6 Ways to Cut Costs for Your Small Business Now

Since we've seen the stock market plunge in the past few weeks, there has never been a better time to take a closer look at how we can shave to save. So I put together a list of some things to look at, because every little bit helps.

Credit Card Processing Fees - Banks are hurting these days but it doesn't mean that you have to bear the brunt of it. Call your bank and see if there is any room to lower the percentages you have to pay when someone uses a credit card to buy your product. I found an article on Forbes about small businesses saving on these fees.

Paper Costs - It's becoming rare that you should actually have to print a document. You can read email, you can read a document attached to an email and it's even quicker than printing on paper. So here's an idea: every time you go to print something so you can snail mail it or read it on paper, ask yourself "Can I send this in an email?" or "Can I read this on my computer screen?" I bet you'll find out most of the time you can avoid the printer. 

Another idea for reducing paper usage is to keep your documents online. Google Docs are free and you can invite people to share your documents and make changes to them. I know an events manager at a local restaurant who was keeping event dates on a paper calendar until he was introduced to Google Calendar. Now he's keeping everything online. Even better? The owners can access the calendar without having to contact him.

Obviously I'm going to tell you to stop printing out and snail-mailing your newsletter. It's not environmentally friendly and it's probably about 10x the cost of sending an email newsletter. Now is the time to convert your list into getting your newsletter in digital format. Feel free to take a test drive of VerticalResponse to do it, if you don't already.

Last, but not least, stop faxing. Get rid of the fax machine, there are a ton of free services as well as services with low monthly fees.

Travel - If your business relies on a face to face meeting to close the sale, you probably can't cut down drastically. However there are many ways to have meetings on the phone especially if you need to present something. Check out InterCall and GoToMeeting for web conferencing, and Glance to share your desktop.

One more thing, have you looked at your frequent flier statement recently? Now's the time to cash in on some of those rewards for travel if it is an important part of how you do business.

Supplies - Take a look at the monthly supplies you buy for your location. Can you save money buying cheaper paper plates? Can you use real silverware in the lunch room instead of buying plastic utensils? Do you really need name-brand paper towels? Are there coupons you can use from the Sunday paper? It might not seem like a lot but it all adds up.

Phones - Do all of your employees need a phone? Of course you'll need them especially if your sales or marketing folks have to speak to your customers or order inventory. But if you've got a group of employees that don't need their own, try setting up a phone for them to share.

Also look at Voice over Internet Protocol. VoIP allows users to use regular telephone networks anywhere through any internet service provider, cuts down on long distance charges. For a listing of providers go here.

Shipping Costs - If you ship a lot of your products, why not put a call into your shipper to see how you can reduce some of those costs. I also found this blog post from the Shipping Coach with tons of advice on reducing shipping costs.

Little by little it all adds up so make sure you keep a close eye on everything you're spending money on!

Comments

[Credit Cards NJ]

You're right about asking to lower the fees, but most businesses do not actually process through their banks, rather they process through sales organizations that broker the deals.

In today's economy, asking for a better rate is always a good idea however for most businesses, the processor is not going to drop the rate they are charging you if your volume is not very high. For high volume merchants the processors will bend over backwards to keep them as a customer. The smaller businesses, as unfortunate as it may be, would be better served seeking out another provider to handle their processing. My company works with businesses from small home based businesses to those doing several million dollars per month in processing and we pay attention to our clients. There may be others like us out there and you should make sure that you find a company that you feel comfortable with before signing any new applications/contracts. There are a lot of hidden fees and terms that not many people disclose, including those banks that were mentioned in the article above.

[web meeting josh]

Those are very good tools, however, in many cases those platforms are used just to allow the team to review the same document together in real-time and "be on the same page".
The recently launched free site http://www.showdocument.com does exactly that, quickly show documents to friends and colleagues.
It allows Free Web meeting and co-browsing on any document, user uploads a document and invites friends to view it with him live
All the participants in the session see each others' drawing, highlights, etc.

Josh

[Anand Goel]

Good article. There is ample opportunity to save on Credit Card Processing Fees. I run a consulting firm advising mid-large companies on how to reduce their overall cost of electronic payments and credit cards is typically the biggest component. I have few white papers that your readers may find useful at my blog on http://www.optimizedpmts.com/

[Adam]

Great post - very important in this climate!

[Cindy King]

When the economy goes down everyone looks to save. Well timed post that I enjoyed.

I stumbled on it and included a link to it in my weekly Marketing Review.

Thanks