There’s one undeniable fact when it comes to being an entrepreneur: you’re here to make money. Sure, you might be passionate about your products or service, or you want to make people’s lives easier by using what you offer. But making a profit is likely at the core of your business goals.
Fortunately, there are two ways your business can make money: increasing your sales or decreasing your expenses. While the first one can be achieved through a mix of great marketing and consumer behavior, the latter is entirely up to you. That means you have more control over the cost-cutting actions your business can take, and when you cut costs, you end up with a bigger bottom line.
To get you started, here are some cost-saving actions you can immediately enact in the office:
1. Go paperless
Those sheets of paper by the copy machine may look innocuous, but they’re taking thousands of dollars from your company coffers every year. Apart from the cost of buying reams of paper, you also pay for storage cabinets, ink, mail, and other factors. According to data from QLS Solutions Group, the cost of using paper is 13 to 31 times the cost of purchasing it. You can opt for using e-mail to send correspondence or employee payroll or using digital file formats for contracts and other documents. Not only will you save on money used to buy paper, but you also won’t have to deal with storing and organizing them.
2. Buy in bulk
Buying in bulk may cost a lot from the get-go, but you’ll find that you’re reducing costs in the long run. Keep in mind, though, to only bulk-buy the items that your business needs and often uses. If you have an office full of coffee drinkers, it makes sense to buy huge bags of coffee beans, sugar, and creamer. But if, say you’re following the previous tip of going paperless, buying multiple reams of paper may not be ideal.
3. Encourage telecommuting
According to Global Workplace Analytics, around 56 percent of employees in the U.S. have a job that is compatible with partial remote work. However, only 3.6 percent of the workforce was working from home before the coronavirus pandemic. Pandemic aside, remote work or telecommuting is an excellent option for your business. It lessens the costs of operations, such as utilities and office supplies. And with cloud computing technology like Amazon Web Services (AWS), which you can buy at a lower price from an AWS cloud reseller, telecommuting is entirely possible.
4. Automate what you can
Plenty of business processes don’t need to be manually done by an employee. Processes like payroll and data entry are repetitive and can be done by different types of software. Freeing your employees from these tasks allow them to focus on more important matters, making them more productive.
Reducing expenses in your business operations allow you to save money and allocate those savings for more important business expenses. With the cost-cutting methods above, you can successfully reduce costs without compromising the quality of your company’s services.
