A lean business is a smart business – and that was before we entered a global pandemic. Now, with so many organizations struggling, keeping expenditures low and cash reserves high is more important than ever.
One of the best ways to cut costs when times are tough? Take your business completely virtual.
Though it might feel like a bit of a gamble to go 100% remote on a budget, it can be as simple as knowing where to save and where to spend. Here’s how to take the leap.
Chances are, your employees may already be working from home. Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean they have all the supplies or office furniture they need to be comfortable permanently working remotely.
That’s where you come in.
Start by giving your employees first dibs and deep discounts on anything in the office. Make it known that everything negotiable from pens and paper to chairs and coffee makers.
With so many schools and offices going remote, there’s a huge secondhand demand.
For anything that doesn’t get scooped up in round one, make an inventory of all you have left and let the public have at it. Put the word out on Facebook Marketplace and have your employees share the sale on their social accounts.
Working from home doesn’t work for everyone. Rambunctious kids, chatty roommates and cramped living quarters have some folks begging to go back to work. Many are finding affordable office rental options difficult to come by, meaning there’s probably a market for your vacant office.
If you have a space that could function as a retail outlet, see if any hotels or Airbnb properties in your area are looking for a temporary storefront to offload their housewares.
The point is, even if you can’t completely terminate your office lease you can still get creative and find a way to profit from the unused space.
Event spaces are feeling the pinch, so while you could probably negotiate a great deal on your next team-building exercise or company retreat, you could also host a virtual event for little to nothing.
With the money you would have spent on just the rental, use a portion of those funds to send much less costly goody bags to employees.
To make it extra special, consider filling gift bags with top-notch snacks and even booze for virtual happy hours or lengthy training sessions.
Scrimping on your IT budget is a mistake you can’t afford to make when going 100% remote with your business. If you do, it’ll almost certainly be your last.
Start by investing in all the usual suspects: cloud technology for real-time collaboration, security tools to protect your business data, team chat and video conferencing apps to keep you connected, online office suites to get it all done, project management software to help you stay organized, etc.
When setting up your virtual infrastructure, look at all the tools you use in-office and decide if there’s an online alternative that can replace them.
An example? Instead of worrying about what to do with physical mail or faxes use virtual services like Anytime Mailbox or FAX.PLUS to digitize these and other physical processes. Execute a lot of contracts? Look into alternatives like HelloSign or PandaDoc to collect signatures electronically.
Come the next office birthday, supply shortage or holiday card send-off, you’re going to be glad you didn’t relieve your admin support in the process of going remote.
Office or not, someone should still be around to manage general operations. If you’re looking for places to save, skip right over this critical role.
Moving your company completely virtual can save you big, but only if you know where to keep investing. Set up these safety nets before you make the leap to ensure your business doesn’t fall flat.