With national and local gas prices slowly creeping back up to the $4 mark, we have to start taking the necessary steps to stretch our gas dollars in our small businesses. To help slow down the passing of the cost of gas to our customers, here are three simple ways to stretch our gas dollars in our small businesses:
- Teleseminars – With all the latest and greatest technology that we have, we cannot forget about teleseminars. Teleseminars are a great way to stay in contact with our prospects and customers while reducing our gas costs. All that is required is a telephone and a bridge number and you are set. Many of the teleseminars can be recorded. Where can you find an affordable teleseminar provider? Why not try freeconferencecalls.com? Although free is in the name, it is not free. You and your attendees will have to pay the necessary long distance charges that apply but it sure beats the high price of gas! This is a nice supplement to our face-to-face meetings.
- Webinars – These are similar to teleseminars except they occur on the web. Webinars have really taken off and can be an affordable way to meet face-to-face with prospects and customers virtually (if you have a webcam) especially with everyone being located in different geographical locations. Webinars also can have a call-in number similar to teleseminars and can be recorded and viewed at a later time by those who were not able to attend the webinar meeting. Previously, the costs of webinar solutions were out of the reach of small businesses but now there are some affordable webinar solutions for small businesses. Some of these include GotoWebinar, AnytimeMeeting, and Glance.net to name a few. Not only can these be used for meetings but also for virtual tours, product demonstrations, training, and more. It is up to you. A webcam is optional.
- Electronic Billing. Instead of mailing invoices to clients and waiting for the payment to arrive (and hoping that it doesn’t get lost in the mail), why not use electronic billing? PayPal is an excellent tool to use for generating invoices to clients so that you can quickly receive payment. Likewise, there are many electronic billing apps available on the iPhone such as GetPaid that will allow you to generate an invoice on the go. This not only saves you time from going to the post office but also money from mailing invoices to clients.
There are many other ways that you can stretch your gas dollars in your business. You have to be creative and look for them. They are easier and closer than you think!
