4 dangerous costs your business has been ignoring

Whenever you step into the field of business, you have to be very calculative about your expenses. Usually the product’s selling price includes the cost incurred during the manufacturing of the product, but there are many regular and petty expenses that the business needs to account for to ensure they attain profitability. These costs can include the employees’ salaries, promotional and marketing campaigns that are always budgeted for carefully. However, there are a few costs that many business owners ignore, to the detriment of their bottom line. The dangerous costs your business may have been ignoring could include…

Office supplies

There is a considerable cost that comes with purchasing office supplies if your business doesn’t get it right. These costs include papers, pens, staples and other items that can be purchased from a wide range of suppliers, and you should certainly shop around to try and get the best deal- you don’t have to put all of your eggs in one basket. Among the costlier of office supplies are printer cartridges. Printer cartridges can be expensive but are commonly used in every business in some form so there are options to lower your printing costs if you shop around. Negotiating the best deal on each and every one of these office supplies, from pencils to printer cartridges, and doing so regularly will ensure your office supply cost is kept to the absolute minimum.

Maintenance costs

Overheads are often seen as a necessary evil, and therefore office maintenance costs are often ignored. Office costs usually include electricity, heat, water, power back-ups, air-conditioning and cleaning and are usually in place once a business starts trading. These costs can be left to run at their starting rate for years after implementation, but there is money to be saved here. Looking at the costs regularly in order to negotiate the best deal may seem like a lot of work, but ignoring these costs can leave you paying over the odds, having a real effect on your bottom line. Twice yearly checks on maintenance costs are enough to ensure you’re taking care of your overheads.

IT Costs

Many businesses fear technology will always be expensive and without looking into the ins and outs of IT services, may stick with what they know, paying over the odds for a service they barely use, or that doesn’t help them do business better. Overhaul your IT Costs by speaking to various service providers and ask for their advice on what you need. There are a wide variety of options out there for every size of business and there are scalable solutions for every type of business, from ecommerce to marketing sectors. Cloud based solutions are becoming extremely popular, and you may be able to pay monthly for a solution that grows with your business, meaning you’re not throwing money away for a service you’re not using.

Staffing Costs

The temptation when business is booming is to recruit, but companies that think twice about the way they go about this will be better off in the long run. Firstly, you should consider whether you need someone permanently or whether this is a temporary busy period that can be coped with by either paying existing staff overtime, or by looking for a temporary employee. Another possibility would be to hire a freelancer for certain tasks. The freelance market is becoming an attractive talent pool where employers can pick the most qualified people for certain tasks and save on unnecessary employment. Secondly, consider recruiting without an agency if you need to take on someone permanently. Although businesses usually have a relationship with recruitment agencies, it’s entirely possible to find good candidates through social media platforms such as LinkedIn.

Whatever sized business you’re running, there are always costs that are ignored, so why not take a good look at yours today and start to improve your bottom line.