I was just reading an article in Entrepreneur.com by Jonathan Long, Founder, and CEO of Market Domination Media, and thought I’d share his information with you in this post. As business owners, we are needing to look at both income and expenses, and today’s blog focuses on the latter.
There are two ways for your company to make more money. First, you could increase your sales and revenue. Second, you could reduce your expenses.
Increasing sales require a lot of planning, strategy and moving pieces to fall in line, but reducing your company’s expenses is something you can do very easily – all it takes is a little bit of time. Here are the first four suggestions offered by Jonathan Long.
1. Relocate your office to a more affordable area.
Thanks to the power of the Internet, not every business needs to rely on locations with highway access or high-foot traffic in order to be successful. Consider changing your business location to reduce your monthly rent.
2. Convert your phones to a cloud-based system.
This is a tip geared more toward freelancers and solopreneurs, rather than larger businesses, but it’s something that smaller teams can consider as well. You can eliminate the cost of desk phones and high monthly plans by switching to a cloud-based system that routes calls through your mobile phone.
Most consumers would rather communicate through email, social media, live chat and web-forms, rather than pick up a phone. Take a look at your current phone usage, and if it’s minimal consider moving over to a cloud-based option.
3. Audit your monthly subscription billing.
Most businesses are subscribed to many SaaS software applications, yet never use them. You might sign up for a free trial and then forget about it, while it continues to hit your credit card month-after-month. If it’s a small ticket item, the amount might slip by undetected for a long period of time before you realize you’ve been wasting money.
It’s a good idea to audit your business bank statements often, at least quarterly, to see if you can spot any unnecessary spending. Cancelling unused subscription products or services can end up saving several thousands of dollars annually.
4. Turn unused office space into a co-working space.
Do you have some unused office space that’s just collecting dust? Consider subleasing it or turning it into a co-working space. Not only can this help to absorb some of your lease expense, but having more companies in the same space can help spark creativity and can lead to new partnerships and business opportunities.
You will have to check your current lease to see if subleasing is allowed, and you would most likely have to run a co-working proposal by the current landlord to see if it’s even a possibility.
In the next blog, you’ll read the last four suggestions on reducing your current expenses, therefore increasing your profit.
