When you take a look over your balance sheet for the month, you’ll see incomings and outgoings. The incomings represent how well your business has been selling in the past month, while the outgoings can seem as if they’re a fixed fee that you pay to exist as a business. But this is simply not the case – and it’s often possible to increase your profits by reducing some of these monthly overheads. In this guide, we’ll show you how you can achieve this reduction in your operational costs.
Rent
First up is reducing your rent. You may think this is the most fixed of all your fees, seeing as you signed a rental contract with your landlord. But things are always changing, and negotiating positions often become stronger over time. And in the wake of the pandemic, with hundreds of businesses vacating their office spaces in favor of remote working, there’s never been a better time for business leaders to negotiate down their rent. You can suggest to your landlord that you’ll follow other businesses into the remote working scene, leaving them without your monthly rent payments. This will strongly incentivize them to reduce your rent to keep you in their building.
Bills
As well as your rent, you’ll be paying bills to operate as a business. It doesn’t matter what size your firm is; these bills will be high. After all, you’re powering an office that is by its nature switched on for the entirety of the working day – and often beyond it. So finding ways to reduce the cost of your utility bills should be a priority. Happily, price comparison websites can show you how to reduce the price you pay for business gas – as well as internet, electricity, and other utilities. This is a quick, easy way to save cash on your operational costs.
Transport
Many firms pay for transport. This might be in the form of deliveries into and out of your company, or it could be the case that you send your staff off to far-flung countries, or different cities in your home country, in order to seal deals or find new markets. But travel and transport costs – and these costs quickly add up. Consider reducing your traveling footprint as a business by using Zoom and other communication platforms more. If you do have to travel, be ready to do it as cheaply as possible – whether that means renting cheap cars or taking cheap seats on budget airlines.
Extras
There are plenty of other costs that you’ll see on your outgoings column. You pay for stationery and office equipment. You pay for software subscriptions and marketing fees. And you pay your staff, too, in wages and bonuses and perks. All of these can be fine-tuned to ensure that you’re only ever spending what you need to spend. Any extra dollar you’re spending on something is a wasted dollar in profit – and they quickly add up. It’s worth picking apart that outgoings column to decide what cuts you can make for the good of your business.
There you have it: four important ways in which you can reduce your business operating costs in the latter stages of 2021.
