The world isn’t likely to end this year, but we can’t get around the fact that the world economy and financial system continues to be in a dreary place. Spending reductions, a pitiful job market, high cost of living and interest rates means life in the UK is not at its ideal peak performance level. It is a bit of a slog. But that isn’t to say that we should throw in the towel and give into our fates, accepting apocalyptic financial doom and business failure as a matter of course.
2012 is a year to gain financial traction, to save where you can, and learn how to function better as a business without excess expenditures. The key here is enabling your business to run smoothly and effectively on a tighter budget. Now don’t go thinking you need to cut staff or reduce wages. That’s just scare mongering and there are many things you can do to cut costs without cutting your team. Before delving into bottom-of-the-barrel extreme last resort measures to save your finances and keep your business head above water, keep in mind that there are many great things you can do to reduce costs that don’t involve letting go of valuable employees.
Here are 5 cost saving techniques to keep your business charging forward in 2012:
1. Move Out of the Big City: Yes, moving offices can be expensive, but likewise staying put in a high rent area when rental prices are skyrocketing alongside gas, electric and hydro costs, can be incredibly draining on your company’s budget. Monthly costs for renting and running an office are rising, especially for central London offices. If you’re worried about keeping that great address, mail forwarding services are a great affordable solution which lets you keep your address but work from wherever you like, or wherever is most affordable for your business.
2. Put the Break on Commuting: This ties in with the first one, but commuting is expensive, stressful, and tiring. Additionally, rail costs have just gone up by a whopping 11% and petrol prices remain high. Now is a good time to avoid commuting as much as possible. Working from home or incorporating flexible work practices to cut travel, including virtual offices and meeting room hires are just a few ways to help you ease into this. Imagine how much you could save simply by staying away from the morning commute. Imagine how much more relaxed you’ll be too without crowded trains, delays, cancellations and/or honking horns and traffic jams.
3. Unplug and Switch Off (whenever possible): Ever heard of “vampire power”? When you leave appliances, laptops, computers, printers, etc turned on over night, your office is literally being drained of costly energy. This can contribute to higher electricity bills and it’s also bad for the environment. If you’re not in a room turn the light off (installing motion detector lights can be useful for this, especially in offices). Make sure you shut computers down as much of your technical equipment as possible before leaving the office. Anything you can do to reduce the vampire power effect will reduce your monthly electricity bill.
4. Embrace the Cloud and all its wonder: Cloud computing is a great way to reduce the high costs of server hardware purchasing and running. It also doesn’t require a central office somewhere to house it all. A cloud server frees you up to work from anywhere and can help enable greater flexibility for your business. Look into it!
5. Make Talk Cheaper: Outsourcing your telephone answering can result not only in greater ability to handle a wide variety and greater volume of calls regardless of the size of your business or your opening hours but it also frees you up to spend time focusing on your business itself
