Cut Costs Without Affecting What You Offer
Written by Stephanie
January 6, 2023
We are living in tough financial times – the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, the resultant inflation crisis – they have all played havoc with the world economy. It’s been a tough time for us all, especially small businesses! A 2022 survey found that many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have endured higher costs and tighter margins due to inflation, as seen in the bar graph below:
Unsurprisingly, consumers tend to become far more price-conscious during inflationary periods. That’s why a lot of businesses try to remain competitive by keeping lowering prices or even slashing them. However, the downside of cutting the cost of your online courses means further limiting your cash flow. That will hardly help you if you’re already being hit by inflation!
So, let’s look at some of the ways that you can cut costs without having to resort to lowering the cost of your courses.
Time Is Indeed Money
The Ancient Greek philosopher, Theophrastus, famously said: “Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.” How very true. Too many of us lose out on opportunities because we procrastinate or have poor time management. Optimizing your time means being more productive and, in turn, being able to generate more revenue.
The trick is to do so intelligently. Remember: being time-wise doesn’t mean you have to work ‘harder’ or longer hours. It simply means making the most of the time you have, while still leaving yourself for rest, recreation and good ol’ relaxation. A good start is to get one or more time-saving apps on your phone – and there are many of them! Examples include Clockify, Focus Booster or Rescue Time, any of which can help you to stay focused and on-task.
A very important rule of thumb is not to ‘improvise’ but to work according to a schedule. That also means that you cease ‘multi-tasking,’ which has been given far too much positive spin in modern business culture. Very few people can actually multi-task well, yet the myth persists that multi-tasking is the way of ‘really committed’ and ‘hard-working’ people. Nonsense! For the majority of people, focusing on one task at a time is the most productive use of time.
Consider Microlearning Offerings
As an online tutor, you need to be proud of and believe in your course offerings. However, have you considered microlearnings? That refers to any content that is delivered in very short, focused ways. These ‘short bursts’ of learning are not without controversy in the learning development profession, but their growing popularity, especially via social media, cannot be denied.
Why has microlearning become such a huge trend? Once again, it’s all about time. People today are bombarded with technology and information, and so their attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. Consider too that the average person today checks their smartphones nine or more times an hour. The race to get people’s attention online is fierce. Microlearning is a perfect match.
So, while you may have a multi-week course on Italian for beginners, you might want to offer short lessons on very specific topics, such as how to order a meal in Italian. You can get even more specific than that, with just a twenty-second video on how to correctly say Italian words that are often mispronounced, such as ‘bruschetta’! You can also do microlearning lessons in the form of quick quizzes, one-page PDFs or short podcasts for your students or prospects. The crux of microlearning is to focus on essentials or a single topic.
More Helpful Tips!
Besides improved time management and microlearnings, there are other ways you can reduce the costs of your online business. One way is to market your online tutoring online, whether you teach Tai Chi, bookkeeping fundamentals or German. Content marketing is an excellent way to achieve this. Your content can be in the form of a blog, social media presence (or presences) or email marketing.
Another consideration is the tools you use. Too many small online business owners get caught up in having the fanciest and most expensive equipment before they consider themselves ‘ready’. That’s not necessary. Buying refurbished digital equipment, such as cams and even laptops, can result in significant savings for you.
An excellent indirect way that you can save money for your business is with search engine optimisation (SEO). This determines how much organic traffic comes to your website, profile or page via searches people make on Google and other search engines. SEO can be an inexpensive way of saving costs on marketing/advertise yourself and what you offer. As Entrepreneur says, “If you attract the right people, you can convert that traffic into paying customers without shelling out a fortune on ads.” Ka-ching!
Become A Yiper!
Being a verified tutor on a learning platform such as Yip can be a terrific cost-saving device for your business. Not only do you save on having to seek out potential students, but a good platform will want you to do well. That is why Yip is always attentive to the needs of the tutors or Yipers on our platform with what we offer.
Your cost-saving benefits on Yip will include:
- Real-time payment: you get paid as soon as a course is completed. Money in hand always saves money.
- Bookings management: you can request reschedules and set cancellation policies, both of which save you time and money.
- A ready marketplace: being able to reach prospective students anywhere, any time means more potential revenue.
Bottom line: Your business does not exist in a bubble. You are not immune from wars halfway around the world and galloping prices. Your business needs to reflect that reality. That means being more attentive to your business finances than ever before. Fortunately, as this article has shown, saving money doesn’t need to be complicated. As with so much in business, being savvy means being smart.
