Money saving tips for businesses

We all, as individuals and as businesses, find ourselves squeezed at the moment, given the present state of the economy. All businesses are constantly looking for ways in which they can save money, but in the current economic climate is there anything extra that businesses can do? There are, of course, many things that could be considered, but below are listed five tips that perhaps could go a long way into making those all-important savings.

1. Negotiate the price of everything. Sometimes some of us can be reluctant to barter the price of something down, whether this is a product or a service. The old adage of ‘if you don’t ask you don’t get’ certainly applies, the very act of simply asking for a discount can sometimes be enough to get a reduction in the price. Suppliers will be used to this and the person you are talking do may even be authorised to offer discounts up to a certain amount.

2. Cut down on the meetings by using conference calling. If your business requires you to often get together for a meeting, either with colleagues or suppliers, rather than all of you having to spend money on travel costs and hiring a venue why not use a conference call system? Conference call services allow you and others to all dial one number at a pre-arranged time and have your conversation in real time with all of you in attendance. Generally, you do not need to enter into any form of contract; the caller simply pays the cost of a phone call.

3. Energy consumption. An obvious one perhaps. Do you leave your computer switched on overnight? A lot of people do, especially in offices, simply to save time on booting it up again in the morning. Turning your computer off overnight, switching lights off when not required and setting the thermostat a degree lower will all save your business money. Did you know that by turning your thermostat a degree lower will save you on average 10 percent on your heating bill?

4. Shipping. If you need to post a lot of items all in one go consider changing to a courier service. The Post Office is not always the cheapest, if you use a courier service frequently perform some research online and see what discounts are available to you when you use the service in large volumes or often.

5. Buy used equipment. If you need, for example, a new printer there is no need to buy a new one, buying refurbished equipment will save you money. Additionally, buy recycled printer cartridges. This can be a massive saving; a third party manufactured printer cartridge can be several times cheaper than the original product.

Matt Smith – Freelance business, conference calls and technology blogger.