Virtually Yours Personal Assistants

Seems the cost of everything is rising. If your business involves delivery of a product or on-site service, the cost of gas becomes a factor. If you sell a product, the cost of your materials is rising.  Unlike larger businesses that can sell off a division or layoff staff and still maintain their edge, small businesses must look for creative ways to cut costs in order to survive. The easy fix is to raise prices. But your customers are facing the same market you are - why offer them a reason to bail by raising prices. Here’s a list of creative ways a small business owner can cut costs and maintain a profit without alienating customers.

Review your products and services. Invest in your most popular and most profitable services and eliminate those draining resources.

Review every expense. It’s time to get rid of a few luxuries. Look at every expense and question whether it is adding value to your business and positively impacting your bottom line. Examine ways of doing the same thing better, faster, and cheaper. Save money on meeting expenses, marketing,  and billing by using internet based technology. There are a number of online services that allow you to have a virtual meeting online with employees or clients, saving you travel costs. Save money on printing and postage costs by using email marketing materials and invoices rather than mailing them. Now looky at you. Saving money and going green at the same time

Outsource. Bookkeeping to manufacturing. Personal assistants to web designers. Using a contractor can save you big bucks by allowing you to handoff tasks that you don’t enjoy or aren’t good at so you can focus on core areas of your business. By outsourcing jobs you save yourself time and money. Since contractors are already experts at what they do and they work in their own workspace so there’s no need to interview, train, or provide resources for an employee. Even better, you pay them only when you need them which means you can set a budget and stick to it. When business slows, you don’t have an extra hand who your paying to do nothing… and when it picks up, they are there when you need them.

Go virtual. Fixed costs such as equipment, rent, and office furniture can have a big impact on your bottom line. Unless your business requires a bricks and mortar retail space or clients need to visit your workspace, you can probably avoid some of these costs. By using your home pc, printer, and internet connection you can complete the same work without creating new bills. To keep your professional edge, use a virtual phone system to forward calls to your home number, rent an offsite mailbox, and use your garage or an offsite storage facility to store your product.

What creative things have you done to cut expenses?