If increasing day-to-day operating costs are stressing you out, it’s time to look for ways to reduce your operating costs, one at a time.
Here are five ways you can save money and other valuable resources, including your employees’ time, while still running your business the way it should be.
Reduce your electricity consumption
Even for a small organization, monthly electricity bills can be high if you don’t implement policies that encourage the legal use of electricity.
The best way to do this is to let your employees know that this is an action aimed at lowering the company’s electricity bill and doing their bit for the environment. Encourage your staff to participate in cost-cutting strategies and consider rewarding them with a celebration when savings targets are met.
This way your workforce will feel more involved in the overall program and you’ll rarely see a light go on in an empty room.
Digital marketing outsourcing
You may find it hard to believe, but hiring an experienced digital agency to handle your online marketing campaigns can turn out to be a lot cheaper than having several (or more) full-time employees and burdening them with the complex task of managing multiple online marketing tools, which may or may not have expertise to handle it.
So keep track of your marketing spend and consider whether outsourcing this specialist work to a professional digital agency will give you greater ROI as well as improve the performance of your digital campaigns.
Introduce telecommuting to your organization
Telecommuting, or remote work, is the best way for modern companies to save on administration costs. If every employee works from home only once a week, the employer not only saves on electricity but also other unavoidable costs that are part and parcel of having people working in office buildings.
The option of working from home also boosts employee morale and makes people more productive. While not all work in organizations can be done remotely, most work can be brought home, and changing times have required changes in how organizations view work and employee engagement.
Reduce the number of meetings in half
Take a closer look at all the meetings that you or other senior executives attend in your organization in a week, and you may be surprised to find that many of them meeting can be shortened to half the time they consume—if not eliminated entirely. Publish strict meeting guidelines and establish a culture where managers meet only when absolutely necessary.
Huddling together over trifles not only disrupts your workflow, it takes up your resources, including yours and your employees’ time, which if spared could be used to move your business forward.
So, redefine what productive meetings mean to your company to reduce unnecessary and redundant operational costs.
Reduce your printing expenses
Even though businesses are going digital globally, organizations still print large volumes of documents every day and incur huge costs for printing, from buying paper and cartridges to repairing and maintaining printing devices and printing document storage.
Printing and related expenses are an important part of your operating costs, which can be reduced if you manage your printing process better. One way to do this is to establish new printing practices that will help save paper and ink as well as power and maintenance costs. Another way is to outsource your printing and document management needs to an agency that specializes in managing print services for businesses.
If you need more convincing, we found a few Great information on printing costs for businesses which will help change your perception of these rather large expenses that are eating up your cash flow without you knowing it.
In short, in addition to the five cost-saving strategies above, there are a number of other ways to reduce your business expenses and use those savings to grow and expand your business. Invite your workforce to brainstorm, take ownership, and figure out ways to gradually lower expenses in each process.
From something as trivial as switching your toilet paper dealer for a wholesaler to larger actions like swapping CFL bulbs for LED bulbs, every corner of your office will give you something to ponder—if you take the time. You not only save money but also reduce your organization’s carbon footprint.
