The entrepreneurs, especially the budding ones, are too adamant on making an expense. Their worries are not wrong, but sometimes it becomes an obsession to treat every money spent in the business as an expense. Their decision-making process becomes based more on a survival model, rather than on a growth model. This is where the problem gets surfaced.
A successful businessman must be able to distinguish between the expense and investment that looks like an expense. The business owner must carry the vision for the distant future, to invest in the impeccable functions.
When the business has to make cost cuttings, the following areas or expenses are targeted, which, in reality, are the great investments for any business. Understand why!
Image and marketing
Marketing is an ongoing investment. Once the business settles deep down into the market, the marketing activities take a back seat. The comfortable business flow makes the entrepreneur forget that thousands of new competitions are coming into existence every minute. If your business keeps on sitting silently in the absence of any active marketing activity, your beloved market will be swept away by the new marketing players.
Business Attorney
Whether the business is small or large-scale, it has to deal with matters related to legal rules and policies. The idea of hiring a full-time attorney for a business seems vague and unnecessary to most of the business owners. They assert that it is a least productive expense, as there isn’t anything much, a regular full-time attorney can do for any business. This is untrue.
Business attorneys have many frequent functions to perform – licensing draft, copyright & trademarking documents, product disputes, business contract, leasing contract. While there are more occasional functions too, like contesting personal injury compensation claim, mergers & acquisitions paperwork, fraudulent litigations, etc. An attorney who gets associated in the early period of the business, tends to produce more successful results than the ones hired at the nick of the need. The last-minute hiring may cost more, with the lesser chance of winning the legal issue. For example, a driver-employee of the transport company in Kent was accused of injuring a pedestrian in an accident. A full-time car accident attorney Kent helped the business to save on the unreasonable claims, made by the victim of the accident. This was more easy for the attorney to do as he knew about the business and its employee, inside-out, since a very long time.
Training and development
It is apparent that the methods applied to develop the existing workforce of the company enhance productivity to a new competitive level. Investing in programmes and activities, like soft-skills, technical certifications, software literacy, advanced equipment training, etc. can help in reducing stress and encouraging team spirit, at the workplace. This positively affects the iteration rate of the employees and establish a trust of belongingness among them.
Technology
Any investment in technology for the business, usually paybacks in a short period. Even a single replacement of an old technology with the latest one can give returns from multiple sources. The use of modern tools and technology make the employees more focused on the core functions of the business, which directly results in more sales and profit. A non-working printer in the office can waste a considerable time of the employee, as he has to run frequently to the printout shop. Imagine the loss of money in this scenario, when a meagre investment in buying the printer would have sorted out the things.
Hiring
Hiring is the toughest business decision. It is because the fine line between over-hiring and under-hiring is almost invisible and the results can be unpleasant. However, it is not necessarily the case. The only thing the business owner needs to understand is that the hiring pattern needs not to be stubborn. The first hire seems necessary while the following ones are more concentrated towards having the human resource for particular activities. This means the second wouldn’t have occurred if the first hire didn’t happen.
The real success of any business is not “just” surviving but thriving in this and future economies. Take time, a deep breath may be, and analyze what all expenses can be worthy business investments.