Part of building a profitable company with sustainable growth means being more cost conscious.  Wait – DON’T STOP READING….I’m not talking about cutting costs!  I’m talking about being more aware of how your costs are effecting the bottom line and the top line.

Here are a couple of examples:

Every business should be spending money on their advertising and marketing if they want to continue to bring clients and customers in.  The important thing is to make sure the advertising and marketing dollars are actually working for you. 

There is a certain culture within your company, a culture that represents you and your team; does your message show that culture?  Does your message relay the true result – tangible and intangible – that your customers receive?  Does your message relay what you truly offer, what you truly believe, and what your business model truly is?  If not, your spend dollars won’t work as well for you because it won’t lead your best clients and customers to you, and therefore your top line revenue may not be as high as it could be.

Who are you using for your advertising and marketing?  Are they creating material around you and your business model or are they forcing your message around their marketing model?  Do you track and analyze the analytics to see which platforms are bringing in the clients and customers you want?  If not, you’re decreasing your bottom line and throwing money into the wind.

Another great example is technology costs.  There are applications and software programs that can add to your top line and to your bottom line.  Are you sure you’re using the right ones for your business?  Again, this answer depends on your business and your team.  Your company may have chosen an application because it was referred to someone on your team by a friend or business acquaintance, but it may have been a general recommendation based on that person’s use, not specific to how it fits into yours.  There might be another tool more specific to your needs so make sure you do your research and testing.  Quite often there are trial periods for such tools – make sure to use those trials…actually use the tool during the trial on a daily basis so you can test its application to your needs.

Are you using the application or software to its fullest extent?  Many clients of mine have had software that they are not utilizing to its fully capacity; in other words it has other capabilities that can be used but isn’t.  Honestly, part of it may be laziness on the part of the user, but usually it’s unawareness so do your homework or it’s wasted $$$$s.

Another mistake has often been when more than one application is purchased for different uses when there are applications out there that do the same thing in just one program for less money.  It’s all about not rushing into the purchase because of an immediate need. 

Technology can be a strong tool in scaling your business so it is well worth the time and money to choose the right programs for your business.

When you add strategy to your business, you can anticipate your needs, analyze your resources, and know when your company will be outgrowing its current systems so you can prepare appropriately.

Peggy Niles, CPA

Strategic Scaling Solutions – We help companies scale without losing control