4. Offer part-time work options
You may not necessarily need to let employees go to reduce your payroll costs. Offer your full-time employees the opportunity to switch to part-time roles or job-sharing arrangements on reduced salaries. While this will not be favourable for all your people, some may jump at the chance to spend more time with family or dedicate extra hours to their side hustle.
5. Consider a virtual workforce
Online communications and project management tools have developed in leaps and bounds. Adopting a virtual or remote workforce model could save you a significant amount. With some employees working from home where possible, you may be able to downsize your physical office space. And that means less rent and associated overheads to pay.
6. Transition to e-commerce
If you’re in the retail game, consider investing more in e-commerce. Moving as much of your sales online as possible could mean you’ll be able to reduce the number of bricks-and-mortar stores you operate while maintaining your sales revenue. Fewer stores likely means reduced overheads and a smaller workforce on your payroll.
7. Explore outsourcing
Outsourcing non-critical business processes to third parties could also help reduce costs. For example, using a virtual assistant service may come in significantly cheaper than employing a full-time personal assistant.
Using a marketing agency may also be more cost-effective than maintaining an in-house marketing department, and a chatbot service might help take some pressure off your customer service department.
There are really only two ways to make your business more profitable: sell more or save more. When economic conditions make selling more difficult, it can be a good idea to look inwards to identify where you can reduce expenditure to ensure the longevity of your business.