Top Tips to Save your Small Business Money

In small businesses there can often be a fine line between profit and loss. In this article we’ll be exploring the top 5 tip to save your small business money. Most of these tips can be used for any type of business and there are plenty of other ways to save money but we thought we’d condense it to a top 5.

Buy second hand

Equipment, such as fixed assets, can often be the most expensive part of a business. They can also seem unavoidable as a business owner; especially if you want to buy the best equipment. Our advice to save money when you’re going to buy equipment, whether you are looking to upgrade or start from scratch, is to buy second hand. The discounts you can get on second hand items compared to the brand new ones can be huge.

Depending on what equipment you are looking to buy the depreciation value can change dramatically and equipment only 1 year old can be considerably cheaper. You can also look to buy equipment from local businesses that are having a clear out or moving premises. This tip alone is a great way to save your small business a lot of money.

Hone your repair skills

Older equipment may be prone to breaking and repairing it can quickly add up. What’s worse is that the replacement costs for equipment can be even more expensive than repairs. Unless you are planning to the replace the unit with a second hand item, which can be a good alternative, it’s going to be a lot cheaper to fix it yourself. Whether you own a restaurant, hotel or takeaway you can save money by skipping the middleman and doing the repairs yourself.

Obviously this won’t be possible for all types of business owners but it’s definitely worth a try to save calling out a handyman or buying new equipment. We also have to stress the safety of self-repairs. Make sure you know exactly what you and doing and if it involves electricity, plumbing, gas or anything you aren’t sure about then always consult a professional first.

Reduce waste and lose the paper

A simple way to reduce the amount of waste and paper you throw away is to go paperless. Paperless is a term used where; instead of using physical documents a company switches over to electronic copies. This drastically reduces the amount of paper that is used and thrown away. Depending on the type of business this can be done with invoices, leaflets and notices that are normally sent to customers.

The whole aim of becoming paperless is to reduce the waste but it is also more environmentally friendly. As a side note: if you do occasionally use a printer it is much cheaper to get a cartridge refilled instead of buying a whole new cartridge.

Piggyback on your advertising

If you are sending out invoices, receipts and other forms of communication to your customers then you can look to mention other products and services on them. Depending on the style of invoice and receipt most are one sided, being completely blank on the other side. This gives you great opportunity to include advertising about your other products and services. By doing this you can help get word out about your other services without spending additional money on advertising. This method is a very creative way to save your small business money as lots of business just leave invoices and receipts completely blank. If you don’t offer any other services you could always sell this space as advertising space – but make sure you understand your clients before you do this.

Effective advertising

Each small business requires their own unique approach to marketing in their industry. Some old and out-dated methods are not as cost effective as you think and could actually be losing you money.

Nowadays small businesses can get much more effective marketing through online advertising such as social media. By using the right online advertising campaign such as Facebook adverts or Google AdWords you can see much better results compared to older outbound methods.

If you are looking to improve your online presence and marketing results then it would be best to speak with an online marketing company. This tip alone, when used correctly, can save your small business a tonne of money and drastically increase your profits.

If you are looking for other ways to save money, then reducing your tax can also be a major money saver. Contact us below for some financial help or to discuss what accounting services we can provide to benefit your business.