Starting your own business is an exciting time in your professional career. One of the most important things to do in the early days of your business is to save money. Here are some ways you can save money on your own business:
1. Work Out Of A Spare Room
Working from home is the number one cost saver. Ideally, if you can convert a room or garage into an office, then you will be able to deduct a portion of your home as an essential part of your business. Of course, this also saves time too since commuting involves heading to your office. Additionally, everything you use to decorate this space becomes a business expense. Overhead lighting, desks, file cabinets, computers, even a portion of your internet bill. When finding business expenses, spare no expense and fill your office with all the tools and technology you need to run your business effectively.
Of course, if customers or clients will be visiting your place of business, then you may want to consider an office outside of the main house. Choosing a location such as a remodeled garage, basement or garden office with a separate entrance may be less disruptive to your family — this is especially important for teachers and tutors who expect regular visitors. If that’s not an option, you can always meet a mutual location for clients and then — guess what — that meal or golf session becomes a write off.
2. Buy Used Equipment
One of your biggest expenses is your equipment. The advantage of purchasing used equipment is it prevents you from overspending on equipment that you ultimately do not use. What’s more, chances are your equipment — no matter how new — will be outdated and it’ll become another expense next year.
Saving money on older models of any technology will really help your wallet. Of course, we’re not saying purchase an archaic system, as you don’t want to decrease productivity with a slow machine. Instead, create a checklist for everything you may need. Then visit yard sales, as well as used technology stores (or go online) for items you may need.
3. Watch Video Instruction
There is a plethora of free video instruction by online professionals. You can find experts who aptly demonstrate each step of building your business. Need a website — the best, passive lead generation tools — then follow a how-to on YouTube.
Need a logo? Check out Fiverr. Business cards? Of course there’s Vistaprint.
There are plenty of experts who can teach you how to code or master photoshop or manage an app. These online experts can save you money and teach you skills that you need for your business, especially if you want your business to grow. Eventually, you may want to hire an expert for advanced work, but for now, learn the basics and get the job done.
Speaking of hiring however…
4. Hire Contract Workers
When you are first starting your own business, you have to wear a lot of hats including product producer, marketer and payroll specialist. Eventually, you’ll have to relinquish some of those tasks because you prefer to focus on what you are more interested in working on. That, or you’ll need an experienced person to handle a challenging project.
Before hiring out full time employees, save your some money and utilize contract workers. Contract workers can actually live in your area and come into your work environment. Another option is to hire someone to work on a project virtually. There are many online sources where you can hire out contract employees to take care of graphics, payroll or other tasks.
5. Free Software & Apps
There is a cornucopia of software and apps that can jump-start your business and preserve the bottom line — this isn’t even considering the freemium tools out there as almost all apps offer deluxe versions that can give you all of the app’s high tech goodies. The benefit of the free software is you can see how often you use it and if it’s worth investing in the full price.
The types of free software and apps can run the gamut of your business needs including: social media scheduling, payroll processing or team communications. For images there are photo editing software as well as software for logos, infographics, and animations or video. There are even free business form templates and apps for online note taking.
As your business grows, you will want to take advantage of analytics to help discover what’s working for your business and what’s not. This way you can increase your efficiency.