Tips to Save Money

Running a business can be expensive.  Supplies, people, technology, all add up.  Here are some tips to help you save money while still driving your business to success!

Staffing

Employees are vital to making a business run, but come with salary and benefit costs.  You can conserve by using part-time employees with no benefits.  Explore internships or mentoring programs that cost little to nothing. You can have the human resources but for less.

Go to the Cloud
Avoid hardware expenses and the cost to maintain expensive software. Moving to cloud-based services allow you to pay by user.  This spreads out the expense and you are only paying for what you use.  As you grow you can update and or expand without large investments. 

Negotiate

Never take list price as your price. Work to negotiate savings. Things to consider are increasing the volume of your purchase to secure a price break. Explore free or discounted shipping. Review payment terms. The longer you have to use the money before it is in your vendor’s hands the better.  Get competitive quotes and don’t be afraid to pit vendor against vendor. It will keep your vendors honest and help you secure additional savings.

Bulk Buying

Evaluate buying supplies in bulk. Items like janitorial supplies, printer toner, or paper are great options to stock up on. Compare prices and look at the per unit price to be sure you are getting a value.  Factor in your availability of storage space for these bigger purchases.

Barter

Explore bartering services or products.  This allows cash to stay in the business while you provide inventory or services in exchange for something you need.  Do the math to verify you are doing an even exchange. This is a great option to keep money within the business.

Get Involved

Research trade associations and local community business groups.  Networking is the key to many successful businesses.  You will meet other like-minded professionals who can share tips on vendors or might be willing to barter.  You never know until you ask, but you first need to build your business connections.

Saving money takes a little effort, but well worth it when the benefits hit your bottom line!  Do you have additional savings tip? Please share below.

Increase Your Productivity

Have a Plan

On Sunday evening take a moment to define the week.  Craft of a vision of how the week will unfold.  Define items you need to accomplish and set reminders for things like doctor appointments, recitals, or when your big report is due. Little things such as setting out your clothes or making the kids' lunches the evening before will  avoid the morning rush to make the day to flow more smoothly.  

Make a List

To-do lists help organize what you need to do but they need to be realistic.  Having a list of 50 things and only 2 hours to complete the list isn’t going to happen.  Assign time to each task such as 15 minutes or an hour.  This helps evaluate the time needed for each task. Prioritize your list by most important. Now you know what you need to do by when and the time needed for each item.

Block out Time

Life has a way of interrupting when you are trying to get work done. A phone call, the urgent email, or the coworker who needs immediate help inevitably impedes progress. To combat this block off time in your day to tackle specific items. Close your door, turn off the email, put your phone on do not disturb.  You will accomplish much more if you focus solely on a dedicated task.

Avoid digital distractions

We love to see the latest tweets, facebook updates, or read emails immediately but we can get in the habit of always being connected. This leads to a feeling of constant multitasking. Turn off email alerts and check messages every 30 or 60 minutes. You can fully engaged on the project at hand. Another tip is to consolidate all your different emails accounts into one by automated forwards. Then you aren’t having to check various accounts so often.

Have a Life

Create blocks of time to focus on having fun with your family or friends.  Schedule an evening out or enjoy some of your hobbies .You need to make time to decompress. This helps clear your mind providing the ability to focus more intensely when you need to.

You can increase your productivity and actually have more free time just by making small changes to how you approach each day.  Have other productivity tips to share?  Please comment below and let’s get more stuff done together!

Stay Motivated

All of us experience times where we want to hit the snooze button and go back to bed. We get burnt out and lose our fire.  Here's how to get your passion back and get busy being awesome!

Attitude of Gratitude
Take a few moments as you start each day to reflect on the wonderful things in your life - your health, your family, friends, having a job or a home.  So many are less fortunate. Counting our blessings can inspire us to do more.  Write down 5 things you're grateful for. Stick this note on your bathroom mirror or on your computer at work.  When the days starts becoming stressful, glance at your blessings. This helps puts things in perspective and re-energizes our motivation.

Continuing Education
Never stop learning.  Growing your skills, whether in professional pursuits or personal interests, challenges your mind in new ways and drives inspiration in all aspects of your life.  If there are new areas in your career you want to tackle, research free or low cost classes in your community or online.  Sign up for that photography class in your community or go to that yoga class with your friend. You can meet new people, learn something new, and potentially enhance your career.

Reflection
Look back on pass accomplishments. You earned those successes with hard work and determination. Remember the passion, the sweat, and drive that got you there. Use those memories to motivate you over the next hurdle on your current goal.

Challenge Yourself
It is easy to get stuck in routine that provides comfort and a sense of security, however challenging your mind in new ways keeps you fresh.  Create a goal that you want to achieve at work (increase sales, decrease costs, improve efficiency etc...). Give yourself a window of time to brainstorm 3 possible solutions.  Bounce ideas of your networking pals or coworkers. Develop a improvement tactic and put it in motion. Evaluate results. Then set the next bar you want to reach. Setting challenging goals provides a target to aim at and drives our focus.

Motivated yet?  It takes work to be your awesome self so get out there and make it happen!