With the New Year less than a month away, it’s time for businesses to put together their budget plans for 2017. As a result, there will be lots of head scratching as companies wonder how they can save money as they head off in pursuit of a record breaking year ahead.
The fantastic news is there are a whole host of tools you can use online to ensure everything is pointing in the right direction. There are also a few day-to-day techniques which can be added to your overall strategy to lower overhead and make your year as profitable as possible.
- Social Media
Social media is free, there are plenty of platforms to choose from, and you’ll be able to reach a wider audience in style with its brand of engagement driving business options. Make the right strategy call (such as with competitions, particularly if you’re B2C) and you’ll be able to take your business in exciting new directions.
For instance, with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, you can spread the word about your company at a low cost and generation leads, effectively. Which leads us nicely on to one of the most cutting edge forms of digital marketing.
This social media guide for businesses from Social Media Examiner will help you along in the right direction where this is concerned.
- Online Lead Generation
Lead generation is, simply put, a cutting edge way to cut down overhead costs and grow your sales with relevant leads. As a business, legal practice, or IFA, you may need consumer, clients, or finance leads which will add high-quality prospects to your daily routine.
Lead generation works by targeting prospects who are proactively looking to buy from your company. It simply nurtures them towards completing their goal through a truly progressive form of marketing which really cuts down wastage.
- Go Green!
Embracing environmentalism is an effective way to cut costs and it’s relatively easy to use. Going paper free is one such example. This guide to running a green office is the ideal way to get to grips with an environmentally friendly working environment.
There are simple tactics you can use, however, such as cutting back on papers and printers. Minus these devices, you can easily save a lot of money each year when everything adds up. By saving on ink and paper, it’s possible to knock off a few thousands extra pounds or dollars which can go towards earning something more productive in your business.
- Hire freelancers for specific jobs
If you’re in need of only a small amount of work in the long run, then hiring a freelancer is a great way to get the job done with the minimum of fuss. Whether it’s a web designer, journalist, copywriter, or web developer, freelancers create an active online community of people looking to help businesses achieve major things in a limited amount of time.
A service such as Upwork has a huge community of freelancers where you can take your pick of the ones you want to work with. Everything is very professional as freelancers are often the place to turn to in modern business.
- Spend less time in meetings
There’s no need to call a meeting to discuss this – just have fewer meetings. With a myriad of online tools at your disposal, it’s extremely easy to hold a debate with your company and let them continue with their work at the pace they see fit. With the likes of Slack, Evernote, Trello, Skype, Google Hangouts, and many more, cutting out meetings will save time and keep your business strategy developing as a result.