Guest Post by: Lauren Wiseman

The best investment you can make when the money from your new business venture starts coming in is to invest back into your business. But that doesn’t mean that you should invest without a strategy and without identifying the best opportunities to drive business growth first. After all, all that hard-earned money shouldn’t be wasted on a new sofa in the waiting room – chances are there are more pressing matters to tend to. That said, sometimes the problem isn’t that you’re not investing your money in a smart way, it’s that your business is losing money on extraneous expenses.

These financial leaks can put a big dent in your budget over the course of a year, and might even prevent you from achieving your goals or executing your growth strategy. So today, let’s take a look at the five business leaks you need to fix, as well as some of the most cost-effective ways to invest back into your business to pave the road to success.

Embrace Workplace Flexibility

The technological revolution has transformed many dreams into a reality in recent years, and in doing so, it has allowed businesses to make significant financial savings while boosting productivity and reaching their goals. One such change is creating the concept of flexible work hours and remote work. What’s more, companies are increasingly ditching the traditional office space and settling in fully-serviced coworking spaces in order to minimize overhead and create a more compelling and productive work environment for their team members.

And why shouldn’t they, as there is no real reason why you shouldn’t allow your employees to work from home if their job entails working from a computer. If you really need your team members to be present at the office, then be sure to eliminate the costs associated with obtaining and equipping an entire office space by migrating to a coworking hub where they can network with other professionals. 

Minimize Marketing Costs

No matter if you’re starting a new business venture or if you’ve been in the entrepreneurial game for some time, you know just how expensive marketing can be. Too expensive, in most cases, so it’s imperative that you discover where the bulk of your marketing budget is being spent, evaluate the performance of your most expensive marketing tactics, and decide which tactics you should eliminate from your marketing strategy. After all, there’s no need to waste money in PPC ads if you can achieve better results through social media management and sales.

Of course, your primary goal should be to automate as many marketing processes as you can without sacrificing personal brand-consumer communication. Once you have automated email communication and have integrated an AI-driven chatbot to boost customer service, you can go ahead and reallocate resources towards those long-term inbound tactics such as SEO and content creation. As these marketing tactics start delivering results, you can start investing in paid advertising and influencer marketing once more.

Image Credit: Pexels.com

Optimize the Invoicing and Payroll Processes

Businesses lose a lot of money on outdated processes such as traditional invoicing or paying their employees with paper checks. Over time, the transaction and other subsequent fees tend to accumulate, so it’s important that you automate invoicing by integrating a direct debit system or a smart invoicing app.

Likewise, you can significantly optimize the payroll process by simply replacing paper checks with personalized payroll cards your employees can use to access their finances immediately and without paying for check-cashing fees.

This will not only elevate employee satisfaction, but will allow you to make long-term financial savings and reallocate resources towards other processes in your company.

Don’t Spend a Dime on Company Culture

There is no denying that it’s important for a growth-oriented brand to build a positive company culture in order to elevate its standing in the market as an employer and a company consumers can trust.

That said, business leaders tend to overinvest in culture development by outsourcing this project to strategic advisors and agencies. While there is nothing inherently wrong with that, keep in mind that no one can build an amazing company culture better than you and your own employees – and that doesn’t have to cost you a dime.

All you have to do is to create a healthy foundation for your company culture. This culture has to be founded on the pillars of honesty, equality, accountability, co-dependence, and trust in the workplace. As a leader, it is up to you to weave these values into the workplace through guidance as well as the professional and personal support you give to each of your team members.

Maximize Productivity with Smart Tech

And lastly, think about all of the ways you are losing money through subpar employee productivity on a day-to-day basis. It’s imperative that you make every process and every job position in your company as productive and efficient as possible through the integration of tech solutions in order to make long-term financial savings.

After all, time equals money in the modern business world, so you shouldn’t waste any of it. What’s more, investing in smart technology and advanced office software, hardware, and equipment in general will yield positive returns in the long run, because your employees will be able to do a better job in a shorter timeframe, leading to increased conversions and a more effective sales cycle.

In the end, always remember that the key to long-term success is not just in generating more revenue – it’s also about plugging those financial leaks that are slowly eating away at your budget. With these tips in mind, go ahead and identify those extraneous expenses and eliminate them once and for all.

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