Many startups fail within five years partly because of lack of capital and knowledge among other reasons. One way to ensure that your startup has enough working capital to sustain its growth is cutting down costs. The truth is that you will not start making high amounts of profits immediately after launching your product in the market. You need to minimize your costs as much as possible to survive the first few years of your business growth. Small business internet can help you to increase sales and cut costs in your business in the following ways.
1. Marketing
You can create your own marketing materials on the internet including letterheads, brochures, and business cards. The DIY marketing materials save your business the cost of hiring internal or external designers. In addition, you can advertise your products online instead of printing marketing materials. Social media platforms offer affordable and effective means of building your brand. You can customize your marketing messages to reach a specific group of social media users. In addition, you can design special logos for your business online and give a professional outlook to your clients and stakeholders.
2. DIY Websites and Apps
In the current business world, you cannot run a business without a responsive website and mobile apps. Modern buyers shop for products online first before visiting physical stores. Hiring web designers and developers is expensive for a startup. You can access website builders online and create a website your business. You can also reduce the costs of SEO, social medial marketing, and setting up online store by learning how to do it online.
Outsourcing these services to professionals is costly. Luckily, you can access free tutorials online to guide you through the process of creating websites and apps. Another way of saving costs on these services is hiring professional online instead of hiring permanent employees. Hiring IT experts to work from your office will require you to create additional workstations and increase office supplies.
3. Communication
Technology offers fast and cheap means of communicating with your clients and stakeholders. With small business internet, you can communicate via email and live chats instead of expensive calls. You can cut your phone bill by half by installing VOIP systems. The systems enable you to make local and international calls via the internet at a cheap rate in place of the traditional phone lines. If you have not installed the traditional lines so far, consider starting with VOIP systems.
An alternative and cheaper method of communicating with your clients is through social media accounts. With a reliable internet connection, you can keep your clients engaged on social media throughout the day. You can also share useful content with your clients on the same platforms.
4. Research
Marketing research is important to the growth of your startup. As an entrepreneur, you must keep track of the latest trends and moves in your industry. Luckily, most businesses have functional websites and social media accounts. You can follow your competitors’ strategies and moves via their social medial platforms and websites. Online research will also help you design effective marketing plans for your online and offline campaigns.
The internet is a great platform of learning how to grow your business. You may not have mentors or enough time to go back to school but you can learn all you need to know to build a successful business online. You learn faster from others than from experience.
5. Home office
Do you know that you can start and run your business from home? Before renting any office space, consider the possibility of running your business online. For instance, if you offer professional offices like graphic design or run an online store, you can operate from the comfort of your home. For most startups, rent is the highest overhead cost. The internet enables you to hire virtual employees and interact with them online. You can hire office space at later stages of your business but saving the rent cost will help you increase your profits.
You can cut costs and increase efficiency in your startup with small business internet. While installing internet in your office space, consider the upload and download speed of the internet package. You need fast internet to run operations online especially if you decide to connect with your clients online. The internet offers a platform to run your business at a low cost but it does not necessarily lead to business growth. You must implement other growth strategies to reach more customers online and offline with your products or services
