It doesn’t take a financial genius to recognise that trading times for many businesses are tough at the moment. With restrictions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic having stretched out for the best part of 12 months so far and a relatively long way to go until we get back to normality, many businesses have had to find all manner of inventive ways to save money and keep trading.
Work from home
The mantra that has been coming from the politicians since the turn of 2021 is that we must work from home if we can. When it comes to working for yourself, why bother setting up office premises if you don’t need them? In addition to saving rent and other set-up costs, you will save money in commuting, parking, and wear and tear on your vehicle. Data published in the Daily Telegraph suggests that up to one-quarter of British employees may end up working from home permanently.
Think of alternative ways to pay for fuel
Some businesses require people to travel up and down the country to meet clients or suppliers, and with this comes the unavoidable increase in fuel expense. Using BP fuel cards to pay for fuel is a way to mitigate the cost of fuel, enabling a saving to be made at the pumps. To learn more, click here for BP fuel cards.
Use social media marketing as an inexpensive way to get your message out there
Social media has been used as a tool to put businesses in contact with consumers ever since it began in the early 2000s. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter have become one of the biggest ways in which small businesses carry out their marketing. It is estimated that Instagram has over one billion active users each month, and you could reach these without paying a penny.
Of course, not all social media users are necessarily interested in your business, so it is important to select the platform that best aligns with your offering and focus your energies there. For example, Instagram is a primarily visual driven site, so this is the site for you if you are producing beautiful handcrafted jewellery or fabulous cake creations. If you want to foster a dialogue with customers, you will be better off looking at Facebook or Twitter.
Take it to the clouds above
If your budget is struggling to maintain the cost of additional hard drives or servers to host your data, look at inexpensive cloud hosting services. Dropbox, Evernote and Google offer platforms for storage that hold your data safely and inexpensively, whilst Zoom and Google Meet enable you to video conference with clients or suppliers across the world with very little outlay.
Saving costs is not necessarily about doing things cheaply; instead, it is about making sure that the money you spend works effectively for your business and provides the maximum return on your investment.