If you want to look at effective ways of cutting back on your spending for 2011, then this blog post is just for you.

Our previous post was all about making your website a much more effective sales tool and pointed out the importance of considering your search engine marketing alongside, this one should help you identify how you can cut your spending without losing overall quality of service.

• Looking at your overall operational costs is a very important place to look when you want to cut your small business overheads.  If there is something you really don’t need, don’t buy it!  If you’ve keep forgetting to cancel that Direct Debit for the service you haven’t used for six months, make an effort to do it now!  £20.00 a month may not seem a lot, but over the course of a year, that’s £240.00 totally wasted.
• One of the most important factors within a small business operation is your customers.  Sometimes it’s easy to think about the ‘new’ clients we want, but there is often a benefit looking after the clients we’ve got.  Retain your client base by keeping in contact with them regularly and remember to offer any new services or products here first!
• Try and keep your business activities simple.  This may sound strange but it’s often a good idea to focus on what you’re really good at than trying to develop areas that you’re not so good at.  Look at your product offering and take out any services that you really don’t need.
• It’s very tempting to think that cutting back on staff is the answer but while this can be the case for some, you really need to consider the impact on your business and the way you serve your clients.  If they have been used to a particular level of service and suddenly it’s not there, you will end up losing them. If you do have to cut back on staff, consider exactly where it will affect the business and how you will fill the gap they leave.
• Look at how you can establish yourself as a leader in your field.  One way of doing this is to look at your current services and products and see if you can add value to them in some way.  If you can come up with something that sets you apart from your competitors, then this will assist you in selling the benefits.
• Consider Search Engine Optimisation as part of your plan and don’t cut it out, quality SEO should always be a part of what you do.  If you give it up you will find that at some point down the line you lose your rankings and then you’ll just need to start again and play catch up with your competitors!

It is difficult as a small business to survive at times, but it is not impossible and with a few clearly thought out ideas and changes, you can get yourself and your business running smoothly and making money.

Paul