Creative Methods to cut costs

Spitballing:

• Instead of buying (expensive) office chairs and tables, buy them at IKEA and have your employees assemble them (Amazon did that). 
• Use AirBnB instead of hotels for business travel
• Use open source software
• Use motion detectors in office lamps and meeting rooms to automatically turn of lights (Deutsche Telekom does that)
• Use heat from data center to heat buildings 
• Set default printer settings to grayscale and double-sided print 
• Use tap water filtration/cooling machine instead of traditional water cooler bottles (not a good idea if your business is in Flint, though)
• Get people public transport tickets and company bikes instead of company cars
• MOST EFFECTIVE: Treat your people well to lower attrition and reduce search, hiring and onboarding costs!

Hi,

Your question is so broad and specific at the same time that I believe that none of the answers would really help you. But here are some ideas from the real projects:

• Put asphalt instead of grass lawns on the huge factory and cut related employees
• Turn-off the computers at the retail store at night to save electricity
• Put the rugs at the hospital to cut the cleaning staff by 30%

Good luck!

One real-world example is to stop using offices and turn the company into a remote company.  My friend's company did just this, moving from London to Morroco (see link: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/11295288/Want-to-build-a-cool-start-up-Move-to-Morocco.html).