March 6th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Informative knowledge on how to manage and apply innovative cost cutting in your business.
Innovative cost cutting that yields results – small business profit margins hit a six-year high in 2013, but maitaining or widening these margins will require creative cost-cutting measures this year. Many B2B businesses are looking for imaginative ways to reduce expenses without sacrificing talent or businesses performance. Here are innovative – and pain-free – ways to trim small business expenses.
Create test run for new hires
A one-hour interview is unlikely to show whether someone will be a good hire for your small business, so consider bringing on new employees under a 60-day contract and using that time as a trial period. This can help you avoid paying for expensive benefits before you know if a staffer will be a good long-term fit.
Cut down on in-person meetings – by reducing business travel and holding more meetings via videoconferencing, you can take a big bite out of your expenses. While it may not be appropriate for every discussion, conducting virtual meetings has become an increasingly accepted practice.
Lead management software can help improve the efficiency of this process by allowing your business to track which prospects are paying attention to your messaging and then score them based on their potential. Ultimately, you want to spend the most time and money on prospects who are more likely to become repeat customers. B2B marketing firm performs regular audits of its prospects lists and segments them according to their potential value and level of responsiveness. Purging non-responders boosts the company’s sales effectiveness by focusing outreach on the smaller but critically important segment of motivated prospects.
Purge non-responders from your prospects list – wasting time targeting unresponsive prospects is a hidden cost that often goes ignored. If your business regularly sends out direct mail but a large number of the targets never respond or are duplicates it could drive down the ROI for your campaign. You could cut mailing costs by eliminating those addresses from your list.
Work Space – Rethink. Since lease costs can be as much as 5% to 8% of sales, thinking creatively about your workspace is one of the most effective ways to cut expenses. Consider sharing extra space at your location with another business. That can mean leasing anything from a seldom-used conference room to an extra desk. Another option is using a co-working site, where businesses rent desks and space on a monthly basis. Worksite networks can be used to find these types of facilities.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Financial Services, Small Business Improvement Tagged with: b2b business, business travel, cost cutting, innovative, lead management, leasing, prospects, reduce expenses, repeat customers, small business, time and money, trim small business expenses, virtual meetings, worksite network
