3 Cost-Cutting Steps I Learned Running a 100-Person Company

Even with AI it is hard to increase income. Cutting expenses is much easier, and without doing it regularly the profits shrink.

Step 1. Cancel the small monthly fees today

Small recurring costs are the easiest to overlook and usually take a few clicks to cancel. Apps doing one small task add up over time.

Step 2. Put back only what you need, and vibe code the rest

Building software was hard before 2026. A small internal tool is easy to vibe code today and it fits your own stack and workflow better than an external product. No more extra invoices, API integrations and products to manage. The tradeoff is that you maintain it yourself now.

Step 3. Question deep integrations and negotiate

CRMs get expensive. When we started in 2007 we used Microsoft Dynamics CRM (very cheap, we were a Gold Partner). Before the ChatGPT era we moved to Salesforce and it took us a year.

That move would be much shorter today. Switching costs are dropping fast because AI can move the data and rework the processes. Even if you stay, it is a good moment to renegotiate the price.