To minimize costs, especially operational costs, you must manage operating costs effectively. This can be done by rearranging the budget, balancing expenses with income, and evaluating the use of company facilities.
In addition, companies also need to start automating work digitally and utilizing technology, or it can be done by reducing unproductive employees. Please read the full explanation below.
1. Balancing Expenses and Income
The company must ensure that all of the company’s operational activities can run smoothly. That is why companies incur various costs to support the smooth running of these business activities.
If spending is small, while production is large, it will certainly benefit the company. Unfortunately, there are still many companies that experience the opposite. Namely, operational costs are significant.
One way to overcome this enormous expenditure is for the company to balance it with more significant income.
2. More Meetings in the Office or Virtual
In recent years the trend of meeting outside, for example, in a coffee shop, renting a hotel or co-working space, in a villa or a restaurant, has increased for various reasons.
Meeting outside will help employees be more focused, find it easier to find innovative ideas, and so on. Even though meeting outside spends a lot of operational budgets.
If your company also often does this, it would be friendly to start trying to maximize office functions for meetings now. Instead of spending your budget on renting a place, why don’t you build or design a particular room for office meetings?
This is much more economical, you know, and can minimize company expenses just for meetings. Another economical way, you can hold meetings virtually, for example, using Google Meet, Zoom, or other virtual meeting applications.
3. Improving Quality Human Resources
Having quality human resources is very helpful for companies because these types of human resources are generally more productive. If employees can work productively, the company’s productivity will also increase.
Companies can conduct regular training to improve the quality of human resources, both hard skills and soft skills, as well as improve their performance and professionalism.
However, try to do the training internally only so that it can save costs. For example, senior employees become speakers in training for junior employees.
In another way, give opportunities to employees who have competence and achievements to train other employees to improve their quality together.
4. Reset Budget
You can also manage operational costs effectively by rearranging the company’s budget. Enter into the budget only costs that are for the main needs only. Meanwhile, reduce costs that are less important or don’t affect the company’s daily activities.
5. Evaluate and Save Costs That Can Be Saved
An evaluation allows you to determine which costs can be saved and which ones can increase the company’s work productivity. For example:
- Conduct business trips out of town only if it has a positive, beneficial impact on the company.
- Reduce paper use for printing and prioritize digital documents. Or you can also reduce the use of new paper by using used paper (utilizing the reverse page that is still blank for various purposes).
- Save water and electricity. This can be done by getting employees used to turning off the water they are not using, turning off the electricity during office hours, and so on.
6. The efficiency of Leave and Overtime Schedules
Maximize employee performance during working hours, so companies can pay less overtime to meet production target numbers.
In addition, you can also make efficiency on employee leave schedules. For example, employee leave may take shifts according to the plan to maintain the company’s productivity.
7. Reduce Use of Company Vehicles for Employee Personal Affairs
If the company has allowed employees to use vehicles (cars, trucks, motorcycles) for other purposes outside of business activities, it should be stopped immediately.
The fuel and vehicle maintenance cost is relatively high; you know the budget. The more often the vehicle is used, the greater the maintenance and repair costs. It would be nice if a particular company vehicle is used only for the company’s benefit.
8. Utilizing Technology
Technological developments are so advanced that you can use them to optimize company performance and work time efficiency.
For example, they are starting to use various software and applications that can improve company operations.
An example of using technology, for example, is your business, a franchised store. You can use a cashier application that facilitates the process of recording income and expenses and can generate financial reports automatically.
In this way, you no longer need to hire many people to handle the accounting and finance departments of the business.
Utilizing technology also allows you to automate many activities in the company, for example, recording goods in and out, employee attendance, data entry, employee work schedules, stock management, and so on.
9. Conducting Performance Assessments for Reducing Unproductive Employees
You can also conduct periodic employee performance appraisals for the efficiency and effectiveness of the company’s overall performance.
The results of this performance appraisal can make it easier for you to reduce lazy and unproductive employees. Of course, this type of employee will make more considerable expenses, while their contribution to the company is small.
Minimizing operational costs has the potential to increase the profits that companies get. Even the expenses that have been saved can be allocated for the company’s future development. In addition to managing operational costs effectively, you must also make production cost efficiencies. Read the method here: How to Make Production Cost Efficiency?
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