It is only too easy to spend money and much more difficult to earn it. People will queue up with lots of exciting ideas and gadgets that are supposedly ‘essential’ for making your business a success.

There is a difference in Investing and just spending money?

There is a temptation to try to justify everything that you spend as an investment.

All expenditure should have an = (equal sign) after it. It is only a good investment if there is a high probability of a much higher figure on the other side of the equation.

Do you need an Office?

Do you really need an office? If you do, do you really need an expensive office in an expensive part of town. In most cases expensive offices don’t make you money and I am not convinced that they are always necessary to attract ‘great’ talent or customers.

With global warming, high-speed internet and also competition for resources, there is definitely a movement away from having everyone in an office, thereby avoiding the overheads and the inconvenience of the daily journey to and from work.

Having said that, if you are encouraging home working, you must have good management practices in place to maintain productivity and cohesion in your teams. In the age of high speed broadband, Skype, GotoMeeting and Zoom, there are a wide range of tools available to hep you to achieve this.

It was very 1980s having the ‘big office’ but in 2020. In most cases, customers will expect you to visit their premises for meetings and once the relationship is established, many will be happy with online meetings to save everyone time and expense.

So the question is… do you really need to commit to an office or could you manage with a smaller office, or could you rent office space as you need it from a host of facility providers.

Recruiting staff?

There are good arguments for and against recruiting staff. Having a great team can make all the difference in terms of establishing a wining culture and driving growth.

On the other hand, poor performing staff can be a real drag on your business. Expensive to recruit, difficult to manage and expensive to get rid of. Companies should prioritise staff recruiting and retention.

For specialist roles like finance, marketing and technology, you could consider partnering with local organisations that specialise in these fields. The advantage is that you can turn the tap on when you need to and conversely turn it off if you need to invest in other areas.

It is good to recruit a good core team that have the ability to recruit good people and to manage relationships with organisations that you may chose to partner with.

Negotiating Contracts

Everything in business is a negotiation. You should chose to do business with organisations that understand the challenges that you face. You should negotiate and include as much flexible as possible, especially areas that involve high costs.

Summary

The FREE100 Edition fo the Rhino App is an example of a good low risk investment. If you don’t get value from it, you do not need to spend anything. alternatively, if you wish to use it, it only costs approximately £9.99 per User / per Month.

However, it deployed correctly, will give you complete visibility over your costs, your income, your customers and your team. It will help to maximise business opportunities and minimise administration and paperwork,