What my company need to do to spend less? If you have not found the answer, know that the path to the solution begins with another question: “Do we make a good cost management?”. If you are in doubt, better keep reading. Here are 7 essential tips that can be applied in any business that wants to grow sustainably:
1. Implement a containment spent culture
It is very likely that your staff cultivate some irresponsible spending habits. Believe me, sooner or later, they will explain why this or that goal has not been reached. So it is necessary to adopt as soon as possible a culture of cost containment, with projects that offer value in the medium term. For example, using recyclable materials, halving paper consumption and giving new uses to things that would be discarded. Over time, this culture will inspire in all employees a constant commitment in finding the most economical way to do any work.
2. Understand where the money is spent
Which goods and services does your team need? Remember that there is no innovation more powerful than ensuring the basics. When your company buys a good or service unnecessary, it is going against what it needs, which is making the investment pay off for a long time. A solution for you have no doubt about the projects cost indeed for your company is to adopt a professional project management tool.
3. Standardize purchases
It is common to see different departments using different suppliers to buy similar products and services. If your company does so, you are losing the opportunity to negotiate and get a better price, with all purchasing from the same place. But before closing any business …
4. Always compare prices
Do not assume that their suppliers are doing the best possible price. Acquire the same goods and services every year means loyalty, but not always economy. Therefore, ensure that you are getting the same attention you give. In addition, its competitors buy the same product or hire the same service you at a lower price? It is requirement of an intelligent cost management make a benchmarking (use the competition as a reference) full.
5. Create a relationship, not a debtor
Cultivating a relationship of partnership with its customers and suppliers, only reinforce the opportunities to reduce costs. Ask them suggestions on how to improve the way you acquire goods and services. Buying online, for example, you can help your provider to reduce the costs of maintaining a physical store. Similarly, extending the deadline for payment of their important customers, you prove that trusts them and gives one more reason to choose your company.
6. Measure the results
Measure and share with the team the results achieved is the engine of continuity. So, treat the control of spending as a constant job, not only an assessment that is done from time to time. Measure spending as a percentage of sales, and you will ensure that, if they fall sales also fall costs. Otherwise, you will know that something must be investigated.
7. Keep alert
Maintain cost management in full swing, as a same culture, it is critical to the success of any business. That is why you must ensure that staff do not come back to their old ways here a year or two, and sure to observe its suppliers and monitor their benchmarks. Appoint a team responsible for regulating finance, facilitate repayments, make spending transparent, and read the terms of contracts of everyday life and protect the company from a price increase of a partner without reasons. The team understand how the issue of finance requires much more attention than you think.
(Bonus) How to automate the cost management
Nothing is more unproductive than working on what does not matter. In other words, it’s not viable to continue looking after the finances of your business using spreadsheets that need to be constantly updated by hand. Especially when you can adopt a tool like Runrun.it, which is able to inform the costs of all projects and customers at any time. Want to know how? Try for free: http://runrun.it
