Ways Small Businesses Can Save Money: Experts Weigh In Small businesses are always looking for ways to save more money. From making cuts, to capitalizing on missed opportunities, to getting the most out of your employees, it can be difficult to know where to start. To help you sort through it all, we’ve reached out to a panel of small business experts and asked them all a single question: “What should every small business be doing to save money? ”

1. WAYS SMALL BUSINESSES
CAN SAVE MONEY
PRESENTED BY

2. Being frugal is good, but in reality if saving money is your primary focus
Jill Konrath
it’s going to hurt your business. Savvy companies should be thinking
Jill Konrath is a recognized sales strategist, speaker and author
who offers fresh strategies and practical advice for selling to today’s
crazy-busy prospects. Both her books, SNAP Selling and Selling to
Big Companies are Top 20 sales books on Amazon.
about growing sales during tough times. They should analyze where the
best sales opportunities are and channel resources in that direction. They
should look at ways they can grow their existing customer base. They
should turn their website into an inbound marketing hub to attract more
prospects.None of these activities cost a lot of money, but they keep the
company moving forward despite the tough economic times.
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3. Measure everything! Measure the productivity of your people, review
Harlan Goerger
systems and processes regularly. Are they improving your business or
Harlan Goerger has spent the last 25 years leading hundreds of his
client’s companies to expansive revenue growth. He is the author of
“The Selling Gap” and “Bypassing NO in Business” and spent 20
years as a sales leader with Dale Carnegie Associates.
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holding it back? Only measurement will tell you.

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5. Stop looking for answers outside the company and use the brain trust of
Julie Steelman
the employees more effectively. Hold regular meetings to let the team
Julie Steelman’s former clients read like a Who’s Who of big-name
corporate giants with Apple, Microsoft, Toyota, CBS, Sony Studios
and Universal Pictures in her rolodex. She generated more than
$100+ million in sales during her 30-year sales career. Julie is the
author of The Effortless Yes! and is known as The Sales, Success
& Bankability Mentor.
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brainstorm ideas on how to streamline efforts and bring in more business.
When you have their full buy-in, they will work harder for you, thus saving
you time and money.

6. It’s about working smart not hard nowadays. The recession has
Sean McPheat
highlighted the “fat” that many companies have been carrying. Look at
Managing Director of MTD Sales Training, Sean McPheat is
regarded as a thought leader on modern day selling. Sean has
been featured on CNN, ITV, BBC, SKY, Forbes, Arena Magazine
and has over 250 other media credits to his name. Sean’s latest
book “eselling® – How to use the internet & social media for
prospecting, personal branding, networking and for engaging the csuite decision maker” is a #1 Amazon bestseller.
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your processes, staffing and systems and see if you can outsource any of
the work that doesn’t add value. Focus on the important stuff and revenue
generating activities and anything that does not fall into that sphere must
be looked at and optimized for efficiency or cost savings

7. The businesses I work with all seem to be overlooking their greatest
Liz Strauss
opportunity — the people who are already doing business with them. It’s
Liz Strauss is a Brand Strategist, Community Builder, Founder of
SOBCon. She blogs at LizStrauss.com and Successful-Blog.com
fairly typical that we ignore the folks who already love what we’re doing
and go chasing after the folks who are ignoring us. It’s more time and
cost efficient and a stronger strategy to have an open conversation with
the people who are already helping us grow to ask them What would like
more of? What would like less of? How can we make it easy for you to
share what we’re doing? We often work hard on products and services
that our best customers don’t really care about. At the same time, we’re
also shy about inviting our best customers to refer us.
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8. I would say sell more to Up Your Bottom Line. Position yourself as an
Bob Urichuck
expert in the marketplace and have buyers seeking you out.
Bob Urichuck is an International Professional Speaker, Trainer and
Author of two best selling books “Up Your Bottom Line” and
“Disciplined for Life: You are the Author of Your Future.” Bob has
been recognized as Consummate Speaker of the year and ranked
#7 in the World’s top 30 Sales Gurus.
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9. Think before you act. May sound simple but it is really easy to get
Diane Helbig
involved with “opportunities” that are only good for the person selling to
Diane Helbig is an internationally recognized business and
leadership development coach, author, speaker, and radio show
host. She is the author of Lemonade Stand Selling and founder of
Seize This Day Coaching.
you! Set your budgets and stick to them. Really consider what you need
and then take the time to research the possible solutions to your own
needs. When it comes to needing people consider outsourcing. The new
business model is looking more and more like a wheel. You are the hub
and service providers are the spokes. Keeping staffing low (or nonexistent) will help you contain costs. Just be sure you have clearly defined
expectations and you monitor them constantly.
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10. Manage every aspect of the business for higher productivity.
Jacques Werth
Jacques Werth is President of High Probability Selling, Inc – a
sales consulting and training company founded in 1989 . The
company specializes in sales process improvement. They have
trained salespeople, sales managers, consultants, and business
owners in over 70 industries.
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11. Small business owners need to review every single bill that comes in and
Elinor Stutz
read every entry on the bill. Is each service necessary? Are you getting
Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC authored the International
Best-Selling book, “Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship
Building That Gets Results”, Sourcebooks and the best selling
career book, “HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself
On Interviews”, Career Press. She provides team sales training,
the service or ROI you expected for each associated fee? May anything
be replaced by a similar service at lower cost or released because it isn’t
working? Whenever a request to join in on something, whatever the case
private coaching and highly acclaimed inspirational keynotes for
may be, give considerable thought as to possible future expense involved,
conferences.
the possible reward, and whether it will produce an ROI or whether the
opportunity is actually opportunistic for the other party. Lastly, I have
found many female entrepreneurs feel guilt or obligation to move forward.
The better approach is to use analytics weighing time and cost before
jumping into a new “opportunity”. Lastly, your intuition will let you know
first whether the expense is justified. In short, use all of your senses and
scrutinize every activity!
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12. Hold a company meeting and begin to solicit ideas, then create a month
Ken Thoreson
long theme and focus within your company where people can submit their
Ken Thoreson, Acumen Management Group, Ltd. president, is a
sales leadership professional who “operationalizes” sales
management systems and processes to pull sales results out of the
doldrums into the fresh zone of predictable revenue. His blog, Your
Sales Management Guru, has been rated in the top 10 sales blogs
in the United States
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ideas to you. Let them estimate the savings to the company and award
several prizes for the best ideas.

13. Plan more and plan better.
Lori Richardson
Veteran Sales Detective Lori Richardson sifts through sales clues
and business practices to uncover hidden problems and assets,
then delivers creative tactics with a fresh approach so you can
Score More Sales. She is a sought after speaker, prolific blogger,
sales trainer and multi-million dollar producer, and President of
Score More Sales – a sales strategy firm.
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14. SMBs, business owners, entrepreneurs and sales professionals should
Kenneth Darryl
Brown
stop conducting initial face- to-face first call meeting with prospects and
do more online meetings. If you do this, you can conduct more first call
meetings and connect with more people by embracing the web. By
Kenneth Darryl Brown is President and CEO of eWeb 2 Sales and
Profits, a sales, profit and business development company that
utilizing a web conferencing tool, your prospects share their desktop,
shows companies how to leverage the web to increase sales and
materials, and anything else to help you understand the prospect and
improve profitability. Kenneth was selected as one of the Top 25
problem. Also, it allows you to share information, knowledge, a
Influential Sales Leaders by InsideView this year. Last year, his
show, “The Passionate Entrepreneur“ was picked as one of the
presentation and possible solution without spending a lot of money
best podcasts for small business by Anita Campbell’s Small
upfront. It really makes the sales process more productive and efficient.
Business Trends. Ken is called, “The Sales, Web and Profit
Evangelist”.
It’s great!Likewise, you can conduct an online networking session.
Networking can be a costly activity and very time-intensive without
guaranteed results. It is important to focus on sales generating activities.
Why not use the web to make more connections? The technology is
there. Why not use it? Last year, my company made 1,062 connections
and over 1,470 this year. And, since it’s virtual, it is all done without
spending a single dollar on gas. This significantly impacts the bottom-line
for any company that embraces the web.
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15. Using technology is one of the best ways to save money in a small
Alyssa Gregory
business. Technology is changing the small business landscape, and not
Alyssa Gregory is a small business collaborator and the founder of
the Small Business Bonfire, a social, educational and collaborative
community that provides small business help to entrepreneurs.
only can using technology help small businesses save money, but it can
help them use what they have to do even more. With the right low-cost
technology solutions, small business owners can create more products
and services, reach more potential clients, and serve their customers
better than ever before — all at a reduced cost.
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16. Looking at each expense, and understanding how it ties back to driving
Sue Watkins
revenue for your business. Don’t randomly cut expenses, rather prioritize
Sue Watkins has spent the last 20+ years developing marketing
strategies and campaigns. She also founded SMBmarketer.com
and authors the blog Smart Marketing Basics and tweets regularly
about small business marketing topics at @SMB_marketer
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spending around those activities that drive lead generation and
opportunities back to your business.