Business professionals who decide to start their ventures should analyze their strengths and weaknesses. If you’ve decided to go your own way, you probably possess enough skills and qualifications in your niche.
What might be defined as your weakness in this (ad)venture is a lack of experience in business management. Being a distinguished expert in a certain field doesn’t mean that you’ll immediately become an efficient business owner.
From task management and recruitment to payroll and business costs, there are many aspects of SMB management to take care of. In the next few paragraphs, you can learn some frugal tips for more economical SMB management.
Outsourcing instead of employment
Every long-term employment contract is a serious commitment for both interested parties in such a relationship.
That’s why new SMBs should be careful when it comes to such arrangements.
What they should do instead is base their work collaborations on outsourcing and temporary contracts.
Newly launched businesses usually don’t have an excess of projects in the initial stage of their existence. The owner himself/herself should be able to handle those tasks at the beginning. Only when the number of accepted tasks and projects starts to increase should they think about asking for help. At this point, it’s necessary to make an approximate estimate in terms of the number of hours necessary to complete those tasks. If it pays off more to pay those collaborators on an hourly basis, go for such a deal.
Only when it’s more economical to pay those people per project than per hour should you consider offering them a short-term contract. In all other situations, outsourcing is more frugal when compared to hiring in-house staff.
Long-term contracts are justified only when you know that you’ll be getting new projects over a longer course of time.
Relying on cloud solutions
Business owners who want to prosper while putting some money aside for future investments need to reduce their in-house and office expenses.
First and foremost, relying on cloud solutions instead of buying full software solutions is a better solution. Software-as-a-service packages are available in various versions and for different needs. From cloud-based storage and collaboration tools to online conference solutions and software solutions, there’s a whole world of options out there.
So, SMB-owners should switch from buying and downloading full packages to using as many tools as possible online. What’s more, those online packages are usually scalable, which means that you can choose to pay the number and scope of services in line with your current needs. Once the workload reduces, you can downscale those solutions and save some money.
Automated accounting
Performing your business tasks in the best way possible is one thing, but writing down what you’ve done in an organized and taxation-friendly way is completely different.
SMB-accounting requires a certain level of commitment and accuracy. If you’re not precise and meticulous in this area, some payments and taxes might slip under your radar. Such omissions may result in conflicts with your employees and tax authorities. The latter is something that no business owner needs in their career.
Therefore, it’s recommended to start using one of the automated accounting solutions. You can connect them with your business bank account for easier tracking of payments and transactions. That way, they will calculate and note down taxes for each of your business transactions. This is a practical thing for every business, since you’ll have everything tracked and calculated for the tax return. What’s more, you’ll keep all your accounts payable and receivable in one place.
Projected and controlled growth
When it comes to economical business management, it’s crucial to set the right pace for your business growth. If your business develops too slowly, you might not earn enough assets to keep your motor rolling.
On the other hand, too fast and uncontrolled growth might be more than you can handle, given your experience in business management.
What you need is the golden mean of business growth. To achieve this goal, it’s necessary to set the amount of money you want or need make per month. Calculate all your overhead expenses, tax payments, and contributions for pension and health insurance. Then add the money you need to lead a lifestyle you’re aiming for. Once you have this sum, take into account the number of working hours per month that you want to spend at work.
Now you can start accepting projects in line with these calculations. As long as you can handle all these elements on your own, don’t accept new projects, to keep your business growing in a controlled way.
Frugal online marketing
Last, but not least for new business owners, is the world of digital marketing. To cut a long story short, you should use as many free features available for online business promotion as possible.
Create business pages on social media, most importantly on Facebook and Instagram. For professional development and networking, join niche-related Facebook groups and connect with professionals on LinkedIn.
Take part in forum discussions and use the potentials of YouTube and other similar streaming platforms. All these things are available for free.
Also, you’ll need a proper website for your SMB. As explained by the experts from a long-term web design company, today websites don’t have to cost an arm and a leg to be efficient. Think about your needs and tell your chosen web designers what budget you have.
Those frugal online marketing options will put your business on the business Web map and increase your chances of landing appropriate business collaborations.
Every cent is important in business management. This approach is even more important when you’re starting out as a business owner. Therefore, you should rely on your core niche-related skills to perform as many tasks as possible alone instead of recruiting. Reduce the number of purchased full-scale solutions, since most of these products are available in the SaaS form. Apart from that, use automated accounting tools and keep your growth in controlled conditions. Finally, rely on digital marketing to promote your business for free in all available ways to ensure online visibility in an economical and efficient way.
Author Byline:
Liam Collins is a tech pundit and Web enthusiast working at TuiSpace.com. He spends most of his time reading and writing about the current affairs in the world of information technology. When he isn’t working, he likes going for long bike rides and walks in nature.