Post Pandemic Downsizing Strategies

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 The pandemic has come and it is here to stay, it seems, for quite a while. While there are some businesses that are still operating or even thriving amidst all this, most businesses aren’t so lucky – the coronavirus has caused the halting of many major operations, and most of the workforce is using a work from home scenario.

It is a tough time for everyone. Most businesses are realizing that they don’t have an emergency fund for a sudden ceasing of income – everything was going into operational costs, suppliers, and payroll. One of the hardest facts to face for an entrepreneur is the fact that they can’t just leave their employees out in the cold – and that they have to provide some sort of financial support to their employees even though the business is not earning any revenue.

It’s tough – but those who are able to make it work are realizing they could get by with most of their people working from home and operating on a leaner budget overall. Some have realized that there ARE some things that they could downsize that may be worthwhile considerations even after getting back into the daily grind, post pandemic.

Here are some ways to minimize operational and other variable costs for a business:

1. Consider your rental expenses.

Is your office space too big, or is it even necessary to rent your own place? There are a lot of ways to save on rental and building maintenance, one of those is to get into coworking spaces – there’s shared common areas, utilities, even internet connection for everyone and renters don’t necessarily have to be working for the same company. There are a lot of companies that offer this type of service, such as Novel Coworking in New York. Try checking out the available coworking spaces in your area and see if that’s a better fit for you than managing and maintaining your own office space.

2. Outsource other ancillary services.

There may be departments that are vital to a business, but that doesn’t mean you have to maintain all of them in-house. Consider outsourcing ancillary services such as accounting, legal, advertising, and marketing services, among others. Keeping these in-house or paying monthly retainers for these professionals may be draining your budget, when you could choose to hire agencies or contractors on a per-project basis.

3. Consider a semi-permanent work-from-home arrangement with your employees.

A lot of businesses are seeing that it’s possible to operate with their employees working from home. Even without a pandemic, a lot of people actually prefer working from home and not going through tremendous amounts of traffic just to get to work. Offering work from home to certain or all employees can create much happier and more loyal employees and reduce your office footprint.

These are just some of the ways you can win by downsizing your operations. Remember that if you can live with as little as possible, you are proving yourself to be resilient and flexible in these unpredictable and challenging times.