If there’s anything the COVID-19 pandemic is to be remembered for aside from the gruesome deaths and acute illnesses, it is the negative financial impact on businesses. Reports show that several weeks into the pandemic, 54% of businesses shut down and employment went down by 47%.
While the pandemic still lingers in some countries, some countries are breathing a sigh of relief. Nevertheless, many businesses are struggling to get back on their feet. To this end, not only are they looking for ways to make money, they are now looking for clever services that will save them money.
Whether your business’s finances were negatively affected by the pandemic or not, it is savvy to be armed with tips that can help your business save money. This is exactly what this article brings you; clever services that will save your company money.
Top 7 Clever Services That Will Save Your Company Money
1. Travel management automation platforms
More than you may realize, outdated manual travel procedures are costing your business. When you engage the services of travel management platforms and software, you not only see where your money is going—you see your costs clearly and spot areas where you can cut costs by taking into account possibilities you would not have previously considered.
In addition, you save time, and therefore, money, when you use the services of a travel management automation platform. Employees lose a lot of time manually going through the cost procedure, which includes everything from planning trips and booking flights and hotels to submitting and verifying invoices. This time can be used for other profitable activities.
Find good alternatives
Concur is a popular travel management automation software used for end-to-end corporate travel management solutions. However, if it does not suit your business needs or budget, there are other good alternatives to Concur. These alternatives give you, among others, services like:
- Reporting
- Spend optimization
- Traveler tracking
- Real-time alerts
- Event management
- 24/7 support
2. Employee leasing-in
Another service that would help your company save money is employee leasing-in. Instead of hiring full-time staff, use employee leasing-in services. Employee leasing-in simply means loaning a worker for a specific period.
These are employees of an outside company who are available to you temporarily. They have received special training to perform a specific task for each of their customer organizations to which they belong.
They can be compared to gig workers who are employed by an agency that leases out employees. Use their services for a specific project and terminate your agreement with them after the work is done.
Hiring is expensive and time-consuming. These expenses include those for the following:
- Posting the job opening
- Conducting interviews and shortlisting candidates
- Hiring the chosen candidate
- Conducting background checks
Leasing agencies already take care of all these expenses, therefore, when you hire leased personnel, you eliminate them.
By using employee leasing-in services, you save HR hours, which in turn, saves you money. Working with leased staff allows you to do away with a lot of HR duties. You avoid looking for indicators of employee engagement, and work happiness, among other HR duties. An HR department is significantly freer if these responsibilities are not there. They can then focus on other duties that will be more profitable to the company.
3. Independent contractors/freelancers
Engaging the services of independent contractors and freelancers is a great way to save money for your company. Although the majority of firms pay independent contractors more per hour than they would pay workers to perform the same task, hiring employees typically end up costing employers more.
The difference between independent contractors and full-time employees is huge when it comes to saving costs. Employer-provided benefits, office space, and equipment are just a few of the costs that you will incur when you hire an employee as opposed to a freelancer or an independent contractor. Additionally, you will be responsible for making other payments and contributions on behalf of your staff like:
- Social security and medicare taxes
- Workers compensation insurance
- Unemployment compensation insurance
With a freelancer or independent contractor, however, these costs are non-existent. As a result, you can reduce your payroll cost by up to 30%.
4. Engage a business development consultant
Business development tools have their uses but they’re nothing compared to hiring a business development consultant if you plan to save money. Engaging the services of a business consultant might sound like you’re incurring expenses instead of saving money but it isn't so in the long run. Good business development consultants help you get to the root cause of financial wastage and advise accordingly.
There are probably ways you've been wasting money in your business that you’re not aware of. If you’ve been wondering why your expenditure is so high, a business development consultant is who you need. This consultant will see these loopholes after proper deep-diving sessions and you will be advised on the best way to block those money-gulping holes.
5. Barter services
Bartering is a great way to save money for your company. It refers to an exchange system that is cashless. In this exchange system, two people or businesses directly swap goods or services without using money. This kind of service could remind one of medieval marketplaces. However, bartering is still common in the current corporate sector, usually in the form of trading space, services, or supplies.
If you’re a web design agency, for example, you might build a website for a coworking space company in return for a workspace. Direct bartering between two businesses is possible, but many trades are made possible by online or offline barter exchanges.
6. Internship
To save money in your company, consider hiring interns. An intern is a budding professional who spends a brief period working at a company to get experience at the entry-level and expertise of a particular career field. Although other adults can be interns as well, they are most frequently college students. This is especially true if they are changing occupations or pursuing more education.
Companies offer internships in a variety of ways and at various periods. Many companies pay interns, while others provide some form of financial reward. Typically, this takes the form of financial awards or incentives for specific tasks completed throughout the intern's tenure with the company. Other businesses might give away a service or item created while the intern worked there.
Hiring a full-time employee is generally more expensive than hiring an intern. When you engage the services of an intern, you will still be able to profit from them even though you’re not paying them like a full-time worker. This way, you will be cost-efficient and achieve the same result at lower costs.
7. Remote workers
The Covid-19 pandemic brought with it numerous innovations, one of which is remote work. Post-Covid, many companies are embracing remote work, not only as a result of its popularity with workers but also for its cost-saving nature. To promote remote work, several productivity apps that help workers work more efficiently have been developed.
Hiring remote workers helps your company to save money on computers, phones, energy, heating, air conditioning, and all the other minute costs needed to run an office. Further, remote work saves your workers commuting time to and from the office. This time can be used to work on tasks that will fetch the company money.
In addition, studies have shown that an employer can save up to $11,000 in a year per employee that works remotely half the time. This is great news as many companies are now taking advantage of remote work to save costs. When you hire the services of a remote worker, you will be cutting a lot of costs and saving money for your company.
Start Using These Services To Save Money for Your Company
With the negative financial impact of Covid-19 on companies, it is wise to find ways of saving money in your business. There are many ways to do this and they include clever, often ignored services that can help you cut costs and save money.
Signing up for travel management automation platforms, using employee leasing-in services, and hiring independent contractors or freelancers are some of the ways to save money for your company.
Other clever money-saving services include the engagement of a business development consultant, using barter systems and agencies, hiring interns, and employing remote workers. Start using these clever services today and see the positive impact they would make on your finances.