue they are getting from you and will offer you better deals in order to keep you as a customer.
One good way to keep operating costs down is to lower the amount of paper you use. There are a lot of paperless invoicing options that will save you both time and money. You should make use of all the new technologies such as cloud computing and store your information online. This will make your data much easier to sort, will use up less space and most importantly, save you a lot of money.
Lower office space costs
There are a lot of ways to save money when it comes to your office space. The first thing to keep in mind is that real estate costs can undergo big changes over time. Pay attention to the local economy and take advantage of depressed prices when the economy is down. You can either move your business to a less expensive area or try to negotiate with your existing landlord. If the prices are going down, they will have to offer you a better deal or waste time finding new tenants, which in the end won’t pay him more anyway. So, stay informed and keep a close eye on real estate prices, the more information you have the likelier you are to find a good deal.
When it comes to real estate prices, you should know that bigger office spaces tend to have a lower price per surface area ratio. For that reason, many companies chose to do business in comfortable coworking areas like this cowork space in Melbourne as a way to keep their operating costs down.
Cut staffing costs
Payroll is the most significant expense of most companies. Therefore it also offers the most options to save money. Many older employees might actually value more free time. So if you are operating a business that tends to have slow periods consider giving people time off during those periods. They will appreciate the extra time they can spend time relaxing and being with their families and you can cut costs during periods when revenue is down. You should also consider hiring people from your own family whenever possible. That way you will ensure that you have loyal employees who will give their best and at the same time keep more money in the family.
Another way to cut staffing costs is outsourcing. There are many options for hiring people from outside of your company to do simple and repeatable tasks. Often times those options are much cheaper than hiring full-time employees. This has a direct impact on office space costs because the fewer people you have in the office the less money you need to spend on office space. Before hiring new employees, you should also review the day to day activities of your staff. Make sure the right people are in the right positions. Sometimes doing some restructuring can increase productivity more than simply hiring new people.
Cut marketing costs
Marketing is an important part of modern companies and its value shouldn’t be underestimated. However, with the development of new technologies and more potential customers online than ever, it’s possible to considerably lower the money you spend on marketing, and get a marketing strategy resolved. Building an online presence is easier and cheaper than traditional offline advertisements. Create your own website, make a Facebook page and use a tweeter to get your message out. All these platforms are easy to use, cheap and have a large number of potential customers.
These are just some of the things you can do to keep your operating costs down. Take a good look at your business, analyze your expenses and try to optimize your spending. Remember that cutting costs is not a one-time thing. As your business grows and market conditions change, so will your expenses. Therefore you need to always be on the lookout for new money saving opportunities.
