5 Ways To Save Money For Your Small Business

5 Ways To Save Money For Your Small Business

Article credit: Sage

Running a small business can be financially challenging at times and business owners therefore need to keep their costs low where they can. As a small business owner, you will need to regularly check up on your expenditure to ensure you are not overspending, which will also help you assess where you are able to make cuts to save money.

If you are looking to cut costs for your small business, here are five great money saving ideas, some of which you can implement right away.

1. Outsourcing can help to save money

Outsourcing can be a great way to keep costs low if you need to hire somebody for a specific task. Instead of investing time and money in recruiting a permanent employee, take the opportunity to outsource them for the job at hand.

When you outsource, the cost is variable and will only be from time to time, rather than a fixed and regular cost. Once you have outsourced somebody for a certain task, you can also become acquainted with them, allowing you to outsource them again.

If you need an IT technician, for example, you might pay them on a contract or freelance basis as and when you have projects that need completing. This saves you paying a full-time employee that you do not require to be there on a permanent and ongoing basis.

Networking is a great way to let people know about your business
Networking is a great way to let people know about your business

2. Do your own marketing and promote your business

Another great way to save money if you are starting up is by doing your marketing yourself. When it comes to marketing, more often than not it will cost you more in time than anything else.

A good place to start is with social media, a form of marketing that is largely free to set up and use, and which has a massive user base across a variety of platforms. Make sure you invest time in setting up and growing your various social media profiles, in order to really make the most out of the potential reach that social media offers.

Another low cost idea for marketing is networking, which allows you create contacts and share your business ideas with others in the industry.

3. Use accounting software to stay on top of the numbers

Accounting software can help you cut costs through various means. The first and most obvious way that online accounting software can help you cut costs is by eliminating the use of stationery and equipment.

It can also help save business owners significant amount of time, especially if they are spending hours dealing with their expenses, income and taxes by themselves. Although accounting software may not completely remove the need for an accountant, the services you require of one can be minimised.

If you are thinking about getting accounting software then make sure that your accountant is familiar with it, as they will work with it to look after your finances.

via GIPHY

4. Create a budget and see what you’re spending

Drawing up a budget will not directly cut costs but it will provide a vital insight into business expenses. Creating one can help you highlight your fixed, variable and one-off costs and these can help you see where you can make possible cuts.

You will need to regularly revisit the document to ensure it’s up to date, making sure saving money for your business is a priority. As you highlight your expenditure, you will have a visual of all the costs that are incurred by your business. For example, it might enable you to notice that you spend a lot on paper, which may mean you need to try to go paperless as a business.

5. Be energy conscious 

There are multiple benefits of being energy conscious, from taking care of the planet and being responsible to saving money for your business. This isn’t to say you have to make huge changes such as installing solar panels, which can be quite expensive (although over the long term, you would make your money back from doing this).

However, you can implement small changes such as checking all your desktop computers are switched off at the end of the day and making sure lights are not left on unnecessarily. Let the natural light in and make the most of it, or install sensors to make sure lights are only on when there are people present in the room.

You can make it a part of your workplace culture to promote being energy conscious, encouraging employees to participate and do their bit to help your business save money.

These are some of the easiest ways to save money and ensure your expenditure doesn’t get out of control. If you are struggling financially, then try implementing some of these ideas to see how small changes can actually make a huge difference to your business.

A free guide to managing your cash flow

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Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market.

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Startup Stories – A Free Guide With Advice On Running A Business

Startup Stories – A Free Guide With Advice On Running A Business

Article credit: Sage

Starting and running a business can be an exhilarating experience. Leaving the world of employment behind so you can take control of your destiny by leading your own company is something that can be very rewarding.

But with those rewards come challenges that you’ll have to face. From coming up with an idea and putting it into action to finding funding for your business, managing inventory and building a team, there are plenty of things you might be new to.

However, that’s part of the fun of it right? Diving in, getting your hands dirty and learning a lot about yourself and your business as you seek to pursue your dreams.

In Startup Stories, a group of business owners have shared details on just that – revealing what they’ve done to get where they are today.

In this ebook, you’ll read about their challenges, how they’ve overcome them and what you can learn from their experiences.

Startup Stories features insights from these businesses:

Moneycado founder Oliver Mitchell reveals how he came up with the idea for his crossover fintech and travel company with the help of his blog.

Matt Dyson, a co-founder of hardware startup Rockit, reveals how he and his team turned to grants and crowdfunding to finance their business – and are getting babies to sleep without parents having to rock them in their buggies.

MPB.com founder Matt Barker reveals how he built his team to deliver on the increasing demand for his professional photography and film-making equipment platform.

Sarah Welsh, the co-founder of condom company Hanx, talks about the challenges of finding the right manufacturer for their business.

Strong Roots founder Samuel Dennigan highlights how his business is using technology to manage inventory and the supply chain for his frozen food company.

So enjoy the insights from the business owners, take the lessons they’ve learned on board and use their tips to get your business moving. And if you’re yet to take the plunge and start your own company, get inspired by their lessons and let them drive you forward.

Here’s an excerpt from the ebook.

Moneycado on coming up with a business idea

If you’re at the start of your entrepreneurial journey, the first challenge you’ll face is coming up with a business idea.

For some people, the light bulb will go off immediately and the ideas will be flowing. For others, this can be a tricky affair.

Coming up with an idea is important – but it’s worth remembering it’s the execution of the idea that is vital if you’re going to succeed.

So how do you get the inspiration for a business idea that can help you achieve your goals? There are numerous ways of finding the way to your idea but for the founder of Moneycado, it was down to talking to people.

Oliver Mitchell’s idea for his crossover fintech and travel company came to fruition thanks to his strong community focus. Moneycado’s mission is to encourage millennials to save for their dream holiday. But it’s much more than just your run-of-the mill savings product.

Moneycado uses gamification and incentives in the form of offering gifts when you reach a milestone.

Such gifts could include a holiday treat but savers might also unlock a “credit boost” to purchase an expensive flight at an early bird rate, despite not yet having the cash. In other words, Moneycado will also be selling credit products.

Oliver says: “I started without an idea and without a team. I just started talking to people about the general area of finance – about what they’re used to today, what the problems were, what they felt about it and so on.”

Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market.

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Why Business Intelligence Is A Powerful Asset For SMEs

Why Business Intelligence Is A Powerful Asset For SMEs

Article credit: Sage 

There’s a constant flow of financial data within any business. The data paints a picture that’s accurate but also invaluable. The trick is to use it in a way that makes sense and isn’t a time-consuming task in itself.

Business intelligence provides this trick. It’s all about taking the data and making it work for you in the easiest, most intuitive and accessible way.

The concept originated in corporations back in the 1950s, but in recent years increasing use of technology has seen it trickle down so that even the smallest business can make use of it. On its journey downwards, the tools have become a lot simpler to use, yet no less valuable.

This article will show you how business intelligence can benefit your business and help you to stay on track using data.

Visualising live data

The simple trick behind business intelligence is that it visualises your live data, usually in reports or dashboards where the data is represented graphically. Most people are far better at comprehending data when it’s shown visually, rather than bare numbers, so this is useful.

Most of us have created a graph within a spreadsheet application. All that’s needed is to highlight a few columns of figures, then hit the graph icon on the toolbar and follow the steps. Hey presto, you get an instant bar graph or pie chart representing those figures.

Business intelligence is essentially this same process. For example, with just a few clicks you can transform your profit and loss ledger into a dashboard featuring a series of tables, charts and standout figures. And because the data comes from your accounting software, it’s always up-to-the-minute.

Visualising the data brings a host of practical benefits:

  • It’s easy for you to glance at and understand, to get a quick yet complete picture of your business finances without too much mental exertion. The dashboard is always available, with no work required to “generate” it, so you’re always a click or tap away.
  • It’s useful for sharing figures with senior members of staff, especially if colleagues have a habit of demanding figures ASAP.
  • A departmental dashboard is useful for aiding colleagues who might want to understand the headline figures of another department, but who might not want to see the underlying data. For example, sales can view the headline performance figures of the manufacturing area in order to gauge upcoming production quantities.

A day in the life of business intelligence

“Through the visualisation of key trends, it becomes possible to catch issues before they become fatal problems, and opportunities before the chance to gain a competitive edge diminishes,” says Michael Amadi, founder and principal consultant of Nimble Learn.

Michael’s London-based company delivers training and consulting services to companies of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises, and has vast experience in seeing how business intelligence can benefit small businesses.

We asked him to describe a day in the life of a company using business intelligence to show how it can revolutionise processes and operations in terms of solving problems. Here, he uses the example of a small shoe supplier.

Sales summary report check

First thing in the morning you check your sales summary report on your business intelligence dashboard. The report summarises all sales activity across your shoe products, at both the item and product category levels, over the past 12 months. A line chart on the report indicates that one of your best-selling shoes has seen an abnormally high decline in sales over the past week.

Review reports

You click on the line chart and it takes you to another report that provides in-depth details about the shoes such as the number of sales by day, the number of returns by day and the average customer satisfaction rating by day.

Spot an issue

You notice the number of sales has decreased, the number of returns has increased and the average customer satisfaction rating has dropped from 98% to 61% all within the space of three days.

You review some of the negative feedback comments and notice a recurring theme: the soles of the shoes have been coming loose within a few hours of them being worn.

Solve the issue

You contact the supplier who in turn identifies the bad batch of shoes and agrees to replace them. You also decide to send out communications to the affected customers.

Four examples of business intelligence

The types of dashboards and reports used across businesses of all sizes vary but here are some examples of the basic business intelligence dashboards that are typically used with smaller businesses.

1. Business SnapshotBusiness Snapshot dashboard

Wouldn’t it be great to have a visual summary of how your business is doing with regards to generating sales, managing expenses and creating profits? A Business Snapshot dashboard can deliver this. It shows whether your business has made or lost money in the period under review, which can also help determine trends for future business decisions.

2. Sales Trend AnalysisSales Trend Analysis dashboard

All businesses desire a 360-degree view of their customers. A Sales Trend Analysis dashboard can show sales performance month-on-month or year-on-year, and can break down sales by region and customer, or by quotes and estimates. This gives you the vision to see where you are, where you were, and perhaps where you should in order to create optimal growth.

3. Financial HygieneFinancial Hygiene dashboard

Monitoring cash flow is an essential ingredient to the survival and success of any business. A Financial Hygiene dashboard gives an overview of cash transactions, so you can see at a glance how much is sitting in your bank account, what you’re due to pay out to the tax authorities (debt vs credit) and so on.

4. Analysis of Aged DebtorsAnalysis of Aged Debtors dashboard

Who owes you cash and how much? When can you expect to receive it from overdue customers? This is what an Analysis of Aged Debtors dashboard can provide. Especially for younger businesses with tight cash flows, knowing this kind of information can be invaluable and might even mean the difference between bankruptcy and the continuation of the business.

An incomplete business

Technology is often considered indispensable in business, to the extent that all companies owe it to themselves to ensure they keep up with the latest developments. Business intelligence technologies such as dashboards essentially raise the technological bar for the small business sector, and provides a fresh new way to work with the increasing amounts of data that all businesses generate.

The benefits range from basic efficiencies to being able to get insights that were previously unheard of at this level of business size.

Can a small business be called incomplete if it doesn’t benefit from the likes of financial dashboards? Probably not, but the technology is so easy to use and so easy to implement that there really can’t be an excuse for not embracing it.

About Us
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

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Why Successful Businesses Embrace Entrepreneurship

Why Successful Businesses Embrace Entrepreneurship

Article credit: Sage 

I’ve been lucky enough to work in businesses ranging from startups to large multinationals and have found that, regardless of the size of the company, a culture of entrepreneurship is a common factor driving success.

This means the people within the business identify with the idea of becoming their own boss, taking things into their own hands and making a mark in their chosen industry.

Entrepreneurship is often only associated with people who take risks to start new businesses but we should also value it in large, established companies.

We must encourage “entrepreneurship” and the ways we can develop new ideas within large organisations – all with the aim of improving profitability and competitive positioning.

Why creativity is crucial

Entrepreneurship is about calculated and beneficial risk-taking, crucial for growing businesses that are at risk of losing the startup spirit through the natural course of bringing in infrastructure, process and control, as well as increased efficiency and capability.

Businesses need to have finely-tuned, predictable organisational systems that support existing customers and technology – but this doesn’t always fit well with change.

In the tough, competitive enterprise climate of today, success in business requires innovation and fresh ideas, and there’s a risk of stagnancy and failure if maverick thinking isn’t embraced.

Leaders must not be trapped by conventional thinking and the status quo. This creativity needs to happen even if businesses encounter internal resistance, as new ideas could render existing skills obsolete or require new ways of working.

Adopting a startup mentality will be beneficial for your business
Adopting a startup mentality will be beneficial for your business

Approaching innovation with a startup mentality

Think of Kodak, which failed to truly embrace the new business models that digital technology opened. It’s easy to forget that a Kodak engineer created the first digital camera and the company even went on to invest in the technology because it understood that photos would be shared online.

But what Kodak failed to do was understand that because digital was so disruptive, it would to all extent and purposes completely replace the printing business.

Entrepreneurs won’t get it right the first time, which means experimentation is essential. However, this needs care – technologies that are searching for a market rarely succeed and struggles occurs when leaders pursue a path that isn’t working.

It’s why businesses need to move and fail fast. There needs to be a balance of open-minded opportunism and thinking with systematic and disciplined planning. The most effective business combines brainstorming with critical criteria which help narrow down lists of ideas.

“Entrepreneurs won’t get it right the first time, which means experimentation is essential”

The cloud has made a big difference in democratising data and technology, as it provides ways for employees spread all over the world, regardless of seniority, to contribute. They can respond faster, make better decisions and continually analyse their performance.

Colleagues working in this way will move and fail fast, in the correct environment. There needs to be a broad system of empowerment to support people who operate in this vein – executed in a way that can determine success.

Encourage creativity and empowerment through culture

Leaders set the vision and must craft an inspiring and productive work environment, which means taking off any rose-tinted glasses and taking an honest look at how their business functions, and where it might need to change. There needs to be a culture of innovation, which fosters the creativity of employees.

To encourage entrepreneurship and that infectious, agile optimism of a startup, leaders must create a flat culture that empowers employees. It must be an environment that’s focused and creates great trust, with clear leadership and the will to allow teams to work with autonomy and independence within the organisation.

Innovation, overcoming adversity and beating tough competition requires courageous leadership from employees at all levels, with transparency and accountability central to the organisational culture.

Leaders need to communicate what they need from the work but they must allow employees to figure out how to make that happen, while providing the practical tools and support they need.

Entrepreneurship at Sage

At Sage, we create blended teams that are highly focused and agile in their decision making. A group of a dozen people are running an integrated media and digital campaign showcasing our new Ambition Ambassador Peter Jones, which involves TV, radio, social media, PR, search and digital.

“The cloud and access to data makes it possible for all employees to have access to the same information and opportunities to innovate”

To do this, they work in a highly agile, collaborative, disciplined way, using cross-functional expertise across the company and applying it where it’s needed. The team has shared goals and they work together to see them through. Because these are common goals for the business, they feel invested in the outcomes.

The cloud and access to data make it possible for all employees to have access to the same information and opportunities to innovate. By having insight at their fingertips, they can take advantage of the opportunities this can bring though accurate plans and forecasts that they can view and action together. This is crucial – they no longer have to make decisions in isolation.

Leadership should be part of the everyday culture of a business, with employees at all levels of a company being able to lead. When they themselves practice great leadership and exhibit the skills of the entrepreneur, they will enjoy greater empowerment, increasing productivity as they take charge.

About Us
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

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Client Testimonial – Webcognoscere

Client Testimonial – Webcognoscere

Find out what Fatima and the team from Webcognoscere have to say about Sage Evolution business partner Kiteview Technologies service and Sage Evolution support.

About Kiteview
Kiteview Technologies (Pty) Ltd was founded in May 2010 to provide the Sage Evolution Business Management solution to the SME market. The management team of Kiteview have combined +30 years of experience in the delivery of small to mid-market Financial & Business Management solutions. This experience, combined with a sound project implementation methodology has helped in Kiteview’s growth, becoming a Platinum status partner for SAGE Pastel within just 1 year.

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