As a small business owner, you know every dollar counts. Therefore, it is vital to remain profitable and keep your business afloat during these tough economic times. While many entrepreneurs focus on increasing revenue to grow their business, lowering expenses is equally essential when maintaining profitability.

Although cutting business expenses can sometimes lead to making some tough choices, it doesn't have to be a painful process. Many business owners find that after taking a good look at their expenses, there are a bunch of cost savings readily available within their business that they were unaware of. Although there are many ways to lower your costs, these seven strategies outlined here will give you a strong starting point.

Consider a remote workforce

Remote work has become more and more popular over the last two years, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic. Although having a remote workforce was initially implemented due to the necessity for social distancing, there are many advantages of having a remote workforce.

With a remote workforce, you have access to a greater talent pool and are no longer constrained to hiring individuals within your geographic location. With a remote workforce, your employees save time and money commuting, and with this extra time, they can get more done for your business. Since employees will be commuting less, going remote will also allow you to downsize your current office space.

With smaller office spaces, you get many added benefits like fewer parking spots and cheaper rent. Not to mention, you get to reduce your carbon footprint by having your team be able to work from the comfort of their home.

Use cash back credit cards

All businesses have a card of some sort that they make purchases on. But as a small business owner looking to save money, you need to make sure that the card you're using gives you the maximum amount of benefit for your business. For example, with the right type of cash back credit card, you can earn up to 1 to 5% of the things you buy for your business.

Take a look at your spending. If you're like a traditional business and most of your expenses are for office supplies, gas, or transportation, consider a card with bonus programs in place for those areas. On the other hand, if you find that your spending is broader, you may opt for a card that pays the same percentage on all purchases.

Reduce your cash conversion cycle

Your cash conversion cycle (CCC) is a metric that shows the number of days it takes for your business to convert inventory into cash. To calculate your CCC, you can use the formula: DIO + DSO - DPO. In this formula, DIO stands for days inventory outstanding, DSO stands for days sales outstanding, and DPO stands for days payable outstanding.

An easy way to understand this formula is to look at DIO and DSO as cash inflows and DPO as a cash outflow. As a business owner, you always want to strive to make sure that your business can get paid before paying its expenses.

That is why it is in your best interest to have as low a cash conversion cycle as possible. The lower your cash conversion cycle, the longer you can wait to pay your suppliers. If you have a negative cash conversion cycle, that means the number of days it takes to collect your accounts receivable is less than the number of days it takes to pay your invoices. In other words, you can sell your inventory and get paid for it before you have to pay for that inventory.

So, when negotiating contracts with your vendors, see how long you can extend your days payable outstanding. Conversely, with your buyers, see if you can push them to pay you as soon as the sale occurs.

You can easily keep track of all your payments with QuickBooks invoicing software. QuickBooks software sends reminders to your customers, alerting them when payment is due and notifying you as soon as a customer views and pays their invoice.

Automate where you can

Many business functions can be streamlined using low-cost software programs. These programs can cover everything from operations, to logistics, to website hosting, and even payroll. Many of these programs cost less than an employee and can work even faster.

When figuring out which programs you should be focusing on, you should first understand what you do best for your business. For example, if you have a supply chain background, you might want to automate your finances instead of your operations.

Another good way to figure out what you should be automating is finding out what you spend an excessive amount of time on each week. Once you figure this out, it'll be easy to understand what should be getting automated and what you should handle manually.

Use guerilla marketing techniques

Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional and low-cost marketing strategy that is designed to achieve maximum exposure for your brand. Some examples of guerrilla marketing are publicity stunts, viral videos, flash mobs, stickers, and more.

Guerrilla marketing has gained in popularity over the years because it eliminates the expensive old-school marketing tactics and instead focuses on more creative ideas.

Getting TV ads, placements in prominent publications, and running brand awareness campaigns is financially challenging for a small business owner. However, with guerilla marketing, you can use low-cost growth hacking strategies like gamification, freemium models, and influencer giveaways to get new customers.

Go green

Going green isn't only good for the environment; it's also good as a cost-cutting strategy. For instance, if you use office space, replace your regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights. If you find that you're spending a lot of money on heating and cooling, try to lower that bill by installing insulation for your windows and doors. Although some of these strategies have a high upfront cost, you will see cost savings realized over the long run.

Outsource

As a small business owner, you will find that it will be much cheaper to outsource specific business tasks than to hire an employee. This becomes especially true when a part-time worker can handle the job or if it'll only need to occur during specific periods. Some great things to outsource would be functions like payroll, accounting, IT management, and customer service. You can find freelancers to handle these aspects of your business on freelance websites like Upwork and Fiverr.

Find out more tips about small business success on Marcus Cook's blog, The Success Bug