8 Business Decisions That Can Save More Than Just Money

A healthy bank balance is a godsend during tough times, especially for businesses. It’s difficult to rebound from a cash-draining crisis if you don’t have emergency funds set aside.

But where, in the midst of a pandemic, are you going to find money to sock away? Identifying places to cut your expenses will leave you excess revenue to put into savings. Even better, some of these moves will save you more than money. How does saving your sanity and the planet sound?

If you want to amass a nest egg for your business, take these steps to start saving in more ways than one:

1. Join a Purchasing Consortium

Every company has supply costs, whether it’s aluminum for the production line or paper for the office copier. Fortunately, there are ways to make them more affordable.

To minimize your resource costs, consider joining a group purchasing organization. By combining the purchasing power of their members, GPOs help smaller companies qualify for deep discounts. Beyond saving you money, a GPO can expand your supplier network and take managing procurement relationships off your team’s shoulders.

2. Lean Into Remote Work

Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, much of America’s workforce got a crash course in remote work this year. Even though employees are now returning to offices across the country, think twice before putting your remote work playbook to bed.

Transitioning your team, or at least part of it, to remote work cuts down on a lot of overhead costs. With a smaller in-house team, you won’t need to spend as much on office space, utilities, and break room fixings.

For their part, remote employees save money on transportation and can spend more time with their families. Plus, remote workers can be more productive and less prone to turnover — both of which benefit your culture.

3. Outsource Low-Value Tasks

There’s a key difference between remote work and outsourced work. Remote employees form part of the company organization, often working full-time and dedicating all their attention to their employer. Outsourced work draws upon freelancers and third-party organizations to complete specific tasks and no more.

Outsourcing can be cost-effective when done correctly. Niche tasks that don’t need to be performed very often can be done quickly and efficiently by hiring specialists outside your organization. By taking these out-of-scope tasks off their plates, your employees can focus on doing what they do best.

4. Go Green

Going green means two things here: helping the environment and putting some extra cash in your pocket. When you reduce paper use or install smart thermostats, you’re creating a more efficient company that’s also doing its part to promote the Earth’s longevity.

Environmentally conscious decisions often come with initial costs that scare some businesses away. However, these initial costs tend to pay themselves back multiple fold in the long term.

A cost-cutting strategy that helps to heal the planet is the textbook definition of a win-win. Many consumers today are turning to planet-friendly organizations and will support your efforts. You might even attract a few candidates who appreciate your company’s commitment to the environment.

5. Start a Referral Program

Businesses expend a lot of time and effort attracting new customers. You can cut down on both by starting a referral program.

A referral program incentivizes current customers to promote your products or services to their networks in exchange for a discount, a referral fee, or some other benefit. It’s good for you, and it’s good for your loyalists. And it builds brand awareness with not just your partners, but with their networks.

With customers bringing each other in, you don’t have to spend as much time prospecting. This also means you can run fewer marketing campaigns, which can be expensive and inefficient when targeted poorly. Instead, work on your referral program and concentrate your marketing on the locations you know are effective, such as social media.

6. Hire Interns

The rising generation is hungry for experience and a chance to get their foot in the door. You can provide that opportunity by accepting interns into your organization. This short-term commitment will fill needs in your company and give students a boost to their résumés.

Even if your internships are paying arrangements, you’ll save more than just money. You’ll expand your candidate pool, gain insight into how schools are discussing your domain, and diversify your staff. And who knows? You might even find your next star employee.

7. Hold Fewer, Better Meetings

Meetings are a corporate mainstay for a reason: They provide a time and place for face-to-face communication, an essential factor in business success. However, some managers schedule far more meetings than necessary.

The more frequently you have meetings, the less effective they become. Meetings also cost money, as employees are being kept from any revenue-generating activity when they’re sitting in a conference room or on Zoom.

You can save that money and a lot of time by only holding meetings when they’re truly needed. And you can make the necessary meetings more productive by preparing ahead of time and sticking to a pre-arranged agenda.

8. Give Deadweight the Heave-Ho

Losing clients can really hurt, no matter how terrible they are. In some cases, though, bidding them farewell is actually the best course of action. Letting go of toxic or unprofitable customers gives you bandwidth to pursue new ones that can be of greater benefit to your company.

This is a case of adding by subtracting. The thought of purposefully letting a customer go is a scary one, but it could be the change you need to make to move forward. Once the separation is final, you’ll see that you’re no longer wasting resources tending to a client who does you little good. What could be better?

Saving money is a priority for any company looking to stay in business during rough times. As you help your company cut costs, be sure to note the other savings you accrue along the way. Time, resources, and even improved well-being are all up for grabs.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes