Whether you’re a startup or a company with solid experience on the market, running your business on the Internet or its “brick and mortar”, you wouldn't mind saving some money, would you? For some companies on the shoestring budget reducing expenses is the necessary condition to keep afloat.
Contrary popular beliefs, you can save money without sacrificing the quality of products/services and dismissing most of the staff.
Below, you’ll find the recommendations on optimizing expenses and finding ways of saving money by using more effective methods in doing your work. Insignificant as they may seem, in total they can result in quite perceptive changes in your budget.
1. Add promotional materials to the package
Make use of all opportunities to insert your fliers, advertising leaflets, coupon codes, gift certificates etc into the packaging when you’re sending an order etc. This helps save resources on mailing these materials separately.
2. Get new prospects at no cost
Ask your friends and acquaintances to share the information about your services or products with the people who might be interested in them. It costs you nothing and can bring good results.
3. Use clients as marketers
Ask your customers to share the info about their purchase/visit/being served in your company through social media or via distributing your cards/fliers etc. You can encourage them with a small discount or gift, it will still be worth the money, since the personal recommendations work very well to gain new customers.
4. Become a known expert in your field
You can gain valuable attention by sharing your expertise in the resources where your target audience can be found – blogs, videos, Q&A websites, webinars etc. You won’t earn money, but increased popularity will be the best reward.
5. Search your prospects on the Internet
Use search engines to find the forums and user groups relevant to your field. Leave your messages in the threads where the info may be helpful. Make sure you don’t sound too promotional, but do include the link to your website in the signature.
6. Ensure maximum visibility
Insert your website/store/office address wherever applicable – in your letterheads, email signatures, company vehicles, packages, uniform etc.
7. Buy used office furniture and equipment
There are lots of sites where you can choose decent goods for your office at half the price.
8. Cut down on software spendings
You can avoid high software costs if you use special resources where different types of software is available for free. These include trial and limited versions, as well as some totally free software that you can use instead of the traditional paid tools.
9. Use freelancers’ work
This lets save on new hires and involve freelancers only when the volumes of work go up. Moreover, you usually don’t have to pay taxes for remote employees’ work.
10. Hire interns
You can save money by getting employees who are willing to get experience and ready to work for a lower salary or agree to work for free just to get a recomendation.
11. Learn new skills
If you’re using hired help to do certain chores, consider taking some training to be able to do it yourself. Sending newsletters, writing press releases or blog news isn’t a rocket science, you know, yet the savings will be well felt.
12. Use time tracking software
The tool like Yaware.TimeTracker monitors the work of your employees and helps you find out the most productive ones and those needing extra motivation, discover workload issues that lead to failed deadlines and dissatisfied clients. It also helps track how much time at work is wasted for unproductive activities like online shopping, social networks, games, coffee breaks etc. As a result, you’ll take the distractions under control and will pay only for the productive work time. By the way, it is an excellent means of boosting employee productivity by 15-20% on average.
Conclusion
Most of these methods of saving money cost you nothing except for your time, and still are good at helping you improve the business finances. As to the time tracking software, it has a lot of benefits apart from being the means to cut down costs. Well, there’s no better way to find them out than using this tool. It is easier than you think – just sign up for Yaware.TimeTracker and get unlimited 14-day access to all of its features for absolutely free.
