March 28, 2020 Saving for Your Small Business

Ways to save money for your small business.

When you start a business it’s always about the bottom line. You’ll look for cost-saving measures everywhere just to get to a place of profitability. Over the years, as your business grows and you become more comfortable, you might not have your eyes on all of the areas where you can save a bit of cash.

That’s normal, you’re a human being and we tend to get a bit complacent when small issues are not causing a huge impact. Although it’s normal, you do want to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand. That could be very bad. So, every few months you’re going to want to go over your expenses and see where you can save money.

Of course, you should start with your large expenses like distribution and supply, but there are also smaller areas where you can trim fat from like subscriptions, time-management, or by contracting managed print services.

1. Printing

Did you know that document costs account for between 5% to 15% of a company’s annual budget? However, roughly 90% of businesses know that because they don’t track their printing costs. Additionally, IT departments spend about 15% of their time dealing with issues related to printing.

One way to solve this problem is by hiring an outside company to handle all of your printing needs. A managed print services firm will implement a system to address your printing needs once they’ve assessed your document management infrastructure. You can even order supplies directly from them so that you don’t have to worry about finding an additional vendor.

2. Subscriptions

Everyone has probably done this: you join subscription services and then you rarely use them. Business owners are no different. The thing is, if you aren’t fully using the subscription, then it is a big waste of money.

Assess how often you are engaging with the services or memberships you’ve signed up for. Then cancel all of the ones that aren’t helping you reach the goals you’ve laid out in your business plan.

3. Taxes and payroll

How many nights have you sat at your desk pouring over tax documents or doing payroll? Good news, those are not activities that you need to engage in anymore. Payroll companies will handle that for you. They make sure the deductions, garnishments, and taxes are coming out of your employees’ checks.

The service will even help prepare tax documents at the end of the year in most cases. Not only does this save you money in the short term but it’ll help you avoid paying penalties and fees at the end of the year because you filed taxes late.

4. Bank fees

When you open a business account, don’t do so without shopping around. You’ll want a bank that doesn’t charge you an exorbitant amount of ATM, wire, and monthly fees.

5. Time-management

Time is money. That is a phrase we hear repeated throughout our lives and it’s absolutely true. Wasted time kills profitability. Every minute that you spend scrolling through social media during your workday is valuable time that you could use to expand your business, find new customers, and maximize profitability.

6. Space

Renting a huge office that you aren’t using is another way a lot of small businesses waste money. For example, maybe you rented the entire floor of an office building when you really only needed a suite. Look around and, if you notice unused space in your office, think about downsizing. That could save you hundreds and even thousands of dollars each month.

At the end of the day, you want your company to run as efficiently as possible so your profit margins are robust. Ridding yourself of wasteful spending is one of the easiest ways to meet that goal. It might be difficult in the beginning to live without the services you enjoyed or to get used to new ones, but it’ll make you a lot happier.

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