5 ways businesses can cut their costs during a pandemic

There’s no denying it that businesses are all feeling it right now, and it could get worse. To help with job losses and hopefully help other businesses look at where their expenses are we have put this article together showing some ways in which businesses can save money in these tough times.

I’m sure you have considered many of the most common money-saving ways and you may already be considering laying off your staff but before that try some of these methods first.

1) Downsize your office

Your office space is usually one of your biggest expenses and if this applies to you and your lease is either up or you work on a rolling contract you could consider downsizing your office space or even move to a coworking space.

A coworking space is a great way to keep up your appearances of being a professional company while cutting back on costs.  

Ricky the director of Weeare said that “Downsizing our office to a co-working space has allowed us to save 50% on office expenses, it isn’t as convenient as renting the whole building but it has allowed our team to interact with others and we have even picked up business by networking with other businesses in the same space”

2) Put licenses on hold

Some companies have expensive software that requires licenses for a certain number of users, if this applies to you think of all the licenses you have and if you can cut down on them for now until the business is back to normal at least.

Some pieces of software may even give you a payment holiday or allow you to downgrade your needs until later in the future. For some businesses this could save thousands a month alone, so be sure to check any licenses or SAAS products that you may pay on a monthly basis.

3) Cut down on fraud

Now, this may seem like a strange way of saving money but cutting down on fraud within your company can help you save a lot of money. Fraud can come in many forms whether it be employee absenteeism, employees stealing from you or employees using your software, hardware or vehicles in ways in which they shouldn’t be.

But before you go blazing ahead and calling out employees for misuse of company property or faking being sick you are going to need hard proof because if you get this wrong you will destroy the morale within your company and chances are that person will leave within a few months.

If you suspect fraud happening at your company you should consider hiring a private detective as they can help with the evidence retrieval and in some cases, they may also be able to help you with the retrieval of the money too.

4) Put items into storage

A small office and a storage unit are much cheaper than a large office with wasted space. If you have the chance to downgrade your office you should as you will be surprised by the amount of junk your company keeps that you don’t actually need.

Take a look around your office right now, how many cabinets, desks and chairs are not needed? If the answer is more than a few you should consider putting your furniture into storage and getting a smaller office.

Small businesses that rent warehouses could also be losing money by renting a space that they don’t need. Once again a storage unit or multiple storage units are much cheaper than hiring a warehouse that you don’t even half fill.

5) Hire contractors

Some companies will no doubt be hiring in this pandemic and if this is you please be cautious because things can change quickly. If you need your jobs filled why not consider hiring a contractor for now until the pandemic is over or at least until we have a better indication of how this pandemic will affect local businesses.

You can hire contractors from places such as Gumtree, Craigslist, Upwork and freelancer.com

If you need work done but don’t 100% need a full-time member of staff to do it then I would highly recommend using a freelancer/contractor as if things do go bad at any time in the future you don’t have to worry about having to cover their salary.

Conclusion

We don’t know what the future holds but making smart choices above can put our businesses in the best position possible so that we can plan for the worst and hope for the best.