7 Ways to Cut Expenses For Your Small Business

Running a small business is no doubt a risky job, especially just starting out. However, no matter the risk, you’ll always want to continue seeking out extra money you can put towards the healthy future of your company. Even if you can’t totally get rid of costs, there are still plenty of ways you can cut costs that won’t greatly impact the way your business runs. Here are our top 7 ways you can cut these costs without changing the way your business performs.

1. Create Your Own Budget Plan

The best way to reduce costs is to first recognize your overall costs of running your company and then eliminate places where money is being wasted. Create a budget plan barely takes any time at all too, plus it is considered one of the most effective ways to run a healthy, growing business.

2. Use Technology to Your Advantage

Technology helps business in more ways than we can appreciate. From payment systems to contacting clients, and more, technology can help free time and resources to help eliminate wasted costs. In fact, there are even some free tools that can be downloaded online to help run your business smoother and cheaper.
However, if you haven’t even started using technology to run your business, you’re not too late. Even starting with your own company’s blog, online marketing, or social media advertising, you can boost your company’s online presence with very minimal cost.

3. Go Eco-Friendly

By reducing the amount of paper, water, and energy you use, you can help free up expensive costs to you and your business. Here are just a few eco-friendly tips you can use to lower your costs:

• Print double sided on paper, rather than multiple single pages
• Reuse paper for notes
• Use smaller font and margins when typing memos to colleagues
• Use emails rather than physical mail
• Try out services like DropBox to help share files rather than printing out papers and handing them around

4. Barter with Vendors

Most of the time, vendors will work with you and can even lower prices fairly. Once you establish a relationship, work on negotiating weekly or monthly costs with your local vendor, you’ll be surprised how understanding they can be.

It’s also a great idea to work out how important your service providers are from your budget plan. Recollect your past bills and determine how much you should be spending on your energy and water bills, and compare it to how much you should be spending. From there, try determining how you can limit or prevent overspending and put limits in place to keep on track with your target budget.

5. Take Advantage of Outsourcing and Telecommuting

If you have any short term jobs that you need to be completed, consider hiring an outside contractor or freelancer. This will help you cut down costs, as you will not need to pay them a full-time salary or cover any benefits. Additionally, if a temporary worker makes a big impact and stands out, you have the choice to hire them full time in the future. And, dosing so can actually cut more costs that would be spent on recruiting and training.
You should also encourage your full-time employees to telecommute to work. This has the potential to save you a lot of money. This type of flexible workspace can have a positive impact on overall job satisfaction and morale. Studies have linked this type of worker happiness to an increase in productivity. Telecommuting can also directly affect your small business’ budget, specifically because:

• It limits your utility costs thanks to lower water and electricity use.
• It lowers commuting costs for your employees.
• It reduces time lost to commuting.
• You will no longer need as large of an office space, which can help you save on your monthly rent and energy costs.

6. Take Care Of Your Debts

One of the best areas to look at for money saving opportunities is at your business debts. What sort of debt does your business accrue and how much money are your spending on managing it? Your business should put some focus on tackling and lowering debt. Credit cards may seem like a great way to cut down on immediate expenses, but, with interest and fees, you will actually be paying more down the line. Try to pay down some of your business debts. You can also try renegotiating your interest rates or minimum payments. This will make it easier to pay off any debt that you may collect.

7. Save Money On Your Energy Bill

There are more than a few ways that you can slash your energy bill through almost no effort. Simply make a few changes and watch the savings roll in. This way, you can not only save money but save the environment at the same time.

• Purchase a programmable thermostat. Regularly, offices are in use between nine am and five pm. Set your thermostat to accommodate your workers, and lower the temperature when the offices are empty.
• Switch to curtains or blinds that block light. This will allow you to take full advantage of passive heating. Close them on warm days to keep the sun’s heat out and leave them open on cold days to let the heat in.
• Seal any cracks or leaks. All the heating and cooling that you are spending money on could be escaping through leaks in your building. Check places like air vents, windows, exterior doors, and utility line entries for any cracks. Then weatherstrip or caulk to plug up the holes.
• Invest in double pane windows. This may not be entirely in your control if you rent out space. However, double pane windows insulate much better than single pane windows. If you can swap out your windows, you should.

Also, before you begin any energy saving projects, check to see if it qualifies for a local or federal tax cut. Projects like these often do.