As the New Year begins, small business owners will look at ways to trim the budget for 2013. Many proposals may be evaluated by ownership to reduce expenses and increase profitability.Why not try something a little inventive such as managing your stock online via our free online inventory system, Stockpile.
A common approach to cutting cost is usually labor costs. These expenses are usually the largest percentage of operating budget. This approach will save you money but at what cost? Cutting labor for a small business owner usually leads to having the owner spend more time dealing with day to day operations. This could have a negative impact on other aspects of the business which were the primary responsibility of the business owner prior to him or her cutting their labor force.
Another potential solution for cutting costs would to be re-evaluate business processes to improve efficiency. Efficiency improvements lead to maximum productivity at reduced cost. There really is no negative impact from improving efficiency. All businesses no matter the size, need to implement process improvement plans.
Another aspect of business operations that all businesses need to examine to reduce costs and increase profitability is automating business process. Business process automation for a small business can be key to that businesses future success and longevity. A major hurdle to business process automation was the initial expense that business had to pay up front to implement these cost saving solutions. It used to take 3-5 years and sometimes longer to recoup the investment made in business process automation. With the evolution of technology those costs have drastically reduced. More and more solutions providers are introducing a solutions that could be affordable from the beginning. These solutions can be provided for a nominal cost or even sometimes free such as the solution provided by Canvus. Stockpile is a wonderful solution for small business owners to track inventory anywhere in the world provided a data connection is available.
