How to Reduce Small Business Expenses in 5 Ways

May 20, 2021

Lean and Mean: 5 Ways Small Businesses Can Cut Costs

Although vaccination efforts are now underway across the world, many aspects of human society will never remain the same. The pandemic has affected almost every facet of your day-to-day life, and small business owners are among those who have been most affected.

Hundreds of thousands of businesses have had to shut down or drastically reduce their operations to stay open. And despite the promises of a post-pandemic world, almost all of them may never recover.

Expert analysis of data on business closures revealed that only approximately 3 percent of businesses that have closed will open their doors once more. Majority of these businesses are small enterprises who will have a hard time restructuring their finances and reorganizing their operations.

You have multiple strategies toemploy to ensure your company remains in business. One such strategy is to trim down your expenses, which will let you funnel resources to running your business.

Here are five ways to cut down your small business’s operational costs.

1. Outsource Jobs

Many parts of your small business’s operations don’t actually require a full-time employee to accomplish. Go over your entire operational structure and determine which tasks can be outsourced. These tasks are often those that don’t need to be done every day and require complex training, training that your employees may not the time or bandwidth to receive.

For example, many companies rely onaccountants for small businesses to ensure their finances and paperwork are in order. Other businesses outsource their website management and design, freeing up valuable man-hoursfor work more relevant to their enterprise.

1. Reconsider Your Office Space

One of the primary reasons many small businesses shuttered their doors was to avoid paying expensive rental feels on commercial property. If you want to trim down your business costs significantly, you should look for a way to decrease the amount you pay for office space. Renegotiate the terms of your lease with your landlord or find less expensive commercial space.

Maybe you can even forgo having an office space. For example, if you’re running a business that sells natural preservatives for cosmetics, you may not need a full office. Perhaps you can get by with some storage space and manage your enterprise from home instead.

1. Reduce Non-Essential Perks

Employee perks help brighten up the mood, but collectively they can be a massive drain on your finances. All those fresh fruits, bottled water and similar perks can be making up a significant portion of your business’s expenses. Take a look at the various employee perks your small business is doling out and take note of how much they cost every week or month.

Next, discuss these reductions in perks with your employees. Which perks are they most willing to let go? Which ones can they live without? Bringing in your employees to gauge their reactions to such perk reduction is important because the purpose of these perks is to retain them. Their input and opinion in which ones they’re willing to lose is vital.

1. Renegotiate Employee Benefits

Yet another sacrifice you may have to make is reduce or renegotiate employee benefits, such as health insurance, allowances and similar things. It’s even more vital that you bring in your employees to discuss such reductions because it will have long-term effects on their well-being. Rather than cut them out outright, find ways you can reduce your expenses on these benefits.

For example, talk to your health insurance provider and discuss if there is a less expensive plan you can put your employees on. Look over employee allowances and calculate what would be an acceptable reduction. Maybe just reducing such allowances by 15 percent would be enough to make a difference in your budget. But never forget to inform employees on such cuts and alterations, so you retain their trust.

1. Go Digital

You can save substantially by embracing digitization. For example, increasing your use of electronic media and documents can mean you won’t have to buy as many office supplies like paper and printers. Streamlining your operations by incorporating more digital processes can be key in reducing associated costs. Sticking to virtual meetings and increasing your use of similar media will not only keep employees safe but decrease travel costs, like gasoline and parking.

Your small business requires sacrifices and now more than ever, you need to be smart about which sacrifices you’re going to make. These tips will help you keep your doors open and your business profitable through the uncertain times ahead.

Starting Your Line Painting Business During This Pandemic

May 4, 2021

How to Start and Grow Your Line Painting Business in 2021

The line painting industry is one of the most underrated industries in the US. There isn’t even an estimated market value for it as of this time. Currently, it is integrated with the traffic road marking coating industry which is estimated to be at $4 billion and expected to grow by 6% in the next few years. It is a sizable industry, but you have to note that line painting is a service that only takes up a portion of the market.

Despite its small size, it’s an essential business for many industries out there, like real estate. If you’re planning to start a quick and easy business that can give you an opening to expand and grow to other sectors like the construction industry, then the line painting business is for you. Here is how you can start a line painting business this year.

Cost of a Line Painting Business

A line painting business has a meager overhead cost when compared to other businesses out there. It’s estimated that you only have to spend between $2,000 to $10,000 to start this particular business. If you compare it to the overhead cost of other businesses out there, you’ll see that this investment is among the cheapest in the market.

Once you get started, you’ll see that line painting is not only meant for roads. There are other industries out there that require line painting, such as the sports industry. You’ll be asked to mark football fields or basketball courts. Your business might also be called to mark parking lots and other properties out there. It is a diverse business model that you can run inside your home, which means you don’t need to rent an office.

You also don’t need to hire full-time employees. You can hire freelancers who are willing to do the job for you. If you want to save up, you can always do the jobs yourself, given that you have the right equipment for the job.

Buy High-quality and Modern Equipment

Your investments will go primarily to the equipment you’ll be using for the job. Since you rely so much on the equipment, you should invest in the best in the market.

As stated earlier, it’s quite cheap to start a line marking business. However, you’d want to have the best equipment for the job if you want to be ahead of the competition. For example, using reflective road marking paint can be a worthwhile investment because they last longer, even on roads that receive a ton of traffic. The less likely it fades away, the less time you have to spend to maintain it. This gives you more time for other jobs out there. Another example is using a modern paint-striping machine. Old paint striping machines can be very inefficient and hazardous to your health because of their fumes.

Using a more modern paint-striping machine can cut down the time you have to do a job, and it can be much safer to use. You can also invest more into a heavy-duty paint striping machine once your business takes off. This ensures that you’re ready for highways. These are usually jobs given by the government.

Having the best-quality equipment can open you up to more jobs in the industry. The more jobs you take, the more income you generate. This will help you grow your company in the future.

Partner with Local Businesses

As a line painting business, you’d want to partner up with real estate developers and construction businesses in your city. Tell them that you can do line painting jobs for them at a much lower price. Since you’ll be doing these jobs in bulk, you can get a much higher profit margin, even if you offer your services cheap. Additionally, by partnering up with local businesses, you can ensure that you have jobs for the entire quarter.

Be Aware of COvID-19 Protocols

Lastly, you must be aware of the construction protocols during the pandemic. The line painting business is widely associated with construction, so those are the protocols you’ll be following, and you can find them here. The pandemic has only affected line marking businesses last year. Now, line marking jobs are everywhere as the economy tried to catch up on real estate development projects on hold last year.

Starting a line marking business during the pandemic is quite easy compared to starting other businesses out there. Just be aware of the protocols and how much you have to spend to start your business. The rest of the work is finding the job you need to grow your company. Eventually, you can expand to other industries out there, like the construction industry.