Finance
5 Ways Your Business Can Slash Expenses Now

When you feel the time has come to slash business expenses to reduce overheads, then there are plenty of different approaches to achieve this goal. Needless to say, when there’s been too little attention on spending less up until now, they’ll be greater opportunities for savings. However, don’t despair – there are always a few ways to make it happen.
Here are five ways that your business can save money.
1. Purchase Recycled Office Furniture
Whether you’re wanting to replace tired desks or chairs that are now proving unstable or a new office is being equipped, it’s necessary to set the office up with what the staff needs.
While companies often only look at buying new furnishings, there is another option, and that’s used office furniture, including workstations, chairs, desks, tables. Near new workstations, for example, are a good purchase for startups with a limited budget. With more than half of all new businesses going to the wall every year, many of these companies sell off their office equipment and chattels making it a far more affordable option for businesses keen to improve their carbon footprint. Used office furniture from reputable suppliers is high-quality and often comes with a warranty.
2. Optimise the Marketing Plan
Instead of marketing across many different channels and seeing varying results with each one, try narrowing the marketing strategy down. Examine the results to determine which channels and marketing campaigns have delivered the most customers at the lowest customer acquisition cost. In case that’s unclear, the customer acquisition cost is based on the average amount that it was necessary to spend to secure one new customer.
Once you know this information, it’s possible to tweak advertising plans to only spend on the most profitable campaigns from a customer acquisition standpoint. This optimises the current marketing approach to reduce the total marketing spend while delivering the same results.
3. Reduce Recruitment Costs
Look for ideas that will cut down on recruitment costs.
For instance, ask existing outperforming staff for a recommendation of a friend or colleague who might be interested in joining the company. Also, see if there’s anyone that you’ve been impressed with who could be invited to come on board.
When you’re using recruitment consultants, get the best deal in terms of what they charge. Check around on different job boards for the industry and other alternatives. See if you can do some of the recruitment work in-house to avoid the often-extortionate recruitment fees by putting in a bit of legwork.
4. Improve Systems and Limit Staff Meetings
Most workers aren’t that productive. Repeatedly, research has shown that office workers tend to grind for half the day and lose the other half to inefficient processes and procedures, overly long meetings, excessive breaktimes, gossiping, using social media and the internet, and more.
Breakdown each role so that there are systems and processes to follow. Remove all redundant steps to cut out the time-wasting elements. Also, have the staff members suggest better ways to get their work done, which often results in time savings there too. With meetings, go in with a plan, stick to it, set a time limit on the meeting, and get everyone back to work right after.
5. Be Greener
Use green technologies and ideas to save money on energy expenses.
Look at everything from energy-efficient light bulbs, dropping PCs down from performance modes to lower energy ones, and turn off what’s not being used all the time. Ask the staff for their suggestions on other ways that the company can be greener – employees often have amazing ideas in this area that can be implemented quickly.
There are a good many ways to save money as a business. Thankfully, it doesn’t mean it’s necessary to operate like a Scrooge either.