If you are self-employed and looking for ways to cut down your costs whilst still pledging to offer great services to your customers, then there are a vast number of ways you can do this. In this day and age, the one thing that will keep people returning time after time is the quality of the service you provide, for a price that people can afford. Saving money in a few select places can ensure you make more in the long-term, and here are some terrific ways to do this!
Manage your finances in real time
If you have a long list of expensive incomings and outgoings, the best thing you can do is manage everything as it happens. Keep a business logbook with you at every stage of the day and note down any business transactions that take place. It’s far easier to do things at this point than at the end of the month where there may be sizeable holes in your accounting that can affect your overall profit margins.
Keep running costs down
Keeping a daily log as shown above is also extremely important when identifying or dealing with core costs to your business and how they might be kept down. For instance, if you’re spending a lot of money on fuel costs then it might be a shrewd idea to sell your current business vehicle and use the money to buy something with a lower fuel consumption. Likewise, if you are producing things in-house then shopping around to outsource them and save on labour costs might be a more prudent idea.
Be careful of advertising
Advertising can be a tricky subject to tackle. It’s tempting to think that if you throw enough money at something then eventually you will reap the rewards. But there are a lot of advertising methods you can use which don’t necessarily cost the earth. Whereas once you may have had to rely on flyers and business literature, now you could use a cleverly tagged Twitter or Facebook page, which targets people in your immediate area as potential customers. For small businesses, local customers still do make up a huge percentage of trade. It is important to appeal to these people in a manner which is as cheap and effective as possible.
Insurance
It is always important to make sure that everything goes correctly on the job. If something goes wrong (such as a broken window or wall) and a member of the public sues you, this could have a dramatic effect on your profits for the month. The Axa Self employed public liability insurance will ensure that you have peace of mind when it comes to any situation like this, and that both you and your business will be protected and not forced into any crippling compensation payouts as a result of accidental damage.