As a small business owner, it’s imperative you implement as many cost-cutting tips as you can. When margins are slim, you want to do everything you can to reduce costs and increase profitability. If you feel like you’ve already exhausted all options, you might just need to dig a little deeper.
Have you tried these five cost-cutting tips yet?
What might your business look like if you were able to slash the expense side of your balance sheet by 10 percent? What about 15 percent or more?
If you’re like most small business owners, trimming expenses by 10 to 15 percent could mean the difference between white-knuckling your way to the end of the month and having enough margin in the budget to relax and spend more time with family. This isn’t just a financial gain — it’s a lifestyle advantage. That being true, it’s something you’ll want to prioritize.
Implementing cost-cutting tips will look different for every company, business model, and industry. Having said that, there are several powerful steps you can take to start shaving money off your expense sheet. Listed below are five that many small business owners don’t exploit to full advantage.
1. Farm out your time-consuming tasks.
Make a list of the 10 most time-consuming tasks on your daily or weekly to-do list. These are things that absolutely destroy your schedule, such as checking email, sending out quotes, writing content for your blog, or balancing your books.
Once you’ve done this, repeat the following statement out loud: “I am not the only person in the world who is capable of doing this. There is someone who can do this same task for less money, which will free me up to focus on the tasks that do require my involvement.”
Say that three times out loud if necessary, because it’s true! We all tend to feel like we’re the only ones who can do something when we’re actually pretty dispensable. (That’s good news!) Spend some time hiring the right people and then ruthlessly delegate everything you can. Doing so will free up your schedule to be reallocated to revenue-generating activities.
2. Invest in preventative maintenance.
Don’t wait until something breaks down to fix it. One of the best cost-cutting tips is to invest in preventative maintenance today. Doing so will save you time and money in the future. This is especially important if your business owns vehicles or heavy machinery.
Thankfully, there are ways to automate many forms of preventative maintenance. Take a fleet of company vehicles as an example. Fleet maintenance software allows you to develop and execute a comprehensive plan that cuts costs and keeps your vehicles in tip-top shape without having to build out an entire team of people.
3. Join a GPO.
As a small business, you probably aren’t ordering the same large quantities of supplies and materials as big organizations. This means you can’t get the steep discounts that come with big orders.
Or can you?
Spend some time looking into the possibility of joining a group purchasing organization (GPO). These organizations leverage the spending of multiple member companies to achieve lower price levels and better service. You can think of it as pooling your resources with other small businesses so that you can access savings on the items you need.
4. Go green in your office.
If you maintain a corporate office, implementing a green strategy will help save more than our environment — it’ll also save you money. There are dozens of ways to do this, but here are a couple of quick cost-cutting tips:
- Swap out traditional incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient LED bulbs. You could save as much as 75 percent on lighting costs.
- Go paperless! Doing so eliminates the need for printer paper, ink, filing cabinets, and so forth.
Implementing these two tips alone could save you thousands of dollars per year. Best of all, you won’t even feel like you’re sacrificing very much in exchange.
5. Hire a good CPA.
It’s long past time to stop doing your own bookkeeping. Your work might be accurate, but you’re probably not saving your business the sort of money that you could. Hiring a good CPA is a fiscally savvy decision that could potentially save you tens of thousands of dollars in the coming years. Just make sure you carefully interview multiple service providers so that you wind up with someone you can trust.
Ready, Set, Slash Costs
Whether you’re able to slash $400 per month or $4,000 per month, implementing just a few cost-cutting tips can make a real difference. A dollar saved is as good as a dollar earned. And if you’re able to trim away some of the fat, you’ll find that your experience as a business owner is so much more enjoyable. Good luck!
