Your business costs money to run, and reducing overhead provides one of the most effective ways to save money. Some businesses try to reduce costs by skipping maintenance, but that only costs more money down the line.
The better approach is conducting regularly scheduled maintenance that keeps equipment running smoothly and the office looking great. How can you best do this?
1. Reduce Office Space Costs
You could lease less office space. You could also move to a cheaper office location; either way works. You could also build your own office or purchase a building. Many people find it surprising that it costs less to buy a home or office than it does to rent one. That’s because the person or company from which you lease has a mortgage to pay, and they want to make a profit from the rent, not just break even.
The smaller the space and less technical the building, the lower the costs to maintain it. Ask yourself if you really need a multi-story complex, for example. Multiple stories often mean you purchase one of the buildings with one or more of the world’s 17 million elevators and escalators. Those cost quite a bit in maintenance.
2. Invest In Predictive Maintenance
According to the Department of Energy, predictive maintenance can reduce overall industrial maintenance costs by up to 30%, decrease breakdowns by more than 70%, and cut downtime by up to 45%. To help reduce your commercial business site’s maintenance costs, you should invest in predictive maintenance. This means getting check-ups for all areas of your building, such as plumbing and electrical systems, at least once a year. You can schedule all check-ups for the same week every six months or once a year to ensure they’re all squared away at one time. By catching issues early on, you can seriously save money and time in the long run.
3. Move Much of Your Operation to the Cloud and Consider Some Virtual Work
You can easily reduce physical office space by purchasing shared virtual space. Shared means your employees can log onto it, and at the same time, you can and save information to it, which they can access at any time. Data transmission and storage security are absolutely key in the modern enterprise, so choose a provider with the highest quality security.
Program suites like Microsoft Teams let you conduct business in the cloud by providing shared copies of office suites so each individual can work on their own but save it to a mutual drive accessible by the entire office. You can meet with one another on Zoom or another service offering free virtual meeting options.
4. Upgrade Sooner
Upgrading your equipment can reduce employee attrition, improve worker safety, and reduce maintenance costs. When you show you care about employee safety and productivity, you show that you’re a good business owner and manager. You also contribute to making a better business culture, which attracts the best employees. Avoid running equipment into the ground, and replace worn items when the wear and tear begin increasing maintenance needs.
You can reduce your costs of doing business by saving on maintenance costs. Your commercial business site can easily cost less in overhead by following the tips outlined above.