When you need to make more net profit as a business, cutting expenses is surely the way to go? That’s actually a common misconception. While you might save in the short term by cutting expenses, you’ll get less return in the future. If you don’t provide your team with the resources that they need to complete projects, you’ll never move forward. That doesn’t mean to say that you can’t cut any expenses, but you need to be incredibly selective. These are the places that you should and shouldn’t make cuts.
Training
Training is often high on the list of things to be cut. Most companies will keep up to date with training new employees but they will cut training for existing employees. The thinking behind it is that they already know what they’re doing so they don’t need any more training. The truth is, you could see some serious downturns in productivity if you don’t maintain a regular training program. Security is one of the most important areas that your employees need training in. Companies like Cannon Guards security training can help you to keep on top of your office security and ensure that your security guards are protecting your business to the best of their ability.
Security can also suffer if your employees aren’t properly trained in dealing with sensitive information. Your customers will often trust you with their personal details and if your employees are careless with them and lose them, you’ll lose the trust of your customers and they won’t want to deal with you anymore.
Long-Term Projects
If you’re looking for ways to reduce your business expenses, you might be inclined to look at the expensive, long-term projects that you’re running. An expensive marketing campaign is going to put you in more trouble so people think that cutting it is the right thing to do. But if you look to the future, you’ll realize that those projects are going to increase sales. Cutting expenses might keep you afloat in the short-term but if you don’t start bringing in more revenue, you’ll just end up going in circles.
Office Supplies
Office supplies are a place that you can cut spending. It doesn’t seem as though it would make that much difference but all of those small costs add up over time. Going paperless is one of the easiest ways to save huge amounts of money. It also speeds up the office if people deal with documents digitally, rather than having to run around the office sharing paper copies.
Employees That Aren’t Needed
Nobody likes firing people, but in times of trouble, you need to make difficult business decisions. As your business evolves, certain positions become redundant. Those changes happen gradually so you don’t always realize. It might be that you’ve now got automated software that deals with those duties, or that somebody else has incorporated them into their role. These employees aren’t going to walk into your office and tell you that they’re useless because they don’t want to lose their job. When you need to scale back, review all of your employees and find out exactly what they do. If they only perform one or two small duties, these could be shared out between the rest of the team.
Next time you decide to cut expenses, have a long think about it before you start slashing.
