January 15, 2008

Cutting Costs for Your Business

For a business to be profitable, revenue must exceed expenses. To increase the amount of revenue, many businesses look for ways to reduce expenses. Start by analyzing your current expenses. Categorize them into two distinct groups, one for expenses you have to have, and the other for expenses you can possibly lower or eliminate from your business budget.

Travel and entertainment
The areas most businesses can drastically cut down on are travel and entertainment expenses. You can still have a Christmas party, but scale it down to the staff only rather than inviting spouses. Change the location to save on cost. If your company is in jeopardy of survival your employees will understand. Discuss the reasons why such changes are taking place in advance.

Necessary expenses
Take a look at expenditures including insurance and cleaning. Have your insurance and other variable expenses re-evaluated. You may be eligible for additional discounts. Comparison shop with other companies as well to ensure the best rates possible for the coverage you need. If you are spending large amounts of money to have the office cleaned, consider cutting the services back one or two days per week. This will result in a large savings over time.

High phone and utility bills are often an area most businesses can reduce costs in. Make sure lights and business equipment are turned off when not in use. Have employees keep a log of long distance phone calls. Avoid making them if at all possible. Try alternate communication methods including email and letters.

Standardize your business equipment. Make sure all staff is well trained in their operations. This will result in more productivity and less down time overall. Make sure the use of office supplies is not abused. Recycle paper and binders whenever possible. Consider changing to lower wattage light bulbs to further reduce the utility costs.

Buy in bulk
Another great way to save on business expenses is to purchase items in bulk through a wholesaler. By cutting out the middleman, you will reduce your costs. Reduce the amount of inventory you have on head. It is expensive to store it. If you operate a business with seasonal fluctuations, consider running consistently all year long. This will eliminate the expense of paying overtime during the busy season.

It is very easy for business expenses to spiral out of control it they are not carefully monitored. It is important to evaluate your expenses on a regular basis, and make adjustments as necessary. Keeping your expenses as low as possible will enable the business to increase revenue without increasing production or marketing.

Consider asking your employees to contribute ways the business can save money. Since they are on the front line every day, they can often pick up on things that management doesn't see as easily. Every little change can add up to large savings over the course of time. Employees who take pride in their work are more likely to be conservative at work with supplies and resources. Do your best to keep the work environment positive and inviting.

January 10, 2008

Create a Web Site for Your Local Business


If you have a local business that caters to the people that live in your city or town, then advertising on the internet has probably not been an attractive way to reach people. However new ways of advertising have changed this way of thinking. If you would like to reach people on the internet that may want to frequent your establishment in a specific locality, you can now pay for pin pointed online advertisements.

Google has been working on a way for local businesses to advertise online using Google Adwords. What is great about this new local feature is that you can now reach thousands of people via the internet who live in your specific locality.

This is great for people that own a restaurant or a contracting service that would like to take advantage of low cost advertising rates through google Adwords and reach people that surf the net.

With a local Adwords campaign you can reach plenty of people that live at your location and would be interested in buying your products or services. No matter what town or city or region you live in, you can reach your customer base quickly and easy.

Google Adwords is based on the pay per click model. The merchant creates a text based ad that is shown on Google's web site or an affiliates web site that is related to the keyword or phrase that you pick. If a viewer sees your ads and is interested, they can click your ad and be taken directly to your web site. You only pay for those people that click your advertisement. Most merchants usually spend $.05 to $.50 per click. So if you are looking for a great way to reach your local customers, check out the above tips.