When running your small business, bad business decisions and hard economic times are just two examples of how easily your business can run into a financial burden. If you want to stay afloat and in business, it’s important to find ways to alleviate this burden.
A big percentage of small businesses fail due to financial problems. If you are not careful, you risk joining the statistics. The good thing is that you don’t have to overhaul the entire business. A slight reduction in expenses, or an increase in revenue, could be all that you need to get your cash flow numbers out of the red.
That being said, here are five ways to get your business out of the financial burden that it is in.
1. Rethink your marketing methods
If you are using paid advertisements, consider using cheaper alternatives. Some of the methods that you can try include:
· Social media. Find out which social media platforms your target audience frequents and establish your presence. You can use your business pages to share information about your business and connect with your customers.
· Networking. Attend networking events in your industry. Focus on building meaningful connections that can help market your business.
· Turn your employees into brand advocates. Your employees’ word of mouth to friends and family, or sharing about your business on their social media, can be a big boost to your marketing efforts. But you need to sell your vision, show what’s in it for them, and offer incentives, among other steps, to increase engagement.
· Email marketing. Build an emailing list for your customers to deliver more targeted marketing content to their inboxes.
2. Make changes to your business location
Ways of work are changing with the rise of technology. If your business operations can be done remotely, there’s no need to rent office space. However, if you must really have a physical location, consider making some changes. For example, if you are currently working from a huge office, consider moving to a smaller space to save on rent. Create dual purpose areas and combine different business functions in these areas.
Another great idea is to rent a co-working space. You can find shared office spaces in Atlanta, California, New York, and every other city that you are in. This way, you don’t have to invest in building and equipping an office space.
3. Reduce headcount
Are you paying salaries to more people than your business needs? Audit your business operations to determine functions that don’t require full-time employees. For example, consider outsourcing the HR function instead of hiring HR professionals in-house. You can also hire contractors for one-off jobs, such as web designing.
In addition, consider investing in technology. The software can allow you to automate repetitive tasks, as well as those that don’t require human effort. Besides reducing labor hours significantly, automation helps reduce human errors that can sometimes be costly.
4. Go for cost-effective providers
You may be paying more than you need to, as you can possibly find the same services at a cost-effective price. It’s time to compare prices. If you find cheaper options, ask your providers to match those rates. If that proves futile, consider changing providers.
In addition, take a second look at the expenditure to determine if you are paying for what you are getting. For instance, you could be paying for duplicate insurance policies without knowing so. Finally, you don’t have to pay hefty shipping costs if you can find suppliers locally.
5. Focus on quality
Besides looking at ways to reduce expenses, focusing on increasing revenue is also paramount. Keep in mind that quality sells. Focus on improving the quality of your products or services.
Additionally, pay attention to the quality of your customer service. The modern consumer can pay more for a positive experience. Empower your employees with good customer service skills, listen to, and act on, customer feedback, improve your website customer experience, and more.
Great customer service, coupled with quality goods or services, can help increase revenue by creating repeat customers, attracting new ones, and even allowing you to charge more.
Implementing these strategies to grow your business
Ideally, you are in business to make money. If your company is carrying a huge financial burden, it can be hard to achieve your vision. The good thing is that you don’t have to stay in that state for long.
Taking small steps to reduce expenditure and increase revenue is all you need to reduce this burden and increase profits. Consider implementing the above tips for your small business.
