Ways Small Businesses Can Save Money: Experts Weigh In

Being frugal is good, but in reality if saving money is your primary focus it’s going to hurt your business. Savvy companies should be thinking about growing sales during tough times. They should analyze where the best sales opportunities are and channel resources in that direction. They should look at ways they can grow their existing customer base. They should turn their website into an inbound marketing hub to attract more prospects. 

None of these activities cost a lot of money, but they keep the company moving forward despite the tough economic times.

Measure everything! Measure the productivity of your people, review systems and processes regularly. Are they improving your business or holding it back? Only measurement will tell you.

Stop looking for answers outside the company and use the brain trust of the employees more effectively. Hold regular meetings to let the team brainstorm ideas on how to streamline efforts and bring in more business. When you have their full buy-in, they will work harder for you, thus saving you time and money.

It’s about working smart not hard nowadays. The recession has highlighted the “fat” that many companies have been carrying. Look at your processes, staffing and systems and see if you can outsource any of the work that doesn’t add value. Focus on the important stuff and revenue generating activities and anything that does not fall into that sphere must be looked at and optimized for efficiency or cost savings

The businesses I work with all seem to be overlooking their greatest opportunity — the people who are already doing business with them. It’s fairly typical that we ignore the folks who already love what we’re doing and go chasing after the folks who are ignoring us. It’s more time and cost efficient and a stronger strategy to have an open conversation with the people who are already helping us grow to ask them 

• What would like more of?
• What would like less of?
• How can we make it easy for you to share what we’re doing?

We often work hard on products and services that our best customers don’t really care about. At the same time, we’re also shy about inviting our best customers to refer us.

I would say sell more to Up Your Bottom Line. Position yourself as an expert in the marketplace and have buyers seeking you out.

Think before you act. May sound simple but it is really easy to get involved with “opportunities” that are only good for the person selling to you! Set your budgets and stick to them. Really consider what you need and then take the time to research the possible solutions to your own needs. When it comes to needing people consider outsourcing. The new business model is looking more and more like a wheel. You are the hub and service providers are the spokes. Keeping staffing low (or non-existent) will help you contain costs. Just be sure you have clearly defined expectations and you monitor them constantly.

Manage every aspect of the business for higher productivity.

Small business owners need to review every single bill that comes in and read every entry on the bill. Is each service necessary? Are you getting the service or ROI you expected for each associated fee? May anything be replaced by a similar service at lower cost or released because it isn’t working? Whenever a request to join in on something, whatever the case may be, give considerable thought as to possible future expense involved, the possible reward, and whether it will produce an ROI or whether the opportunity is actually opportunistic for the other party. Lastly, I have found many female entrepreneurs feel guilt or obligation to move forward. The better approach is to use analytics weighing time and cost before jumping into a new “opportunity”. Lastly, your intuition will let you know first whether the expense is justified. In short, use all of your senses and scrutinize every activity!

Hold a company meeting and begin to solicit ideas, then create a month long theme and focus within your company where people can submit their ideas to you. Let them estimate the savings to the company and award several prizes for the best ideas.

Plan more and plan better.

SMBs, business owners, entrepreneurs and sales professionals should stop conducting initial face- to-face first call meeting with prospects and do more online meetings. If you do this, you can conduct more first call meetings and connect with more people by embracing the web. By utilizing a web conferencing tool, your prospects share their desktop, materials, and anything else to help you understand the prospect and problem. Also, it allows you to share information, knowledge, a presentation and possible solution without spending a lot of money upfront. It really makes the sales process more productive and efficient. It’s great! 

Likewise, you can conduct an online networking session. Networking can be a costly activity and very time-intensive without guaranteed results. It is important to focus on sales generating activities. Why not use the web to make more connections? The technology is there. Why not use it? Last year, my company made 1,062 connections and over 1,470 this year. And, since it’s virtual, it is all done without spending a single dollar on gas. This significantly impacts the bottom-line for any company that embraces the web.

Using technology is one of the best ways to save money in a small business. Technology is changing the small business landscape, and not only can using technology help small businesses save money, but it can help them use what they have to do even more. With the right low-cost technology solutions, small business owners can create more products and services, reach more potential clients, and serve their customers better than ever before — all at a reduced cost.

Looking at each expense, and understanding how it ties back to driving revenue for your business. Don’t randomly cut expenses, rather prioritize spending around those activities that drive lead generation and opportunities back to your business.