How To Manage New Post-COVID Business Expenses

The impact the global pandemic had on businesses was unexpected and unprecedented. As it lingered (more than we might have imagined), several businesses halted operations while others deployed emerging techniques to thrive. Now, with the administration of vaccines to curtail the virus, businesses can now swing into operation. And as businesses plan out ways to recover from the plight the pandemic caused, employers must look for ways to save money on expenses and increase their bottom line. Your businesses expenses in a post-COVID world might have drastically changed.

It is vital to assess and review your costs and see where you can save money which you can reinvest in your working system to boost your advantage.

You are reading the article that will show you just how to make this happen. How do you manage your expenses in a post-COVID world?

1) Reduce Office Space

Renting large spaces as office spaces is an expensive venture, an overhead that may constantly threaten the cash flow of your business. You would have to consider rent, energy, security, water, and other essential bills for the facility. That is a whole lot of expenses for a new business or one bouncing back.

As the pandemic festered, businesses adopted remote working, allowing their employees to work safely from the comfort of their homes. This trend was often left to virtual assistants and freelancers. Now, employers are beginning to see the relevance of remote working—as long as operations move seamlessly.

From all indications, this new normal is not leaving any time soon. Tech giants such as Slack, Google, Facebook, have adopted this trend for most of their workers. Thus, the idea of hiring large spaces is not just expensive; it is a tad redundant.

Take your time to review your business. Is remote working possible for some of your workforce? Will a small and compact office do the trick? If your answer is yes, then you rent a smaller office space or renegotiate your current lease. This means you would have to pay less bills, save money, and have happy employees working from their homes. A win-win situation.

2) Cut Down on Business Travel

Before the pandemic conferences, trade fairs, and other business shows were the order of the day. Employers and business executives were spending huge amounts of money traveling to different cities to chair annual meetings and hold trainings. Expenses here are not only limited to the trip fees. You would have to consider hotel accommodation, meal per diems, and other miscellaneous that might crop up at some point. Costs for global business travels were pegged in 2019 at $1.2 billion.

In a post-COVID world, this is slowly becoming unnecessary and uneconomical. In the middle of the pandemic, virtual conferencing software was heavily utilized to hold virtual meetings, plan strategies and make crucial decisions moving forward. 

Now that everything is returning to normalcy, you should consider cutting down on your business travels and adopt online alternatives. Reducing local travels will save you money for gas, parking fees, and other expenses and show clients the seriousness of a meeting when you show up in person.

You are saving your business a lot of money when you opt for a virtual meeting instead.

3) Terminate Non-Essential Monthly Subscriptions

Ever subscribe to a TV service that you end up NOT watching? It almost always happens in most businesses today! Take your time and review all the subscriptions your business is linked with. You might argue that the subscription fees are nothing to be worried out. But these fees run into hundreds or thousands of dollars yearly.

Some of these services do not impact your business positively. So, they have got to go. Take a critical look at all the tools, services, software your business pays for and select the ones that are essential to your business and do away with the rest to reduce some of your overhead costs.

4) Negotiate Better Deals With Your Vendors

Another way you can save up on expenses is to try to strike a better deal with your vendors. The best to achieve this is to determine the market price for the product or service you are getting from your vendors.

Then, you can renegotiate a new deal with your suppliers and distributors. Chances are your vendors will be willing to cut down costs to maintain loyalty from your end. Also, check if your vendors offer discounts on some of their services.

If the deals are not favorable, you can go in search of a new vendor to negotiate with.

5) Streamline Your Marketing Strategies

The success of your business is directly tied to your marketing strategies. If you were focused on designing and printing fancy brochures, paying for radio and TV ads, now is the time to tweak your strategies. Because those strategies worked before the pandemic happened does not mean they would work now.

Instead of spending money on printing handbills and brochures, focus on targeting your customers on social media. Chances are a huge percentage of your target have smart devices and they would be on social media networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.

Create pages for your business on these platforms and post great content that might generate leads to improve your bottom line. Deploy pay-per-click advertising to get your customers. Create a mailing list to send information to your high-valued customers regarding your business.

You can not take out expenses completely from a business. But you can reduce them when they are not essential to the growth of your business.