30 Often-Missed Money-Saving Tips for Small Businesses

July 2, 2016

Businesses have way too many expenses and you cannot plan them all when starting to build the business model at the initial level.In fact, you have to spend way too much on planning and correspondingly setting up things in the targeted marketplace.


Nevertheless, there are many other expenses that you need to bear individually going forward.Here, in this article, we have come up with multiple tips to save money in business. In the below list, there are some tips that save you more money as compared to the other ones and you end up saving thousands in business:


PENNY-PINCHING ENDORSEMENTS


Businesses need advertisement to eventually become popular among its targeted audience while you need to save money in advertisement too. Try out the following practices:



  1. Piggyback advertisement

Create advertisement materials like e-pamphlets, newsletters, and mailers to spread them all over the Internet. If you have a physical presence too, make the most of that. Tuck coupons and promotional pamphlets in the carry bags that you hand to the customers.



  1. Share good bonds with your neighbors

Discuss with your neighbors about sharing the cost of marketing and promotions and follow a joint advertisement program. Consider promoting your business through sidewalk sales and ask them to share their mailing lists with you if possible. Meet their suppliers and discuss a minimal cost promotion.



  1. Take help from your contacts

Ask the people in contact for referrals so that you can supply them your exclusive products and/or services. If possible, ask them to propose your products or services in business meets. Needless to say, the increasing marketing network is the only thing that provides you with business opportunities.



  1. Create a database of your happy customers

Ask your customers to give feedback so that you get to know how you are doing and how much scope for improvement is there. If you customers share their stories and respective experiences with others, then they encourage them for using your products or services.



  1. Get in TV commercials

Another major platform for you to advertise your business is the local cable TV channels. Generally, cable TV channels have reasonable advertisement charges in time slots. You might not get a good response initially, but you can certainly make an impression on your potential customers, which does count.



  1. Voice your experience

Your presence in a particular business division does make you aware of various market fluctuations, which is beneficial for any business in the same or a like domain operated by you or anyone else. Share your experience with others and grab their attention towards your business.


GET ON THE INTERNET


The Internet is a global platform that enables businesses to grow exponentially, thereby serving a substantial share of consumers globally. Any business can secure its specific audience and serve it in the best way possible. Try out the practices listed below:



  1. Online marketing

If you have a website, then you can promote your business easily by joining various newsgroups, social groups online that have your target audience. Advertise various categories of product/services you offer on your website through blog posts, Google ads, and on various social media platforms, viz. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.



  1. Trim down online selling cost

Creating your own business website, thereby incorporating professional nuts and bolts costs you a lot, whereas selling your products on a multi-vendor storefront is much convenient. Nevertheless, if you have a budget to create your own e-commerce website, then there are low-cost platforms available too. Try a WordPress-based website.



  1. Chat with the audience

Join multiple newsgroups and chat with other participants on a daily basis. Share your business ideas and do take what others have shared. You never know a simple idea can brings you an increasingly large number of customers. If you can stay connected to such business or newsgroups, add your signature below the post. Avoid promotion through your posts, as you may get banned by the admin.



  1. Be your own advertiser

Let people know who you are and what your business is about. Put your URL in your signature online, add your brand name, logo, and URL in your email signature, print company’s name and slogan on employees’ uniform, take the help of press release, and go social no matter what.


LOCATION IS THE KEY


Clients and employees prefer an organization that is in their close proximity not just for the sake of convenience of individuals but for the ease of business transactions frequently. Try out the following practices:



  1. Be found

Businesses that are easily approachable and customers do not have to take much pain in getting in touch to buy the products and services have comparatively high chances of becoming popular among the audience. Let your customers find you easily and be available for them whenever necessary.



  1. Don’t miss home

Establishing a permanent office at a physical location can cost you a huge sum of money (over $ 100,000), whereas a home-based office or operating from your own apartment does not require starting from the scratch. At home, you do have a phone, Internet connectivity, cupboard, and other furniture and you do not need to spend on all these items again.


WORKPLACE OVERHEADS


Offices do have multiple expenses that are necessary, though. However, you can cut down extra cost, whatsoever may be, by employing recycled equipment wherever applicable. Below are a few such practices that you may like to follow:



  1. Recycled Xerox machine or printer

Various multi-national companies and other business owners who move periodically often sell printers or Xerox machines, as transportation is tedious for such things. If you require such equipment at your office because you need them frequently, then look for the recycled edition if available at an affordable cost.



  1. Create forms yourself

Offices do need certain forms and they but those from third-party suppliers, and then create them on their own. In contrast, these forms can be downloaded online at no extra cost. Once downloaded, customize those forms as per your requirements at present or in the future.



  1. Use freeware tools

You can find almost every software tool online either as the free trial edition or with a limited validity. Whichever software you need, you can try and search on Google if you don’t know which website to log on. In case any such software is not available in its latest version, you better download it from its manufacturer’s website.



  1. Get pre-owned equipment

You can save thousands simply by purchasing pre-owned equipment, furniture, and other things you may need at your office. Just go online and search for used furniture or other things with an appropriate query on Google. Alternately, you can try and get the same at a nearby furniture store or a particular dealer.


INSURANCE AWARENESS


Organizations provide health insurance to their employees to make them feel safe in the workplace. If you are a startup, you may not be able to provide individual insurance cover to each of your employees. In such cases, each employee must have a health insurance plan for himself. However, it is not possible to ensure that each of your employees has one. In this case, you could understand the health insurance policies listed by various web aggregators and have multiple options to select from. The following are the practices that can be followed:



  1. Group insurance

As a responsible employer, you can opt for a group insurance policy that covers all employees under one umbrella for certain benefits; subject to the policy issuing company. Buying a Corporate/Group Insurance Policy for your employees can be much cheaper than buying individual Health Covers. While, some employers provide comprehensive coverage, it is not necessarily important to do so; you can choose the type of coverage as per your affordability.



  1. Extent of coverage

Life is full of uncertainties and anything unfortunate might come to an individual in the next moment. Thus, when at workplace, make sure that your employees are safe and covered against the medical hazards. Let them know the extent of coverage offered to them under the group insurance policy.This tip might not be of direct monitory benefit to you, but would definitely add value to your relationship with your employees and fringe benefit component of their salary.



  1. Insurance claim history

When choosing an insurer for your employees, make sure you verify its solvency and claim settlement ratio.Also, do include the health cover in the list of key points to confirm. A medical insurance policy assures the hospitalization expenses to be borne by the insurance provider. Therefore, it is essential to know the capability of the insurer to settle the claims before investing with that particular insurer. An insurer with a strong claim history or a high claim settlement ratio is the best to invest with. Buying insurance from an untrustworthy insurer and facing claim rejection can lead to a total loss of investment/funds.



  1. Opt for Deductible

Health insurance policies have a component called deductibles that reduce the premium payable by the insured. This basically happens because deductibles are that share of a claim that is to be borne by the insured himself. Meaning, if you raise your deductible, the insurer’s liability will decrease and consequently you would have to pay comparatively less premium. On the flip side, no or least deductible means the premium is going to be higher. Therefore, do talk to your insurer about the ways to reduce premiums.


EMPLOYMENT ECONOMICS


Organizations have certain expenses that cannot be minimized or overlooked. These expenses include employees’ salary, electricity and Internet bills, mobile bills and more.However, when it comes to saving money, you can follow the below practices:



  1. Go for lease

Organizations try to own the place where they operate from, whereas it is recommended to lease the place instead.This reduces any extra overhead that may arise during the annual renovation, whitewash, and other activities that can cost over $ 10,000. In contrast, if they lease a building or a floor of that building, you just have to bear a share of the overall expense, which is quite to afford for any business firm.



  1. Temporary hiring

It has seen that organizations prefer to hire employees based on projects, which is beneficial for them.Also, it is obvious for any startup to hire candidates on a temporary basis because the company will not want to pay to an employee when there is no work for him at all. This also saves money in the long run hiring of eligible candidates when a project is expected to run comparatively long.



  1. Hire interns or trainees

When you have small projects and you cannot afford to pay a bigger sum to your experiences employees to work on those projects, consider hiring interns or trainees. Not only would this save your project cost but also give college students/ college graduates opportunity to work and learn in a professional environment.



  1. Hire individual freelancers

Organizations, instead of hiring candidates or outsourcing services, prefer to hire individual freelancers, which reduces the project cost significantly. The same is recommended over an agency to minimize the per person cost of the project.


TAX APPROACHES


Organizations have to pay income tax just like individuals do. However, the taxable amount payable by an organization is way too much higher than that by an individual. The following practices are for organizations:



  1. Defend your tax

New businesses may have a higher tax rate than those that have already been there. If this is about your business, you should take a stand for that. Verify how much others in your neighborhood are paying and negotiate. You can negotiate with community authorities that want your business to be there is the town and not move and get hired by someone else’s company.



  1. Hire family members

If you run a company and your children are over 14 years of age and can pay tax for themselves, then you can hire them and save in taxes significantly. Since children’s income fall in the lower tax bracket, the tax liability is also less. Thus, you can transfer your income to your children’s bank accounts to save money in income tax.



  1. Deduct your crucial expenses

Needless to say, you do get a tax rebate on mortgage interest and other business expenses.Besides, you are allowed to claim a tax deduction on the payment for multiple expenses incurred for home maintenance, including on the cost of cleaning your house or lawn. In case you have a doubt on tax deductions or any other related thing, you can consult your income tax advisor.


FINANCIAL ATTENTION


You need to focus on your financial goal and its corresponding tips to trim them down. The following are the practices:



  1. Deport early

Banks give interest on early deposits, so make sure you deposit money as early as possible to earn interest.



  1. Avoid credit card cash advance

If you own one or more credit cards, never go for cash advance since bank charge up to 2% as an upfront fee on the amount withdrawn.



  1. Compare credit limits

In case you have multiple credit cards, you should make purchases with the card with lower interest rate, especially when you are going to leave unpaid balance at the month end.


Put the aforementioned tips to practice and save thousands in your business.

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