10 Tips for Cutting Your Costs to Increase your Profits
Published:
November 23, 2022
Our question for personal reflection last week was can you cut your costs to make more profit?
Sometimes it’s easier to cut costs than generate more income. This can be the difference between make and break for a creative business especially in the early days, or during tough financial periods, such as the current economic climate. As our fixed outgoings rent/rates, building costs etc are unavoidably quite high we had to be really thrifty at Blick during the early days to make things work. Here are a few ways we have managed our costs over the years and a few ideas that may help you.
- Make sure your bank account is the best value and shop around to see which accounts offer the lowest bank charges
- Monitor your costs as you go along rather than just at the year end. Sometimes you will find you have been paying for a subscription for something which you haven’t used all year!
- Check any supplier invoices carefully to make sure you have only been charged what you were quoted and there isn’t any added costs which you didn’t agree to
- Check with utility suppliers e.g. broadband, electricity, mobile etc that you are on the best tariff and haven’t been pushed into expensive out of contract tariffs
- Streamline your processes and systems to keep your costs low/ to increase your profitability, do you actually need to do everything you are currently doing or can you cut some of it out? Can you automate some of your processes?
- Though there are times when paying an accountant can save you money to help with annual returns and managing your finances, doing your own book-keeping and accounts/ tax return where possible can help you save money. Or at least keep accurate financial records so your annual bill is lower.
- DIY anything you can – painting, cleaning, marketing etc
- Buy secondhand/ shop around for bargains or upcycle what you currently have for furniture, fixtures and fittings etc
- Be strict with yourself about business purchases. Ask yourself honestly if the purchase you are planning to buy will add value to your business or are you buying it to distract yourself or make yourself feel better or like you are doing something useful?
- Analyse all of your expenditure and think about what value it adds to your business e.g. look at your marketing expenditure to see if you are actually getting results from your adverts and promotions, are any consultants you are paying bringing added value to your business, do you need all of the subscriptions you are currently paying for?
Have you any tips that work for you in your creative business?
