Aid cash flow by reviewing some of your company’s monthly costs:
- Review your utility providers: Shop around to save money on your gas and electricity bills – typically, these can represent the second or third biggest controllable cost.
- Automate routine procedures: Can you add FAQs on your website, to provide information your customers might otherwise call you about? If your business is product- or appointment-orientated, can you ask customers to order or book online?
- Restrict business travel: Think about the time your staff spend on the road – are all these journeys really necessary? Long trips in particular should be reviewed, and consider whether a teleconference or a webcam meeting might be a more efficient use of time and money.
- Reduce interest payments: Review whether you can cut the cost of debt by injecting equity into any loans or mortgages.
- Perform a spending analysis: Plot expenditure on goods and services on a chart, with the horizontal access being cost, and the vertical access being how critical the item is to the business. Divide the chart into four quadrants, and focus your cost-cutting efforts on purchases that fall into the top right-hand section.
