Are you a manager of a small sales office, or any other micro-enterprise? If you think about optimizing your costs quickly enough, you may save a lot of money on your business activities. We present a short guide on where and how to save money.
“Optimization of costs of enterprise activity” is a term which sounds quite serious. To a certain degree, it is a new incarnation of the time-tested practice of saving money. However, “optimization of costs” is a term which is more neat and capacious. It consists of not only a decrease in expenses per se, but also a careful concern that the quality of offered services and products will not decrease as well.
According to the report of the international audit-advisory network KPMG, the methods of optimizing business processes are incorporated by 75% of Polish companies. Thus, the significance of this positive business practice is commonly acknowledged. The best thing about optimization processes, is that introducing them is effective for big organizations, as well as micro-enterprises. What are some quick and easy methods to save money on your business activities?
Here are five simple ideas:
1. Location
Does the success of your business depend on whether your office is located in a popular and busy place? If you run a restaurant – yes, it does. In case of many other businesses, especially a sales office, it is a secondary matter. If your customers find attractive prices and professional service more significant than your company's location, it is worth considering a move to a cheaper place.
2. Costs of electricity
Saving electricity is of course much more than turning off the light when nobody is in the room. If you decide to save energy, it is worth approaching the topic in a complex way. Energy can be saved by: changing light bulbs to LED or energy-efficient bulbs, installing lamps with motion sensors, plugging in electronic equipment to power strips containing power switches. Moreover, you can carefully compare the charges of different energy suppliers and select the one containing the most attractive rates.
3. Negotiating costs of the rent
If you plan to make any investments in your rented office, you can quite possibly negotiate the return of part of the investment's value, or decrease the amount of your rent by this value with your landlord.
4. Unnecessary print-outs
Another interesting KPMG report shows that 8% of print-outs made in micro-enterprises are unnecessary. This rate is even more than 11% of print-outs in sales companies. Expenses related to printing will decrease significantly if you set your printers to economic mode, as well as to two-side printing mode. A decrease in the number of unnecessary print-outs is also observed everywhere when users must gain access to the use of the printer by receiving an internal company authorization.
5. Online currency exchange
Sales offices and companies which trade with foreign partners, can find some significant savings by buying and selling currencies for exchange rates which are lower than the ones that are offered by banks. If, for example, the company buys goods abroad for five thousand dollars, it can save up to 886 PLN per single transaction.