While the majority of the content inside of Jimbere Business Academy focuses on developing new ways to build your business, it’s important to remember that the one guaranteed way of keeping more money in your bank account is by doing everything in your power to cut costs at every available opportunity. Sounds simple, but studies have shown that a large number of businesses operating today are nowhere near maximizing their cost saving opportunities.
The Productivity & Profitability Formula helps you build a million dollar business and beyond. We want to focus on 5 key areas of your business growth;
Messaging- your leads
Marketing – your conversions
Sales- your transactoins
Pricing- your offers
Profit- your systems
There are many lessons inside the profit section of Jimbere Business Academy. This is only part of one of those lessons where you will learn:
Why cost cutting is important!
Where to start!
The benefits of a “Wastage Audit”.
How to enrol your staff in cost cutting programs.
Cost cutting tips and tricks.
Here are 32 different consideration for you to think about during this very trying time in our history.
1. Go Green (Smartly)
Cost Cutting Tip: Most companies think that going green will cost them money, but it’s important to remember that greening is first and foremost about conservation – doing more with less. Though you may spend a little more on eco-friendly products, like paper with recycled content, you’ll reduce operational costs by reductions in paper use and other areas, like energy, water and travel, saving money overall.
2. Virtual Support
Cost Cutting Tip: Go with virtual contractors for your administrative staff (and other staff if possible). With virtual assistants you don’t have to pay for extra space, buy or upkeep equipment or software, you can skip payroll expenses and benefits, and you pay for only what you need.
3. Spending Wisely On Advertising
Cost Cutting Tip: When you do advertise in publications, include a coupon to test the responses to your ad. Your market dominating position needs to be created and we have a ton of resources that help you bring in revenue without spending money using an attraction marketing campaign.
4. Free Conference Calls
Cost Cutting Tip: Try using FreeConfrenceCall.com or one of he many other free tele-conference services. Not only are these services free (they make their money through rebates issued by the phone company) they are great for more than just business. For example, Free Conferencing Corporation has case studies of families using this free conference call service for reunions, wedding planning, religious services, and simply just staying connected during this forced isolation as we try to flatten the curve of Covid-19.
5. Really Cheap Office Space
Cost Cutting Tip: Can’t afford to rent much needed office space? Try reaching out to tenants of existing space. Ask for a few desks in their space, in exchange for taking over the office cleaning responsibilities. A lot of people have extra space that they are committed to. So a simple barter exchange like this can be a huge win-win. Look for a great co-working space near you, they are certainly aware that shifts will need to be made.
6. Join A Trade Exchange
Cost Cutting Tip: One of the best methods of preserving cash and generating revenue (better than cutting costs) is for a small business to become a member of a trade exchange. Barter is a no-brainer for most small businesses.
7. Downsize Your Office Space
Cost Cutting Tip: Move files and storage offsite so you can fit in a smaller office space. Storage costs are much less in a giant warehouse than they are in your office. But don’t stop there! Consider having employees tele-commute to save space for you and gas dollars for them. And how about that big lobby – do you really need all that space for your few walk in customers?
8. Go VOIP
Cost Cutting Tip: Switch to VOIP for your phone system. Consider getting rid of expensive phone service base costs, costs per long-distance phone call, and system maintenance fees associated with your phone system and switch to a VOIP system. The system can typically pay for itself in 9 months- and after that it’s just cheap calling!
9. Interns
Cost Cutting Tip: I find people looking to build their portfolio, resume or just to get their foot in the door and barter services. Consider an intern from the local high school that comes in and helps out.
10. Print Your Own Business Cards
Cost Cutting Tip: I think one of the best ways to cut costs is by printing your own business cards. The card stock can be bought for less than $20 in any office supply store. You can get 200 to 300 cards per box depending on how proficient you are when it comes to printing. Generally there is a template you can experiment with inside the box with the card stock or make your own template. Since your business card is a piece of literature you’ll probably be handing out more than any other, a small business owner can save substantially by printing their own cards. Don’t forget to use both sides of the card to tell even more about your company. Inside Jimbere Business Academy we have a resource to help you create a high converting business card.
11. Make Good Decisions
Cost Cutting Tip: How many decisions do you and your employees make each day? Each one represents an opportunity to be unproductive and/or ineffective depending on how easily and how well you make those decisions. For major improvement, focus on the decisions. Eliminate the unnecessary decisions and get good at the necessary decisions.
12. Simply Do It Faster
Cost Cutting Tip: The cost I cut was my time. Instead of providing 60 minutes per coaching call, I reduced it to 50 minutes. With less time we both focus better and now I can add another client to my daily calendar. Same results, less time, more money.
13. Cut The Advertising & Get Social
Cost Cutting Tip: Cut newspaper advertising and consumer shows in favor of social networking sites, viral marketing and workshops whenever possible. Leverage LinkedIn For Business Growth, take advantage of my 16-lesson on-demand program to help you leverage the power of the platform.
14. Cheap Website (But Not Cheap Looking)
Cost Cutting Tip: Have your web designer build the site with WordPress. It will look great and you can keep it up to date yourself. I invested heavily in my website when I first launched. Once I go out online, I realized I could have done it a lot cheaper. Partnering with someone who is ahead of you in experience will help you save money and time and get you to your goals faster.
15. Smart Marketing Strategy
Cost Cutting Tip: Track the results of your marketing efforts by including a specific offer they can’t refuse and a clear call to action telling how to take advantage of the offer, along with a coupon, download, subscription, special code, or other low-cost device you can track to discover what works best. Then change or ditch anything that doesn’t generate enough leads or sales.
16. Get In Their Face
Cost Cutting Tip: Referrals are the best source of strong clients… visit every networking organization in your area (Chambers of Commerce, BNI groups, Rotary, etc.) and introduce yourself, your business, and your quality. Most organizations allow you to visit at least a couple of times before expecting you to join. Some never do. Nothing will sell your business more than a highly engaged owner out discussing business. Make sure to return the referral favors as much as possible.
17. Source With Non-Profit Organizations
Cost Cutting Tip: We work with a client who partners with a local non-profit disabled organization to assemble and package their jewelry. They get excellent quality, low cost work and the positive feedback has been tremendous. Giving an opportunity to a community or project that may not otherwise have the chance is a potential win/win.
18. Jump Start The Accounting
Cost Cutting Tip: Save thousands of dollars in accounting fees by having a specific date by which you get your accounting data to your accountant. Most accounting firms have a slower time in the very beginning of the month. By agreeing to get your work to them by (for example) the third of each month, you often get reduced rates in your accounting maintenance fees. You will have more information in a timely basis and they fill in the weaker hours of their practice.
19. Recycle
Cost Cutting Tip: Work with your suppliers to recycle packing materials. Raw materials often come packaged with foam separators which the supplier won’t take back and which most businesses have no use for, so they typically get thrown away. Create cardboard separators and remove them during production, then return to your supplier for re-use. This results in a cost savings for your supplier and you can often negotiate a reduction in material costs.
20. No Paper = No Cost
Cost Cutting Tip: Go paperless! Don’t print it. You can get an eFax number to send and receive everything electronically. Don’t print it out – file it electronically. Share drafts of documents, designs, etc. electronically. Use e-mail or an online project management tool like Google Docs or Base Camp to share and comment on documents. If you don’t have to buy paper, envelopes, postage, file folders, ink or maintain your printer/fax – you can save hundreds of dollars per year – even in a small office. Plus – you’re going GREEN!
21. It’s All About Your Temperature
Cost Cutting Tip: Install a programmable thermostat and set it at reasonable temperatures. Program the thermostat to 50 degrees at night and over the weekends and 70 degrees during the day in winter. Set the thermostat to move to its daytime temperature 2 hours before you arrive at work to make sure that it’s comfortable when you get there. You can often cut your energy costs in half this winter doing this.
22. Talk About Smart, Simple & Easy
Cost Cutting Tip: Brown bag it. Bring your own lunch everyday.
23. They’re Smarter Than You
Cost Cutting Tip: To figure out the less obvious expenses, be sure to involve your employees. They’re on the front lines every day and they often have a better idea of what can be cut, dropped or eliminated. For example, maybe they’ve noticed that you have an incoming paper supply that could be reduced.
24. Make It In 4D
Cost Cutting Tip: Use the 4D method to manage your email (Ditch, Deal, Delegate, Decide). Then run your daily work plan through Outlook Calendar and TaskPad side by side. This will significantly improve your productivity.
25. The Interns Are Social Mavens
Cost Cutting Tip: Hire interns who are experts at Social Networking (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) to help with your website launch and your marketing campaigns.
26. This One Rings True
Cost Cutting Tip: Let a bell or buzzer at the front door be your receptionist. During these trying times, we need to get creative. While I understand that there is a lot of value in having a warm smile great your customers, right now, we need to be solution focused and cost conscious.
27. Free Admission
Cost Cutting Tip: Once things go back to normal and live events begin to happen again, if you want to attend a business/networking event, there’s a way to save on admission fees. Ask organizers if they’re looking for volunteer help: setting up tables before the event, greeting people at the door, binding handouts etc. That will get you free admission.
28. Look At That Mug
Cost Cutting Tip: Have employees bring in a favorite mug to have their coffee in instead of purchasing disposable cups.
29. Let Them Eat
Cost Cutting Tip: Seems contradictory, but it’s effective. Buy your employees free food for lunch and dinner. They stay a few hours later and save a trip out of the office for lunch. Even more effective – buy food from Costco! For less than $15 worth of food you may get more than $300 in additional productivity.
30. Smarts 101
Cost Cutting Tip: Before attending ANY event on behalf of YOUR business, ask yourself “As the person responsible for this company would I authorize it as a justifiable business expense that I would approve.” Even for online events. We do want professional development to continue, however being frugal matters now more than ever. It is expected that many businesses may not make it out of this challenge if it goes on much longer.
31. Bottom Line Productivity
Cost Cutting Tip: Cutting costs in business without cutting capabilities and performance is achieved by optimizing each employee’s time. Is every employee spending the majority of his or her day “on the revenue line” – work that generates revenue for the company? How to do this: have employees keep a time log, then analyze how much time is spent on non-revenue producing activities. Replace those activities with revenue generating activities. You can also reach out to me and schedule a
Java with Jen to work out exactly how you could implement this and put new lead measures in play for your team.
32. Sharpen The Pencil
Cost Cutting Tip: Negotiate. In tough economic times, vendors are often willing to work with long term, loyal customers. If you can pay early, ask for a discount. If you can’t pay on time, ask for an extension to stretch out cash flow. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by asking.
It is simply good business sense to reduce costs at every available opportunity. Last, but certainly not least, is that it keeps you in control. Isn’t that what it’s all about, being in control of your business and not the other way around?
Thank you so much for reading and sharing. There is no need to struggle alone when you can have a trusted confidant by your side.
Jennifer Jimbere is the President of Jimbere Coaching and Consulting, Founder of Jimbere Business Academy (private level access). Jennifer is an entrepreneur, International best-selling co-author in the Dream Boldly I Dare You Series. World Class Coach and Business Consultant.
As well, she is a recognized authority on the psychology of performance, negotiations and organizational turnaround. She has served as an advisor to thousands of individuals and organizations around the world for more than 20 years. Nominated for RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards Nominee of 2020. Jennifer has also been named Influence Magazine 100 Authority. Recommended and inducted into the Who’s Who of America for 2019.
