Running a tight ship is more important than ever for business leaders, but recent events have made it much more difficult to pull off. For companies working out of the office, it can be difficult to know exactly where your money is going and what you can do to save it.
As an entrepreneur, you need ways to balance your budget quickly and remotely — the future of your business might well depend on it. Here’s what you can start doing today.
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1. Implement A Purchasing Strategy
When you procure goods for your business, how much thought do you put into it? How far ahead are you looking? How many different vendors have you contacted? Every business leader should be able to answer these questions easily, but those without a proper purchasing strategy may find them difficult.
Every product your company regularly purchases should have its price and distribution optimized before you order it. The world is full of distributors waiting to connect you with the goods you need, so leverage that into sustainable pricing. Implement these strategies in the long term, and you’ll be saving your company significant amounts of cash.
2. Have Better Meetings
Poorly run meetings cost the U.S. economy nearly $400 billion last year, yet few businesses are doing anything to fix it. Bad meetings waste employee time and fail to properly achieve their goals, but just a few tweaks can make all the difference, done correctly.
The first step to holding better meetings is only having one when it’s absolutely necessary. Zoom meetings in particular can be slow, draining, and easy to disengage from — meaning they should be called as infrequently as possible. Incorporating visual aids can also be a big bonus, giving attendees something to call back to once the meeting is over.
3. Analyze Expenses
Business expenses can feel like a necessary part of your balance sheet, but that doesn’t mean that they’re created equally. Companies looking to save money need to cast a critical eye on every dollar they spend in order to ensure nothing is being wasted.
Performing an expense account analysis can be tricky for the uninitiated, but it’s necessary to do all the same. The current drop in overhead and travel-related payments makes this a particularly good time to do this, allowing you to look for any wasteful patterns among your expenses and quash all redundant or superfluous spending along the way.
4. Optimize Your Freelance Pool
Labor costs can make or break a small company, so being as careful as possible in the hiring process is crucial. New full-time employees can cost their business more than 200% of their annual salary, so companies that are just getting off the ground might want to look toward the freelance pool instead.
Try to strike the perfect balance between cost-effectiveness, capability, and reliability when hiring freelancers. Recent events have caused a surge in people looking for freelance work, so you’ll have more options than ever to choose from — just make sure to decide wisely.
5. Align Calendars
Time is money, and there’s no bigger waste of time in business than scheduling problems. Just setting up a meeting can require hours of email back-and-forths to see who’s available when. If you want to run your business efficiently, you need to start using your calendars effectively.
Bring your entire team on a calendar sharing platform that allows people to see others’ schedules at a glance. This allows meetings large and small to be scheduled instantaneously, ensuring that your employees have more time to actually do their work and add value to your company.
6. Do Your Own Marketing
Between slow turnarounds and cumbersome costs, is it any wonder that 30% of marketers are dissatisfied with the current agency model? As a young business, outside firms can sometimes feel like the only hope you have for getting your name out there, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Have your designer make a couple of banner ads, or get some employees to write blog posts about what your business’s mission statement means to them. Engaging in some DIY advertising early on can save you money when you need it most while still promoting your brand in the right way.
Firms the world over are currently running tighter margins than ever before, but the right saving strategies can help give you a little extra breathing room. Focus on the savings you can achieve for your business right now: Any money you can save today could come in handy tomorrow. Every dollar saved is a dollar you’re investing in your business’s future, so save like your company depends on it — it just well might.
If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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