Previous posts have discussed ways to save money around the home and office and last week we discussed how learning how to cut back in certain areas out of necessity can become a habit to carry through even in profitable times. This week I wanted to point out several ways you can make cuts to save money in your small business. Again, these can be done out of necessity in times of hardship but why not think of them as necessary all of the time to use this money elsewhere? We will break this up in to a series of posts to cover a wide variety of ways you can consider to save money in your business.
A great way to save money when running a small business is by working from home. This not only saves you money renting an office but also on gas which is very costly right now and on work clothes. If you have employees that work for you as well, consider allowing them to telecommute from home too. Using telecommuting employees not only saves you money but opens up your area of hiring and can allow you to find people who are more qualified even if they don’t live nearby. Of course depending on the type of business you run, this may or may not be an option. You may also find that employees given the freedom of telecommuting are more productive and happier as seen in this survey done by Cisco. If you are a business trying to go “green” then this is a bonus for that reason as well.
There are many tools that can make telecommuting with employees in various locations easier. Google Docs is an obvious easy option for sharing documents with a group with everyone being able to access and work on them. Online collaboration tools such as Basecamp, Project Pier and Project2Manage help teams set goals, schedule tasks and keep track of hours worked. Twiddla is a great free whiteboard for team brainstorming. Vyew and Skype are great communication tools for a group. With Skype you can instant message another team member or make free calls to them. Vyew offers online meetings where you can share desktops with other team members, give a presentation or offer training to other employees.
If you are undecided if telecommuting is a good fit for you or your company, check out Telcoa.org and their Top Ten Reasons to Telecommute.
Related articles
- Is telecommuting a good option for your company? (econsultancy.com)
on Jun 7th at 8:51 pm
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