With a sluggish economy and an apparently long road to complete fiscal recovery in our nation, small and large offices alike are searching out creative ways to cut costs and increase their bottom line. Instead of freaking out and laying off valued employees, take a deep breath and read this article. What follows is a short breakdown of 4 practical ways to cut costs around the office. Trust us, it can be done. 

#1 - Allow Employees to Work Remotely 

The cold hard truth of the matter is that it costs you money every single month to keep your employee’s butts in the seats. Instead of paying through the nose for a large office space, consider downsizing to a smaller office. Let your employees work from home, in their pajamas, with their favorite 80’s mix tapes blaring.  You’ll save fistfuls of cash, and your workforce moral is likely to skyrocket. Be sure to set up an accountability system to ensure that only the most productive employees are awarded the privilege of working remotely. Keep a bare bones staff on hand at the office during regular business hours to receive clients, provide customer service, and take care of your day-to-day operations. 

#2 - Curtail the Snail Mail 

Every time you send a fax or email in lieu of a stamped letter, you are saving on: 

• postage
• letterhead
• envelopes
• manpower (you know, to stuff the things)

The amount of money you save per month of course depends on how much snail mail you are currently sending. Here are a few common snail mail sends that are non-necessities:  

• bills (utilize electronic bill pay instead)
• promotional flyers (send out an email blast instead)
• complaint responses (call in person, or fax/email your response)

In addition to saving money, electronic communications ensure that your recipients will not have to wait for the postman to lug his heavy bag up the hill and fight with the neighborhood dogs to get your response delivered. Oh, and another bonus. Every time you refrain from sending snail mail, you are saving the environment. Let your clients know you are switching to electronic communication to be a more eco-friendly business, and you are not likely to get any flack for your money saving move.

#3 - Skype Instead of Calling Long Distance 

Phone bills add up fast, especially if your office makes a significant amount of long distance calls each month. Consider “personalizing” your office calls via a video Skype session. This way, the recipient of your call will see an actual human face in addition to just a voice on the other line. Psst… even though your clients and colleagues may rave about your ramped up customer service initiative, you and I both know the reason you switched over was to save pennies since Skype is, at present, 100% free. 

#4 - Hire Interns to Assist with Your Marketing 

The average business spends hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars every month on advertising. However, we presently live in the computer age, where it is possible to drum up an incredible amount of online advertising absolutely free of charge. Generating key-word rich content and creating high quality editorial links to your website can be pricey if you hire professions to do the job. But if you invite a few computer technology or marketing majors straight out of college to do the job for you while they learn the ropes of the industry, you get advertising either completely free or at a fraction of the cost. Have your interns work remotely to save yourself even more. 

Sean Gray runs a used car dealership and has been doing so for years. If you’d like to learn more about Sean you can visit his site or check out Cash For Trucks on Facebook.

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Have a successful day!

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