10 top tips for reducing business costs
1. Look after your team – Recruitment and selection of new staff is expensive and time consuming. Poor staff retention rates can also be reputational and have a negative impact on recruitment. Check out our recruitment and retention page for more ideas.
2. Review absolutely everything! – When was the last time you took time out to examine what your business does and importantly what you actually pay for. Additional costs can be hidden in the balance sheet that in the hustle and bustle of daily business you just miss. Uncancelled subscriptions, mobile phone contracts, energy wastage and the cost of everyday business consumables in the case of residential care laundry costs, cleaning solutions and service costs a forensic deep dive into the bank account at least once a year could net useful savings.
3. Get some (free) professional business advice - Free business support is available in Coventry and Warwickshire and an experienced, independent business adviser might be able to help you cut costs by for example:
- Revisiting your and updating your business plan
- Helping to pivot or diversify your business
- Signposting to additional or new funding/financial assistance
- Support on how your business could save money by being more “green”
- Supporting with training, business mentoring or coaching
Small business support in Coventry and Warwickshire is provided by the “Coventry and Warwickshire Business Support Programme” delivered by the Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub for more details email support@cwgrowthhub.co.uk or call 0300 060 3747.
4. Same thing (but cheaper) – Businesses can get locked into contracts that offer unfavourable conditions or costs after a period of time. Point two encourages you to do a deep dive on those all business costs, this one is around looking for new providers and ensuring you have the best value for money. Pay particular attention to insurance policies, photocopier contracts, mobile phone policies, satellite and cable TV contracts and subscriptions to training or even magazines anything you pay that is over a year old. Challenge everything and make sure you are getting the best deal … you’d do it for your home utilities, why not business?
5. Go paperless – save money – Printers and photocopiers are some of the most expensive pieces of equipment to use and service in fact a gallon of printer ink can cost more than the most expensive champagne! Often it can be cheaper to buy a new machine than a full set of
new cartridges. It makes sense then to limit what you print and copy to absolute essentials … it's also better for the environment. Cutting down on print and copy costs can be a significant saving.
6. Ask for a discount! – Nobody does but why not ask? Of course you need to be prepared to walk away if you don’t get what you want but if the company wants your business bad enough then it is certainly worth a try. Don’t be too loyal. Buying in bulk or buying regularly gives you more bargaining power but with reference to point four be careful you don’t lock yourself into an unfavourable contract by grabbing what looks like an attractive introductory deal. Can you join with other homes or providers to buy more basics in bulk and attract greater discounts e.g. washing powder, stationery.
7. If you don’t use it, why keep it? – Storage space or the lack of it in care homes can be a big issue. When was the last time you took a look in that dark space where things get put when they are no longer used, you might be surprised and moving them on might actually make you some money, it will certainly free up valuable space. Pay attention to: Televisions, radios, computer monitors, vacuum cleaners etc. that are not being used sell them or give them away to create space.
- Mobility equipment – is it still needed? Should it be returned to the provider or again could it be sold or donated.
- Office furniture
- Out of date, chemicals, cleaning products or even food!
- Boxes of leads and cables belonging to long-disposed of electrical equipment.
If you are disposing of computer equipment remember to remove or wipe clean hard drives that may contain sensitive personal or business information.
8. Save energy – This may seem like an obvious one but with the current cost of energy it pays to make sure things are switched off. Equipment on “standby” still uses power, if you don’t need it all day then switch it off. Do you need ALL of the lights on and have you invested in
some basics such as LED low energy bulbs to reduce costs for essential lighting. More modern equipment can also be more energy efficient so it may be time to update things like TVs and computer monitors to more economical units.
9. Get smarter at meetings – If the Covid-19 pandemic has changed one thing it’s the way businesses do meetings. Travelling to meetings (fuel costs, time out of the home or the office, parking expenses) can soon run up costs especially with a large team so why not make online meetings the norm. Make a goal to cut your travel costs by 50% over the next six months and see what savings that can generate.
10. Buy local – what goes around often comes around – Buying local and building up those relationships with local suppliers can on the face of it look more expensive but that can be misleading. There are real advantages in adopting a buy local policy. How much are you paying in shipping for basic goods coming from outside of the City? In terms of food you are often eating “in season” which means the cost can be lower, its good for your social value/social impact and its better for the environment that you aren’t paying for goods to be shipped from the furthest reaches of the country. You may find discounts are better, local providers are more receptive to a “deal” and they may be more willing to actively support you business and your residents/service users in events.