Saving money on unnecessary expenses is crucial for small businesses to maximise profit and manage cash flow effectively. We’ve put together a list of tips to help small businesses save money.
Remote Working
Office space is a key cost for any company, rent and bills can be high as well as office furniture, equipment and so on. Where possible allowing working from home will enable a business to cut down on office size and the equipment needed. Some businesses might even be able to run their operations without the need for any commercial space, especially during the start-up stages. Keeping business premises costs to a minimum can save businesses thousands of pounds, the use of remote working software and technology is now prevalent in most business settings. Not only does remote working allow a business to save on office space it also opens up more talent to the business as the employees don’t need to be located within a commuting distance to the business premises. It is always good to have regular meetings with employees when remote working is in place, this can be done through online video chat solutions or a regular hiring of an office space for a short period of time each week or month.
Cut Advertising Costs
Advertising costs can build up especially when considering traditional advertising media such as TV, radio and outdoor billboards etc. These types of advertising methods are out of scope for the majority of small businesses. Digital advertising can be much cheaper, but costs can still add up when advertising on Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. To minimise the need to advertise we recommend investing time in building organic content on social media and learning to optimise your website using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Although these methods of advertising do take longer to build up and show results, they are much cheaper to implement and take time as opposed to investment in media spend. Asking loyal and happy customers to review and share content on social media can be just as powerful as advertising especially when it comes to smaller local businesses.
Become Paper-Free
Printing is by enlarge unnecessary in most businesses, where possible we recommend using email and other digital platforms to store and distribute documentation. By removing the need to print, post documents and store paper copies you can save costs on printers, paper, storage, postage and so on. Not only will you be saving costs by becoming paper free, but you will be helping the environment by cutting down on the amount of paper used in your business. To encourage employees not to print we recommend implementing policies and rewards.
Use Fuel Cards
Businesses that have any form of travelling cost associated with the running of the business or even as a small cost from employee expenses should consider a fuel card. Fuel cards such as fuelGenie allow businesses to save money on fuel expenses by directing drivers to supermarket petrol stations, this saves the business on average 3p* per litre on fuel. Not only does fuelGenie save businesses money on the fuel they purchase but it allows businesses to save money by reducing the time spent on expense claims and VAT reclaim. fuelGenie has an online account area which allows customers to manage their account at any time, here customers can see what has been spent on fuel and where. The fuel expenses are also collated into a single HRMC approved invoice which makes VAT reclaim easy. For more information on how fuel cards can benefit your business take a look at the complete fuel card guide.
