24 October 2008 | Newsletter, Outsourcing Tips | Jacqui

You may have noticed that the economy is on shaky ground pretty much everywhere. It’s been in all the papers. While everyone’s on edge, the small-business owner is probably most nervous — you’ve got all the concerns everyone has, plus the future of your business and employees to worry about. A real challenge is how to make money go further — you can’t slash expenses, because you’re already running lean, and you don’t want to stifle your business out of economic fear.

1. Move customer service to a remote team.
    
2. Move your system admin, network professional or support team from a retainer to hourly pay (for just those tasks that you need).
    
3. Hire writers or graphic designers from rural areas rather than more expensive urban areas.
    
4. Focus on search engine optimization instead of paid search efforts: Showing up at the top of a Google search beats buying an ad slot, anyway.
    
5. Expand the role of your existing team members, online and offline, so everyone participates in stretching your dollar further.
    
6. Free up executive time to focus on higher-value activities: Hiring someone for data entry and other time-consuming, lower-level tasks lets you and your top people concentrate on taking the business forward.
    
7. Buy used equipment from failed companies that need to sell computers, furniture or office supplies. You may even be able to score an amazing deal on that cool espresso machine you always wanted.
    
8. Use what’s free: Trade land lines for Skype, ooVoo or TokBox; use oDesk Share instead of paid web conference tools.
    
9. Use open source instead of paid software: PostgreSQL instead of Oracle, Gmail and Google Apps instead of an expensive in-house email and collaboration server.
    
10. Reduce travel expenses and gas costs by using oDesk Team to work from home when possible.
     

Everyone is worried about riding out the current storm, but you can’t let fear swamp your ability to think tactically. Find value where you can. A rising tide isn’t so threatening when you’re a strong swimmer.