Cost Reduction Strategy Steps and Ideas for Business Leaders

Cost Reduction Strategy October 29, 2020

Chloe Henderson

Writer

As the economy ebbs and flows, businesses must be able to effectively reduce their costs to sustain operations and remain profitable. This can be difficult without a thorough analysis outlining which departments can afford funding cuts and still remain operational.

With a cost reduction strategy, companies can maintain their quality standards for customer service and goods while minimizing expenses, promoting profit margins and the bottom line.

What is Cost Reduction?

Cost reduction is the process that businesses use to reduce their expenses and increase their bottom line. However, if companies are not careful, this can lead to reduced quality and ultimately, profits.

In order for cost reduction to be effective, companies need to develop a strategic approach that considers their unique needs. While many organizations see cost reduction as simply cutting expenses, it also involves the process of redistributing resources to generate more income.

By employing a cost reduction strategy, businesses can avoid the implications of eliminating necessary expenses, such as staffing, benefits, vendor, and administration costs. While these are typically the first expenses to be reduced, they can lead to-

Frustrated employees and decreased productivity due to hiring cheaper employees.

Lower-quality goods and increased vendor mistakes.

Poor customer service and satisfaction due to inefficient billing, payments, and clerical work.

With inadequate cost reduction strategies, businesses can actually lose profits by limiting the resources needed to provide good customer service, high-quality products, and a healthy work environment. Instead of eliminating certain financial obligations, companies can slightly reduce costs across several areas to drive profits and growth.

3 Steps of Cost Reduction Strategy

While cost reduction strategies tend to vary between businesses, management can begin creating their plan of action by following three simple steps-

1. Define Cost Reduction Goals

First, businesses need to specifically state their ambitions for reducing costs, meaning they must define exactly how much they want to cut. This target depends on the company's ideal profitability and will ultimately define their minimum operating margin.

The cost reduction goals should be explicit and reasonable, so management can effectively define how to meet the target.

2. Identify Where and How to Cut Costs

Once the reduction target is established, management can begin identifying areas that can afford to lose funding.

If the company's reduction goal exceeds 10%, managers need to pinpoint multiple areas, as no single operation can sustain this significant reduction. When launching the program, the business must consider all stages of each department or process to determine if a cost reduction could compromise the system.

For safety measures, management should increase the margins when trying to reach the reduction target. For example, if a business wants to reduce expenses by 10%, managers should create a program that reaches 15%. This practice ensures that even with unexpected events, inefficiencies, and interdependencies between systems, the organization will meet its goal.

Management should also involve representatives from multiple departments to get their insights and inputs on favorable reduction measures. Many organizations find they can reach targets by reducing purchase orders, operating expenses, and overhead costs.

3. Create and Launch the Cost Reduction Plan

Even with detailed cost reduction strategies, many companies fail to execute reduction initiatives and cost savings sustainably.

This is because many reduction targets are not analyzed to ensure there are measures the business can reasonably take to achieve it. In other words, some organizations fail to follow steps one and two before launching a reduction plan.

Therefore, businesses should ensure that they have thoroughly detailed every process, department, and initiative before launching their reduction program.

4 Cost Reduction Strategies

Businesses that struggle with developing a customized strategy should consider the best cost reduction methods-

Consider Remote Work

Hiring remote employees reduces the cost of housing workers, workspaces, office supplies, and utilities. Therefore, management should evaluate each department and determine if operations can be performed from home to transition employees to remote work.

While remote work presents challenges with employee onboarding, direct communication, and training, these difficulties are typically ironed out within the probationary phase.

Improve Negotiation Skills

Many small businesses experience high operational costs from suppliers overcharging for raw materials due to smaller contracts. However, even startups can negotiate agreements with vendors to establish better payment terms and lower purchase order costs. It is crucial to keep the relationship mutually beneficial to avoid lowering the quality of goods.

By establishing healthy agreements with suppliers, organizations can lay the groundwork for long-term, trusting relationships. This can significantly lower costs over time, promoting cash flow and profitability.

Manage Traveling Costs

Some businesses compensate employees for traveling to mandatory seminars, remote meetings, and other events, costing significant traveling fees. While not all traveling costs are avoidable, companies can eliminate unnecessary expenses, including overnight hotel stays, booking major airlines, and catering.

Management should also consider planning and booking events ahead, as last-minute reservations tend to be more expensive.

Implement Management Solutions

While management systems introduce an additional cost initially, they automate repetitive tasks, reducing labor costs. For example, instead of hiring analysts to forecast future sales, businesses can utilize forecasting software that automatically generates projections based on historical and real-time data.

There is also software that automates documentation, data exchange, inventory counts, purchase orders, and other enterprise needs to lower operational costs.