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10 Effective Tech Tips for Startups & Small Businesses to Cut Down Operating Expenses

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New startups and small businesses have a small budget to run their business. They have more things to do but less money in hand, so it’s better to look for ways to cut down operating expenses.

There are major areas where businesses are losing more money than they should spend. This is a big reason why most startups fail in a few months since they were unable to spend money the right way.

Businesses need to look for things to reduce costs to improve their financial health. In this article, we have listed 10 effective tech tips for startups and small businesses to save money and increase their efficiency simultaneously.

Effective Tech Tips to Cut Down Operating Expenses

1. Adopt cloud telephony

Your wired telephone line can get very expensive and add unnecessary business expenses. While running a business, you will make many calls that would increase your phone bills. Also, you will need additional hardware to set up your phone lines.

Cloud telephony eliminates all the issues of traditional phone systems. You can easily add virtual phone lines using the software provided by the cloud-based phone systems. Cloud phones are very affordable. Your phone calls bills will be down by half using a cloud phone.

Cloud telephony will also eliminate the need for additional hardware infrastructure for your phone line. You can use your existing device like smartphones or laptops to make phone calls using the softphone.

It only requires an active internet connection and credentials to give you access to VoIP phone calls.

If you want to have your own small call center, then cloud phone providers offer call center software with powerful features to get everything started. This not only saves money but also improves your productivity.

2. Go digital and paperless

While running a business, you will have to do a lot of paperwork. That means you need to buy paper, ink, printers, cartridges, mailing supplies, postage, etc.

Although these are necessary resources and may seem not too much at times, the final expenses end up being higher than you expect.

They can quickly get very expensive in very little time. The solution for this is to go paperless. Going paperless by printing only when necessary is the absolute best way to save more money.

You can easily switch to a digital invoice and bill payment system and use online workspace tools to save and share your data.

Also, putting all vital information on your computer and cloud rather than in a filing cabinet can help you save money on some of the most frequent recurrent company expenses.

3. Online marketing strategy

Marketing is an essential part of growing a business. There are many advertisements and marketing campaigns that you must perform to increase the popularity of your business and product.

But a small business cannot afford all the expenses of marketing. It gets way too expensive quickly. If marketing was a one-time thing, there would be only a little investment, but a business needs to constantly focus on marketing to keep the business on the map.

There is a very easy solution to market your company using the internet. If you haven’t jumped on the internet marketing trend yet, you’re missing out on the strong, high-result, affordable marketing opportunities.

You can begin with a business blog to cheaply advertise and sell your product through your website. You need to pay for the website, which is very cheap than traditional marketing techniques.

If you are on social media like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc., you should definitely know its wide range of attracting people. You can use social media marketing as a free promotional stage and product selling gateway.

There are other forms of internet promotion that you can find, and expect a pretty quick market coverage with extremely little startup expenditures.

4. Use power-saving equipment

You will need to use different types of electrical equipment like light bulbs, computers, printers, and more.

These things consume electricity a little at a time, but soon the electricity bill rises really high. The more electricity you use, the higher the electricity cost. So, the definite solution is going green.

You may have heard the phrase: going green saves green. Well, in your case, going green will decrease the electricity expenses. They are energy-saving equipment that performs the same as high energy-consuming equipment but uses very few units of electricity.

The more energy-efficient your business is, the lower your electricity expenses will be. Whether running an office or a home-based business, you need to buy power-saving equipment.

5. Outsourcing

You need to do so many works every day while running a business. And some work requires dedicated technology or devices to make your product. As a small business, buying such machinery could be really expensive, and you cannot afford to add more expenses to your list.

You can outsource your work to a third party who has those necessary devices to make your products. This way, you can pay only for making the product and eliminate the need to buy the devices yourself.

One quick tip for you. If you cannot hire additional staff in your office, you can outsource your work to a freelancer or give a contract for a period of time. It will be cost-effective and efficient.

6. Recycle

You will use different things while running a business, like printers, mobile phones, computers, cartridges, batteries, bottles, etc. If these things are no longer usable for you, you can recycle them.

Recycling things by giving them to recycling centers can clean up your office and get money for some items. Another way of recycling is donating usable items like mobile phones, computers, etc., to organizations that can help you write some of your tax-off.

7. Buy used or refurbished items

When you are starting a new business, there are many things that you need to buy. From office equipment to furniture, you need to buy everything. Getting everything new will get really expensive and affect your business budget.

Therefore, you can buy used items like mobiles, computers, etc. Many stores are selling used items that you can buy to reduce expenses. These items are used but are still functional to do your job. Usually, used items’ prices are very low compared to buying a new one.

Also, you can buy refurbished items like furniture that have been reconditioned to look like a new one. These items cost higher than used items but are cheaper than the new ones. The best part is refurbished items look brand new to the eye. So it’s a win-win.

8. Remote work

Sometimes affording an office space can be really expensive for small businesses. Alternatively, you can adopt remote work.

You can directly work from your home by setting up an office inside your own home. This is a great choice for startups as they can now focus on business and have no need to think about paying office rent.

There are numerous remote working tools like Trello, Slack, KrispCall, Google workspace, etc., that can assist you in managing your office work as well as your clients/customers. You can easily connect with your staff and customers exactly like in an actual office.

Another thing is that you will minimize the cost of equipment and other necessary expenses. Also, having staff work remotely is really a smart way to reduce the cost of setting up an office and buying office equipment like chairs, computers, etc.

9. Manage the finances

The most crucial part of the business is the budget. A small business has a small budget. Thus, they need to plan their budget in such a way they don’t spend money on unnecessary items or spend higher than the allocated budget.

Businesses need to minimize costs by making smart financial decisions. There are numerous financing tools that will help you handle your financial notes.

For startups, there are some effective tools like Mint, Personal Capital, Hubstaff, etc., that you can find online to plan and track your budget and investments.

Having a strong idea of the current status of your budget is necessary to make the right call for business. It helps you cut expenses, save time, and make sure your business runs smoothly.

10. Ditch unused software

While starting up a business, you may end up getting many software to serve your business purposes. But the question is, do you use all of them? Most software costs money, so if you are not using it, that is an unwanted expense for your business.

You undoubtedly have applications on your computer that you’ve never used or used very little.

You can save money on your business expenses by simply buying the software only you need and eliminating the cost of extra apps as well as any upgrade fees required to maintain the software updated.

Alternatively, you can use open-source software that gives almost the same uses as branded software but is free of cost or very cheap.

Conclusion

Reducing expenses is important for startups and small businesses to ease their struggle of running businesses. They need to spend more money on necessary areas and eliminate unnecessary expenses. Follow these tech tips to improve your chances of running a stable business.

Author’s Bio

Sujan Thapaliya is the CEO and Co-founder of KrispCall. He has a wealth of computer, communications, and security experience. As well as years of experience in the industry, Sujan has also conducted investigative research into issues such as privacy and fraud. Through KrispCall, he aspires to make business communication safer, reliable, and more affordable.

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Sujan Thapaliya

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