When most of us think of how to grow our business, we tend to think of how we can get more customers. And while this is important, it’s not the only way to grow. In fact, cutting costs can be an effective way to stimulate growth. Here’s how.
Become more efficient
Cutting costs means getting rid of the waste inside your business. This could consist of minimizing the amount of steps it takes to get something done, or finding systems that allow you to do things more quickly. And when you do this, you’ll be able to process more orders or work with more clients, helping you bring in new business and grow.
Also, increased efficiency usually means happier customers. When things happen quickly and easily, this usually translates into higher levels of customer satisfaction, which helps spread the word about your business and also increases the chances previous customers will come back to you.
Invest wisely
The expression “it takes money to make money” didn’t come out of nowhere. For any business to grow, you need to be willing and able to put some money into it. Cost cutting is an alternative way to facilitate this investment. For example, switching internet service providers or outsourcing website maintenance can save you a bunch of time and money each month. You could then take those savings and use them in a marketing campaign, which will help bring you new customers and help the business grow.
Employee incentive
Growth is ultimately dependent on your ability to boost productivity. And this means getting more out of your employees than they are currently giving you. Obviously, you don’t want to put unnecessary pressure on people, as this will lead to resentment and burnout. But you do want to encourage them to work harder, and offering enticing incentives is a great way to do this.
Yet incentive programs cost money. But if you work to cut costs in other areas of your business, then you can apply these savings to an incentive program. Or you could use it for a workplace wellness initiative, especially since we know healthy employees tend to be more productive.
Knowledge breeds growth
It’s of course necessary to invest in the growth of your business. But don’t do this without first spending some time determining where you can cut costs, as this will allow you to support growth initiatives without skyrocketing costs.
About the Author: Kevin Conner is the founder of Vast Bridges, a lead generation and customer acquisition firm focused on helping companies grow. In his role, Kevin gets to follow his passion of developing and implementing a strategic business for different companies, something that has allowed him to become an expert on the different ways of growing a business.
