Budgets are tight in 2021 due to unexpected lockdowns, new remote working costs, and, of course, being a small business with limited resources.
So anyway you can cut back on unnecessary expenses and save a few dollars is a good thing, right?
Well, SaaS tools provide exactly that: an easy way for SMBs to increase output while decreasing costs.
Adopting SaaS products over traditional on-premise software alone saves money. The most obvious benefit is lower start-up costs—no upfront licensing fees, and implementations are typically as simple as a sign-up process or a quick integration at most. You don’t even have to deal with upgrades or maintenance, lowering the overall cost even further.
But, since this is the default setting for any SaaS product, let’s get specific.
Some SaaS tools are not only less expensive than legacy software, but they can also actively save you money. Does that make sense? They are as follows:
eSignature tools
Yes, eSignatures make document signing faster and easier. But perhaps the most underappreciated benefit of eSignatures is the money they save.
See, when it comes to a resource as ubiquitous as paper, we frequently overlook the monetary costs associated with its use—and they’re high!
While individual usage costs may appear insignificant, they quickly add up—each office worker in the United States uses an average of 10,000 sheets of paper per year.
When you combine that with the average printing cost per page (around $0.065), the cost of printing per employee per year comes to $650.
I know what you’re thinking: “That’s not too bad.”
But it’s not just the paper that drains your bank account. It is estimated that for every dollar spent on printing, an additional $6 is spent on distribution. This includes toner, maintenance, and upkeep costs for copying and scanning, as well as shipping and storage costs for physical documents.
If you extrapolate that, the total cost of printing per employee is around $3900 per year.
At this price, a company with 20 employees can expect to save around $78000 per year by implementing paperless eSignature technology.
And that doesn’t even take into account the time employees spend on paper that could be spent on more productive tasks.
Even better, today’s eSignatures do more than just make signing easier. They also integrate with other business software tools such as Salesforce, allowing your employees to send documents out for signature without having to switch between applications.
TL;DR savings: $39,00+ per employee per year by eliminating paper processes*
Security tools
There is a common misconception that SMBs are too small to be attacked because their information has less value.
It simply isn’t true.
Worse, small and medium-sized businesses vastly underestimate the cost of a security breach. The average cost of an SMB data breach, according to AppRiver Software, is around $149,000. However, only 19% of SMBs admitted that costs could exceed $100,000.
While security tools may be costly for small businesses, the cost of a security breach can be disastrous.
However, data breaches are not the only threat that SMBs face. In 2020, ransomware—malicious software designed to prevent access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid—targeted 46% of all small businesses. And, of the businesses that were hit by a ransomware attack, 73% paid the ransom, which averaged $170,404 in 2021.
These two security breaches alone can cost a small business more than $300,000 in damages.
These costs do not even include the losses incurred as a result of system outages and employees being unable to work.
When you compare that to the cost of security tools, it’s a no-brainer. There are also a plethora of SaaS tools available to protect SMBs from cyber threats. For example, a low-cost vulnerability scanner can detect flaws in your online systems before hackers do and make vulnerability management simple.
T? L;DR savings: $300,000 or more*
Customer support tools
Providing excellent customer service has always been difficult, often unrewarding, and costly.
To make matters worse, as the world has become more digital, customers now expect service 24 hours a day, seven days a week—which means you must be available at all times. That is not cheap.
Furthermore, it forces you to make hiring compromises. Do you need a new salesperson, a developer, or a support agent?
Instead of hiring new employees to fill gaps, new SaaS tools can assist you in providing higher levels of customer service at a fraction of the cost.
Take, for example, chatbots. Customers who have quick questions or simple problems can get an answer almost immediately by using a chatbot for support. And the service is much less expensive than hiring a new employee. Businesses can cut customer service costs by up to 30% after training and implementation.
Furthermore, they are not limited to one customer or conversation at a time; they can respond to multiple customer queries at the same time.
And AI is only making these tools smarter, allowing your agents to spend more time on more complex issues while decreasing the number of agents on the floor. Each of these can result in substantial cost savings.
T?L;DR savings: up to 30% reduction in service costs
As you can see, while there is an ongoing cost to using SaaS tools, it is insignificant in comparison to the savings you can make in your small business.
Even implementing just one of these tools can free up money for your business to grow, allowing you to invest in other areas.
HelloSign’s secure, fast, and dependable eSignatures are powering SMBs’ shift to remote work. Discover how HelloSign is enabling SMBs to thrive.
*Savings do not account for the costs of SaaS tools.
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