Rein In Your Business Expenses: How to Save Money On Everything Your Company Needs

Spending and making money is normal for most businesses, but saving money is another story.  Owners are busy making executive decisions and keeping operations going, yet allocating time toward finding ways to save on business costs is a task most must afford.

Rein in your expenses and learn how to save money on the things your company needs.

photo by photoSteve101 via Flickr

Go Virtual

Ask the question, “Do I need an office?”  Hundreds of business owners operate virtual offices given today’s digital tools.  Create tasks, communicate with team members, and analyze business growth and expenditures in real time.  Some (auto repair) need a physical place of business, but thousands of products and services are supplied via virtual resources.

Use Coupons

Competition is fierce regardless of industry.  That’s why vendors offer reduced prices and coupons – to get more people buying from them rather than competitors.  There’s a coupon for scores of services and products; you just have to know where to find them.  Use sites like sumocoupon.com to get coupons and deals on your business needs.

Start Bartering

Businesspeople are open to negotiation.  Business-to-business transactions don’t have to involve money at all.  Speak to other owners about bartering in exchange for their products and services.  Depending on operations, supplying your products or services can be much more cost effective than paying out of pocket.

Hire a Buyer

Hire an in-house employee or third-party service to buy your business needs.  Perhaps, you are not very good at locating deals and getting the best prices; worse, you could be an impatient or compulsive buyer, buying only as needed, constantly paying retail prices despite alternative options.  Hiring someone else to save can be an incredibly perceptive business decision.

Outsource Work

Who are your ‘best players’ and are they in the best positions possible?  Depending on growth, key players may attend to low-tier tasks due to the number of workers or the efficiency of workers who must multitask.

Outsourcing needs presents opportunity to use in-house personnel more efficiently, increasing the core of the business, its output, and eventual income.

Go Digital

Does anyone use a checkbook to balance their checking and savings accounts these days?  Today, a library of applications and digital tools help with monotonous and complex tasks.  Consider buying business solutions that streamline in-house processes, increasing efficiency and saving time.

Find software for invoicing, budgeting, point of sales tasks, and other business processes.  Time is money, so don’t waste precious seconds doing things that software can do better and quicker.

Go Green

Read green movement and conservation literature and see if you apply for tax breaks as well as pre-market products.  The government rewards those who take part in saving the environment.  Businesses especially use a lot of paper.  Aside from the waste, maintaining paper-based files takes up space and energy in fielding files.

Seek consultation related to converting to digital files or cloud-based management to save the environment, space, and money.

Be Picky

Be fussy when it comes to opting for regular versus gourmet coffee for the kitchen and fine leather versus fabric chairs for the boardroom and offices.  Be frugal in trying to spend one dollar versus two when it comes to business expenses. You’ll find it becomes a useful habit to think twice about spending a few dollars.

Successful earners agree that if you watch your cents, the dollars watch themselves, so take a lesson from the elite and hold on tighter to your pennies.

Buy Used

Consider buying used equipment from other businesses or private owners.  Why spend hundreds of dollars on new computers when you can cut costs purchasing used and refurbished models?  As long as business output is quality and uninfluenced by previous ownership, why should it matter? We access used bridges, airports, and roads each day as a means to an end.

Survey sites like Craigslist or check local newspaper listings to find deals on office and tech equipment.  Don’t pay retail if it doesn’t pay a return to you.

Hire a Consultant

Business consultants and business psychologists survey operations to provide a professional ‘diagnosis,’ which involves both positive and negative feedback about personnel, advertising, in-house communications, and the executive staff.

Sometimes, an outside view is required to target in-house areas in need of improvement.  It doesn’t matter where help comes from as much as getting it and improving operations and cost efficiency.

There’s always room for more money yet owners seldom pay more time toward thinking about saving versus making money.  Saving is earning- especially if you’re regularly paying retail prices or missing ways to save on business costs.

Guest Author :

Russell Matthews loves numbers and budgets. With a head for personal finance, he often blogs about his tips and tricks on a variety of saving money related blogs.