We all get in our day-to-day routines. Waking up, getting a shower, eating breakfast, going to work, settling in at your desk, going home — we can get so into our routines that we never really stop to notice the things outside of it. But never fear! We are here to help you take notice and to draw your attention to five ways your company may be losing money, and time.
- Doing your own taxes. – Keeping up with all of the new tax laws can be a full-time job all its own. Trying to make sure your taxes are filled out properly, filed on time, and that your employees receive their information on time, all while juggling the day-to-day tasks of running your business, can be enough to make you want to pull your hair out. Assigning this task to a financial group that knows the details inside and out can save you loads of time, and potentially, quite a bit of money — if something gets filled out incorrectly and the IRS steps in, you could be looking at an audit, penalties, and enough Tums to warrant buying stock in the company.
- Not having a referral program – Word of mouth has been shown in study after study to be the most effective marketing method. Customers are more apt to trust referrals from their friends, and are more apt to make purchases based on those referrals. Rewarding your customers for their advertisement of your business is a great way to generate more advertising. You can possibly reduce your marketing budget by investing more in referral rewards, and less on advertising. Offer gift cards from your business to customers whose referral turns into a purchase. Studies have also shown that people using gift cards will on average spend more than their gift card amount.
- Using a same-ol-same schedule – Reevaluate your employees’ schedules. Are there some who would rather have a four-day work week instead of the typical five-day one? If your workflow would allow for, let’s say, five employees to not have to work on Wednesdays, that can save you quite a bit of green! If those employees make $10 per hour, and they work eight hours per day, that would be $400 per week that you could be saving (which means $1600 per month, or $19,200 per year!). This additional day can also help those employees have an additional day to take care of family issues or appointments, and can offer a day that employees can possibly swap with each other when someone needs to take off. Offering this type of schedule may help reduce the amount of employee absences that you have to deal with, which equates to more work getting done.
- Not going green – Updating your light bulbs can reduce your energy bill, and cut the amount of money you normally would spend on light bulbs through the year. Updating your appliances, like the refrigerator or the television in the break room, can also cut down on that energy bill. Having an energy-efficient water heater may also be something worth looking into while you’re at it. In this same eco-friendly vein of thinking, take notice of how much paper is usedaround your business. Is there a way you can reduce it? Not only does this help the planet, it can help reduce your budget for printer paper, and it can save on those overly expensive ink cartridges. If possible, see about switching to reusable cartridges — ink alone is cheaper than the entire cartridge.
- Not having employee incentives – You want to retain your employees, so make sure you give them a reason to stay. Offer incentive programs and reward your employees’ good behavior. If they go three months with no absences, give them a $100 bonus. That may sound like a lot for a bonus, but it can be less expensive than the cost of the time lost by an employee not showing up and the work that didn’t get accomplished that day. (Bear in mind: if an employee can shift swap for a day off that they need, that shouldn’t count against them since you would not be missing an employee on the schedule for that day.) You can also offer bonuses like extra vacation time or personal time, in lieu of monetary payments. Incentives can also be used for more than just attendance — excellent customer service, going above and beyond for the company, and helping the company find more ways of saving money can all be incentive-worthy.
Hopefully these five ideas will help your creative juices to get flowing, and will inspire you to look around your business for ways you could be saving more money. If you have any questions or comments about our suggestions, please contact us and let us know. You are also welcome to come to us with any questions you may have about using our financial group to assist your business with its finances.
