Here we are, past the halfway mark of 2018 and guess what? If you’re like a lot of companies I’ve been talking to, you’ve spent too much already this year.
Not that you’re not making it back, but the budgets you’ve allocated had some assumptions in them and because you were busy, you never got the chance to correct and recalculate those assumptions.
Sound about right?
No worries!
I’ve been talking about this idea for a couple of weeks with some of my clients who are W2 salaried types and I’m going to put it out to you, as a business owner:
Stop spending for two weeks.
I don’t mean quit paying the bills, but quit with the business lunches, the $4 coffees three times a day, the wi-fi gadget that will (supposedly) make you more efficient.
Just stop.
Turn off the notifications online, drink coffee from the break room, and just work.
In fact, track your work – how much of it you’re doing right now and then, after you quit the frivolous spending and the distractions, how much of it you’re getting done.
I’ll bet your accounts receivables increase in less than a week.
Now, that’s an unexpected byproduct of this spending freeze, because what it is really designed to do it to get you thinking about all the “stuff” that you have bought to do the job that is not moving your business forward.
Is it a Software As A Service (S.A.A.S.)?
Is it a piece of equipment?
Is it the office itself?
Are there things that your company is spending money on that you aren’t able to use or that your business has moved away from?
I asked this question of a client who had just bought a new marketing software recently and, when she took a deeper look, the new system duplicated what five other software pieces were doing in her business, but it did that seamlessly, with no manual integration, and for a net savings of $378 each month in her business.
That either sounds like a lot of money or too little money but think about it – that’s an employee’s paycheck.
So this month, take a couple of weeks off from the money train and look at how your business is consuming money. You may find that there are some easily plugged holes in your spending that can help ease you through the fourth quarter – when the budget really is shot – and raise your profitability considerably.
Sincerely,
