By Tom Swift
Businesses are forever looking for ways to reduce expenditure and increase revenue. One way in which this is commonly achieved is by investing in cheap, lower quality materials or resources. However, this is often a flawed approach. Customers will probably notice the reduction in standards, and faults or damage will become more likely, leading to a rise in requests for returns or refunds and potentially losing you money and trust in the long run. What’s more, many cheaper materials and components are manufactured by companies with a poor track record of workers’ rights. They may also require shipping from overseas, something that will add significantly to your company’s airmiles and environmental impact. So, what can you do instead? In this article, we explore a few alternative techniques that will allow you to increase profits.
Order in Bulk
If you have the capacity to store very large quantities of components or materials, you might consider ordering in bulk. In most cases, the more you order from a specialist distributor, the less they’ll charge you per unit. Be sure to discuss options with suppliers in order to get the best deal.
Be Smart with Your Marketing
Use intent SEO (search engine optimization) to make your advertising and marketing more targeted and draw in the ideal customer every time by basing your techniques on intent. This will result in an increased ROI and less money wasted on campaigns that don’t hit the mark, multiplying revenue and helping you outrank competitors. SEO involves researching the precise words and phrases entered into search engines by users seeking out the products and services you provide. By including these terms into your onsite copy, metatags, titles and in other locations, you can appear higher up the results when the right people start looking for you. Social media marketing is also a great investment, as you can achieve a great deal for absolutely free. Regularly update your feeds with a diverse range of content, like images, links to blog posts and interactive features such as competitions, follow key players in your industry and use the right hashtags to make sure you are easily discoverable by members of your target audience.
Use Freelancers or Outsource
Are you paying full-time wages to staff members whose duties don’t constitute a full-time job? If you’re a small business, you may not need an IT team on hand eight hours a day, seven days a week. You may not even need a marketing department working full time. Instead, why not employ freelancers to work on an ad-hoc basis? They’ll arrange their own tax and insurance, which will save you time and will only require payment for their specific hours or the exact quantity of work they have completed. Alternatively, certain areas of your business could be outsourced to MSPs (Managed Service Providers). Everything from HR to IT to customer services can be run by an external business for an affordable fee, saving you costly time and effort as well as cash. By saving money in the areas mentioned above, your profit margins are likely to increase without any drop in the quality of your products or services.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal.
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