Reducing expenses, increasing profits for businesses.

Sometimes, it’s the little things that can make a difference in business. We’ve all heard of the millions that Swan saved by only putting sandpaper on one side of the box, and it’s these small savings that can add up to increasing your firm’s profitability. Here are our top tips on how to bring your overheads down.
Electricity usage – Remember when you were a child and your parents used to tell you to make sure that you turned lights off when you leave a room? There’s a high chance that some of your employees don’t, and it’s costing you money. It might not seem like a lot, but unused machinery and lights in empty rooms can all add up to costing a lot. The cheapest method is educating your staff to make sure lights are off and computers are shut down after use, but if that doesn’t work, then you could always invest in timer switches for the lights and set computers up to shut down after inactivity.

Considered homeworking? – Do you need as many buildings as you have? The lease and rent on premises is often one of the highest costs that your business will have. In the modern world of high speed internet connections, do you actually need all of your team in the office? More and more business are finding that offering homeworking is helping reduce the cost of property. As an added bonus, a worker that doesn’t have to commute will have less outgoings themselves, so new vacancies can often be attractive at lower salaries, cutting your staff costs.

Slashing stationery costs– In every office, there’s a need for stationery. Pens disappear when you’re not looking, and no matter how many times you ask people not to, they still print emails. As your office grows, these demands increase and with is does the cost. Like non-branded food, you can get cheap office stationery which does the exact same job as the fancy branded stuff, just half of the price, helping cust costs in this area.

Why not rent? – It’s a staggeringly large number of companies who own equipment they hardly ever use. If you find some of your equipment gathering dust in the corner of your warehouse, consider renting it instead for the infrequent times that you will need it. You’ll never have to worry about upkeep costs, and you’ll save some storage space to boot.

Communication costs – Many businesses assume that they need to invest in an expensive PBX telephone system and all the upkeep that requires, but do you really need it? With Voice-over-IP services such as Skype, it’s often that case that all you need it some internet connected computers. These services now generally provide real telephone numbers for your customers and suppliers to call, so there’s no need for them to be using the same system as you.

Customer support costs – How many times have you searched a company’s website for hours trying to find an answer to a question before reluctantly calling? If you’ve done it, then you can be certain that your customers have too. Make sure that your website is up to date with the most common customer queries and you won’t need to spend as much on support calls.

Infographic created by Clover Network, a retail POS system provider