When you’re running a business, you always want to balance a fine line between keeping your costs low and making sure that you’re investing in the resources that your operations need to be their most productive and efficient. There are extra business costs that are going to be worth the expense. However, there are also ways in which you might be paying more for your essentials than you could or should be. Here, we’re going to look at ways to save on essential costs without depriving your business of the resources that it needs.
From your energy to your internet, your utilities are going to be a cost that you naturally can’t afford to run the business without. However, that doesn’t mean you have to be beholden to whatever costs your bills show you. Instead, you can make sure that you’re avoiding unnecessarily expensive contracts. The best way to start is by collecting bills to make sure that you’re tracking, over time, how quickly they are rising. Then, you can compare different utility providers to see who offers the best deal. You should also get in touch directly with each supplier that meets your needs to negotiate and see if you can cut a better deal with them.
Every business is going to need insurance. The vast majority of business owners can’t do without liability insurance, at the very least. However, much like utilities, as mentioned above, the insurance costs can change on annual business. You should take the time to evaluate both your insurance needs and how much you’re currently paying. You might be paying more insurance than you should be, thus you can save on this essential service. Working with a business insurance agent could help you find different coverage offers to make sure that you’re getting the protection that you need but, sometimes, for thousands of pounds less.
It’s not just your utility and service providers that you should be taking a second look at. Every business has suppliers, whether they’re supplying materials for the products you make or even something as simple as the office suppliers that your team uses day in and day out. You should look at reducing your supply expenses by not only talking to new providers but by cutting a deal with current suppliers. Suppliers should be willing to offer discounts for the reliability of your continued custom. A long-term customer is worth offering a good deal to, so if you can’t secure a deal from yours, then it might be time to look at someone who will appreciate your support over the years.
When it comes to getting tech on a contract, you should always be mindful of how you handle it when the contract expires. If you’re using mobile technology such as smartphones or tablets, then your contract provider might have given you the device rolled up alongside the bills for its usage, allowing you to save some money. However, when that contract is over, you shouldn’t necessarily make the jump to get a new device as well. Instead, you can make the switch to arrangements like best SIM only deals. There’s a good chance that, if you want to buy new devices, you will be able to get them at a better price for cash in the future.
There are some cases where you want to make sure that you’re getting top-class software that can get the job done. For any of your own objective-critical software, shelling out makes sense. The same goes for things like HR and accounting software if you have to use them a lot. However, for other types of software, such as your basic office suites, you can save a lot of money by looking for open-source choices rather than paying. There are some really great free word processing and spreadsheet management software options out there for those who don’t necessarily want to pay. The Google Office Suite even offers online access if you’re trying to migrate everything to the Cloud.
If you have been busy stripping away all of the nonessential costs from the business, then you shouldn’t be trying to go and strip away the rest, as well. There’s a good chance that you have slimmed down as much as you can. Now, instead, it might be time to look at where you can consolidate your costs to get a better deal. For instance, if you’re making use of software as a service provider, then you might be able to get a better deal if, for instance, you get a package of accounting software and HR software from the same provider, rather than getting them both from different providers. The same goes for the insurance costs that we were talking about above. Usually, getting bundled insurance from one provider is cheaper than getting different policies from disparate providers.
When you’re out and about, be it on business meetings, attending conferences, winning clients over or otherwise, then you’re going to ensure that you make good use of your expense account. To that end, you should ensure that you’re keeping track of those expenses. This can be easily done, of course, with an expense tracking app. Every time you spend something, you can scan the receipt or input it manually. This way, you can quickly see not only how your own expenses add up but also if any employees might be relying on them a little too much when they’re out and about.
A lot of businesses will make use of a credit card, not only because it makes it easy to transfer access to the aforementioned business account from one person to another, but also because it can help you manage expenses and pay them to offer more reliably over a longer period of time, rather than always having to buy things straight-up. Of course, if that is the case, then you need to carefully interrogate not just how you use your business credit card but also who you get it from. The interest rate might be the most crucial element to inspect, but you should look at the overall APR as well as the economic value of any of the benefits of using the card and how much those benefits apply to the specific ways in which you use it.
While you might have the most to gain from doing so, managing the expenses of the business should not always fall directly and solely to you, the owner of the business. For one, you’re not as likely to see some of the paths to cost-cutting as well as the members of your team who work more closely with the resources that you’re paying for in the first place. Put incentives in place to encourage your team to recommend any cost-cutting methods that they have in place. Rewards, even financial ones, tend to cost much less than you’re likely to save on essential cost-cutting measures. Just make sure that you keep them proportional.
If you’re looking to save on essential internal employment costs, then outsourcing some of the business processes is a good way to do that. However, even outsourcing can become expensive, especially if you have to rely on it over the long term. To that end, you might be able to get good results on some of the services you are outsourcing by moving them to the freelancer market. There are plenty of freelancing websites where you can find much less expensive access to specialists for one-time jobs. For ongoing needs, then you should treat it like a supplier relationship and negotiate to offer a service provider the opportunity to secure your business for the foreseeable.
Office costs can be some of the highest among your current bills, making it a great essential to save on. A lot of employers are worried about remote working because they don’t want to be paying rent on office space that they’re not making use of. However, what if you can simply accept that you’re not going to be renting as much office space? If your lease is coming up for renewal, then it might be time to look at downsizing the office and making the move to a remote working setup. Of course, you need to invest in remote working to make sure that you can get it to work well for your business, but the cost of things like communication software is likely to be nowhere near as much as you pay for office space.
With the tips above, you should be able to save on essential business needs while ensuring that you’re keeping it running at its best. It can be a fine balancing act, but it’s important to find that balance.
