Businesses & Investors – 5 Strategies to Combat Inflation

The word everyone hated to hear a year ago was “unprecedented” … today it’s “inflation.”  It’s our new centerpiece of conversation.  What can you do as a business owner to combat inflation while maintaining valuable relationships with your vendors, customers, and employees?

1. Adjust workforce spending.
   • Leverage work-study, internship, and other opportunities.
   • Create training programs to capture talent you can develop within your organization.
   • Consider bonuses rather than salary or hourly increases which can be less costly in the long term.
2. Focus on revenue and productivity growth.
   • Consider raising the sales price of goods or services after conducting a competitive analysis.
   • Improve the uniqueness of your offerings through enhancements or warranties.
   • Invest in your customer experience to better your selling process.
3. Eliminate commercial real estate costs.
   • Mark-to-market study of your lease or broker opinion of value if you own the property.
   • Cost analysis to identify ways to reduce spending on property taxes, utilities, and other commercial real estate expenses.
   • Evaluate refinance, sale-leaseback, 1031, and other commercial strategies to capitalize on equity and extract cash.
4. Decrease operational costs.
   • Increase your spending visibility and regularly compare your actual expenditures
   • Negotiate lower prices on everyday expenses. 
   • Explore incentives and discounts with your vendors.
5. Accelerate Account Receivables.
   • Motivate your customers to pay quicker by providing incentives or discounts. 
   • If you’re still mailing invoices and taking payments by check, you’re missing out.  From Square to QuickBooks Online and more, it’s never been easier to automate accounts receivable.
   • Take deposits wherever possible against orders or future work.