Business costs tend to eat up the profitability of businesses like nothing else. Businesses have to pay for everything, from insurance costs to employee wages. And that means that at the end of the month, every dollar counts.
Everybody in business is looking for ways to save on costs and run their business on the cheap. But doing so is easier said than done. Running a business for peanuts, and staying in business at the same time is tough. The secret to success is to be creative. Here are X ways you can run your business on the cheap while still staying profitable.
Buy Used Equipment
There’s no need for most businesses to have the latest and greatest equipment. Second hand will do just fine in most circumstances. It’s just a question of knowing where to look. Resources like www.used-scales.com are a great place to start if you’re in the logistics business. But any company, whether in the food business or elsewhere, can benefit from knock-off prices.
Use Trial Software
The software industry is a competitive place. Companies will do a lot to entice you to use their products. And often, they’ll offer their products for free for a limited period of time. This is an opportunity for the savvy entrepreneur. Take the software company up on their offer and trial their product. Usually, trials last anywhere from one to six months. That’s plenty of time for you to work out whether or not it makes you more productive. If it does, by all means pay the full subscription: it’s allowing you to do more business. But if it’s not worth it, you can just leave it, without having wasted any money.
Ditch The Office
Most businesses don’t actually need a central office anymore. Not with things like the cloud and distributed computing. And that’s excellent news for businesses who just want to do things on the cheap. First of all, cloud computing actually makes your business a lot more flexible. You don’t have to employ people in any one particular town. You can pull people from all over the country, if not the world. And secondly, it obviates the need for an office, which saves you a lot of money.
Of course, you may still need formal meeting rooms to meet with clients or hold board meetings. But these can be rented on an as-needed basis. There’s no reason to pay for an expensive office if that is all you need it for.
Don’t Bother With Business Services
Business services are notoriously expensive. Take business phone contracts, for example. These offer very little extra over the equivalent consumer services. And yet they can cost up to twice as much. Savvy business owners need to look at their service costs and ask themselves whether they’re actually getting value. If not, then it might be time to switch back over to regular, consumer services, if possible.
Leverage Social Networks
Most firms start off believing that they have to spend a fortune on marketing. But thanks to social networks, like facebook.com, this is no longer the case. Yes, Facebook has finally cottoned on to the fact that businesses use its services. But going the social media route is still much cheaper than the conventional alternatives.
