From changing up your suppliers to economising in the quieter months, and investing in time-saving technologies – sometimes it pays to scrimp and save. As important as it is to maintain consistent sales, it’s equally important to monitor your expenses. Here are a few cost-cutting ideas for your small business.
1. Work with the seasons
Most businesses have times of the year that are busier than others. Get to know your peaks and troughs, and adjust accordingly. If you run a beach-side kiosk, for example, you’re more likely to be busier through the warmer months, so use the cooler months to make some savings. Introduce shorter trading hours and save on staff wages, utilities, and overheads.
2. Review your suppliers
It’s easy when you’re busy managing a small business to set and forget your suppliers and service providers. Take the time to regularly review the plans and policies of your telecommunications, electricity, insurance, and other vendors to see how they compare to what else is on the market. Make it part of your annual strategic plan to ensure you’re always getting the best deals.
3. Embrace technology
Make better use of your time by introducing time-saving technologies that help to streamline key business functions. We’re fans of QuickBooks Online app partners:
Kounta: This cloud-based point of sale (POS) system gives you greater visibility over your inventory and waste to help you make smarter business decisions.
Deputy: A workforce management system, Deputy’s intelligent rostering system helps you identify seasonal factors, such as POS data and weather reports, that might impact your sales, so you can adjust your roster accordingly.
Expensify: Record every expense and track every kilometre so you don’t miss a single tax deduction with Expensify.
4. Monitor your marketing spend
There’s no doubt that marketing is important to promote your business. In saying that, the money you spend on marketing should bring a reasonable return on investment. Review your marketing channels and see what’s worth your outlay. It’s worthwhile exploring cost-effective ways to market your business, like refreshing your website, email marketing, creating a free Google My Business listing. If your business doesn’t account for any marketing spend at all, focus on word-of-mouth marketing.
5. Make productivity a focus
Talk to your team about how you can help them be more productive. For example, you might consider allowing staff to work remotely one day a week if this will improve their productivity. With apps like TSheets you can track mobile and remote employees’ time, and it will give you insights into their productivity.
6. Audit your outgoings
Conduct an audit of your outgoings across the business to see where you can cut back on unnecessary expenditure. This could highlight excesses in employee hours and overtime, supplier costs, and overlooked expenses, such as subscriptions and memberships. Managing your costs should be an ongoing part of running your small business, but when you need to make some quick cuts, a thorough investigation of how your business operates – and the capital you need to do so – could help you scrape back the cash.