10 Small Business Cost Saving Tips

In addition to increasing your sales, an ability to control costs is key to increasing your profits. So while you surge ahead with ramping up your sales team and increasing spending on marketing and promotion, don't lose sight of cost-cutting opportunities. Whether you own a gifts and novelties venture or run a machine tools facility, the following tips will help you cut down on your business costs.

1. Save on correspondence and communications – You can take several steps to curtail costs incurred on communications. For instance by preferring email over snail mail whenever possible. And if snail mail can't be avoided, use non-premium postage services. Similarly, you can use emails to avoid business meetings if you just need to pass on a set of instructions. The Internet technology has also enabled making phone calls over the Internet. See if you can save money by installing a VoIP telephony system to cut costs. And shopping around for cheap telephone service providers is always an option worth exploring.

2. Screen all supplier invoices with a keen eye for detail – This is essential to saving you from paying anything extra to your suppliers. Review all invoices for all the items that have been paid for, so as to avoid paying for them another time. Check whether the charges levied are in accordance with what was agreed upon. For instance, check whether the supplier is allowing you all the discounts that she promised or not. A good idea is to hold back on releasing the payment until you've reviewed all the details of the invoice.

3. Go green and be energy efficient – The less the energy your office consumes, the less you'll have pay for it. Small changes in office practices such as turning off gadgets, machinery, and PCs when they're idle, and using energy efficient light bulbs and other devices will positively yield healthy cost-savings in the long run.

4. Consider outsourcing some business functions – Review and consider some administrative functions of your business such as payroll and accounting functions for outsourcing. However, do ensure that this would lead to cost savings, and take the burden off your shoulders than add to it.

5. Save on water usage wherever possible – Like wasteful energy consumption will cost you more, so will wasteful water consumption. For instance you can have your water systems, toilets, faucets, etc checked for leaks and fixed. Similarly, installing low-flow faucets is akin to installing low-energy light bulbs, so prefer these.

6. Save costs on travel – You can employ a number of means for saving on travel costs such as by preferring carpools, using a public transport service, cycling to your office (if it's nearby), etc. For traveling across cities and internationally, you can save by searching the Internet for cheap travel offers, availing frequent-flier programs, booking in advance, negotiating discounts for you business, etc.

7. Save money on office equipment – Consider leasing of some equipment compared to buying it. You could even purchase used or refurbished equipment to help you save costs. For more information see: 9 Small Business Office Equipment Money Saving Tips and 6 Small Business Refurbished Computer Buying Tips.

8. Review your production processes – Review all processes and see how better handling of raw materials and machinery can improve productivity while saving costs. Timely maintenance and replacement of parts is essential to keep the machinery efficient. Make sure you don't skimp on maintaining the health of machinery.

9. Consider relocating your office – Shifting your office premises to a cheaper location can save you costs in the long run. However, you need to carefully review such a decision in the light of business advantages and disadvantages viz. commuting time for employees, client and customer convenience, your competition, business expansion plans, etc.

10. Shop around for suppliers – While it's good to have reliable suppliers who've served you for a long time, another good idea is to be on the lookout for new suppliers who can give you a better deal. You might want to query business directories to get a list of suppliers worth checking out.