Pretty much all businesses exist to turn a profit – to make the most from the least outlay. If you really study your business expenses, it’s quite likely you’ll find areas where you could streamline your operations and, ultimately, achieve far more from much less.
Many firms struggle to identify key areas of loss but, with a little time spent analyzing your processes, you should be able to build a log of loss-making or problematic processes that are causing issues. With enough time and analysis, it should become relatively easy to identify areas where you could potentially save your firm money.
To help you get started, here are some money-saving ideas that could see you reducing your outlay and increasing your profits through 2021.
Instead of hiring full-time, look to employing freelancers
Many useful lessons have been learned through the recent coronavirus – not least of which is that people these days are perfectly happy and able to work from home. With remote-working now common and staff becoming au fait with working online (a trend that is expected to last long after the virus has passed), the chances are your company is already set up and ready to employ remote freelancers.
Working with freelancers can save your firm the considerable expense of employing staff full-time – plus, you can mix and match relevant skills, as and when you need them. A talented freelancer may even bring other new talents or knowledge to your services, allowing you to branch into other sectors.
Ditch your fixed-line telephony and instead move to Voice over IP
Traditional fixed-line phone lines aren’t just unreliable – they’re also expensive, particularly if you work with clients or suppliers in foreign countries. Instead, why not move your entire telephony system onto a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service? VoIP can be encrypted for your protection and also commonly comes bundled with many other useful services such as voicemail to email functions, auto-attendant, find/follow me and call recording, etc. In fact, when you realize just how functional and useful VoIP is, you’ll wonder why you didn’t make the move years ago.
Take advantage of free advertising through innovative social media campaigns
We’ve all heard the term ‘viral’ and if your company can come up with sufficiently engaging, innovative content, you can put yourself on a level playing field with even the biggest companies when it comes to promotion over social media. As with all things online, content is key but the major social platforms offer the perfect vehicle for free, branded advertising.
Benefit from free promotion with vehicle livery
Placing branding on company vehicles is a promotions tactic oft-overlooked by firms but can offer tremendous free advertising, particularly on a local basis. Vehicle livery these days is very cheap with innovative peel-off plastic solutions now available, meaning you won’t affect the resale value of vehicles when you come to change them. Building your brand this way has a similar effect to TV advertising, building familiarity with a company and thereby instilling confidence and trust in your services.
