As a small business owner, you’re probably deeply concerned about the impact of inflation on your business. By working with Lead2Goals, you can get sound financial advice from experienced consultants that will help you deal with this economic landscape. Additionally, these tips will enable you to keep your business afloat with reliable accounting software, cost-savvy marketing, and process optimization.
Choose the Right Accounting Software
When you’re managing your business in an inflationary environment, careful accounting is extremely important – you can’t afford to make bookkeeping errors. If you haven’t already invested in accounting software, or you’re not satisfied with the software you’re currently using, it’s time to find the right program for your business. Ideally, you’ll want to choose software that automates most processes, which drastically reduces the potential for human bookkeeping errors.
Thankfully, rather than paying a monthly fee, you can often find free versions of comprehensive accounting software that include essential functions like invoicing and tax deduction calculations. You could also consider meeting with an accountant to review your company’s finances.
Use Low-Cost Marketing Methods
If you’ve been spending a high percentage of your budget on marketing, consider cutting back your spending in this area by turning to budget-friendly marketing tools. This could include social media marketing, email marketing, and blogging. Relying on affordable marketing methods does not mean that your reach will automatically shrink – you might be surprised by how easily you can connect with your audience without spending a dime.
Furthermore, you can quickly create marketing materials with striking images by using a banner generator for your social media accounts. Not only will this help with catching people’s attention, but you can also use banners to let people know about sales, spread the word about your messaging, and help develop your brand.
Vendor Negotiation
Perhaps you’ve maintained relationships with certain vendors for years, and now that prices for essential supplies and services are rising, you’re worried that you might have to sever these relationships and seek out cheaper options. Don’t jump to this conclusion right away – instead, if your vendors have warned you that they might be raising their prices, try to negotiate with them first. Lucrum recommends gathering quotes from other suppliers to compare with your vendors and identifying other areas of mutual gain between your company and this vendor.
Automate Processes
Sometimes, you can save massively in terms of both time and money by automating key processes within your business. Not every process has to be handled manually, and automation can help you run your company more efficiently. But what kinds of processes can be automated? ProcessMaker states that you may be able to shift from manual to automated processes for filtering job applications, onboarding employees to company software, tracking leave and vacation requests, setting up purchase orders, answering basic customer support queries, and tracking IT support tickets.
Optimize Business Hours
Have you noticed that throughout a general business day, you barely have any customers during certain periods of time? You may want to consider simply closing down for a few hours when things are generally slow. This will reduce your operating costs without reducing your potential income. To figure out your optimal business hours, ADP recommends noting your foot traffic and business volume throughout the day, as well as when your staff is available.
You might be concerned about your company’s future as you grapple with inflation. But with the right tools, like accounting software, editing applications, and automation platforms, you can overcome the challenges posed by inflation. With these recommendations, you’ll be able to manage your budget well and continue boosting your profits.
Are you trying to grow your business in a tough economic climate? Working with Lead2Goals can help you succeed! Fill out the contact form on our website today to learn more about our consulting services.
Jenna Sherman | Guest Author
Jenna Sherman is a mom of three (two girls and a boy). She hopes to help other parents acquire the skills they need to raise future leaders by providing a collection of valuable, up-to-date, authoritative resources. She created parent-leaders.com as an avenue for parents who want to make sure their children grow up to be strong, independent, successful adults.
