Posted By: jbaloun / |
The old adage “You can’t cost cut your way to success,” may be true, but that doesn’t mean you can’t cut costs to improve your profit margins. While you may find it difficult to reduce expenditures in your staffing agency’s operations, labor costs, and facilities, and inadvisable to cut marketing expenditures, you may discover easy targets for cutbacks in office expenses. New technology can help shrink expenditures, as can some creative thinking and a little bargain shopping. Below are a few tips on how to go about reducing costs for your staffing agency. Some suggestions may appear minimal, but a penny saved is certainly a penny earned. And those pennies add up!
1. Ease Up on the Grid
Cutting down on your power bills is an important first step in minimizing costs, not to mention a step forward in green business practice. Turn off unused lights and power strips at the end of each day. There’s no need to keep the lights running overnight. Motion-sensor lights can also be useful. The initial cost of installing them may outweigh the returns, but this is omething you can easily calculate. Computers and printers can be energy wasters, too, They can suck a surprising amount of power, even when sleeping. Shut them down.
2. Find Phone Alternatives
Business bills from telephone and service providers can be extremely high, especially when you’re running an operation as interactive as a staffing agency. Spending a little time exploring alternatives such as Voice Over Internet Phone (VoIP) or Skype may be time well spent. If you’re interested, check out this article from PCWorld. You may save a heap of cash.
3. Have Your Head in the Cloud
Once upon a time, you had to keep all your software applications and digital storage space on-site, upgrading frequently to keep up with technological advances and increasing storage needs. Not anymore. Cloud-based services enable you to make the most of technologies where computer services and storage space are kept at third-party providers without the capital expenditures involved in purchasing the applications, upgrades and storage yourself. Google, Microsoft, Apple, and others all provide cloud-based services. Not only does this reduce your need to pay for and maintain in-house computer services, but you and your employees can access the cloud anywhere, and it can act as a reliable backup in case of any pesky computer problems.
4. Save the Trees
When computer usage is shifted to working in the cloud, you’ll find you need to use a lot less paper. Documents can be edited, collaborated on, and exchanged electronically. Getting rid of the high quantity of paper products also allows you to reduce printer and copier expenses. Train your employees not to print hard copies unless there’s a good reason. The trees will thank you.
5. Reduce Travel Costs
Travel costs, such as hotel bills, flights, meals, and other expenses, can account for thousands of dollars in a business budget. Certainly you may need to travel from time to time, but if you don’t HAVE to go on the road, video conferencing can be a great money saving alternative. Services such as WebEx, GoToMeeting, oVoo, or any number of others make it easy at a fraction of the cost. And you’ll be spending more time in the office, which should boost productivity.
6. Observe Office Supplies
The cost of office equipment can be eye-popping and supply costs can add up, too. For larger items such as furniture and computer supplies, look into wholesalers. You may find some great values at furniture warehouses and thrift stores, too. It is also important to re-read the warranties on products; sometimes, damaged items may still be covered. As for office supplies, some companies offer discounts if you purchase a certain amount of goods per year. For smaller supplies, make sure you keep them in only one location. It’s easy to lose track of the goods you have if they are spread across the office. To further reduce waste, have a clean up day every so often, when employees clean up their desks and return surplus to the supply closet. You’ll be surprised how much unused equipment is circulating.
Getting any ideas yet? Even the smallest measures will make a difference, freeing up a bit of budget to use for more important things. Remember how the pygmies ate the elephant: one bite at a time. A little bit here, a little bit there: you may save a trunkful of money.