5 Frugal Budget Practices for Your Small Business

Running your own business takes a lot of money and it’ll probably take you between six months and two years until you’re fully profitable. What this means is that during your early days, you’ll need to try and scrape away as much money as possible if you want to give your business a fair chance to for survival. And to help you do this, we’ve come up with 5 frugal budget practices that are guaranteed to do the trick.

Save on office supplies

Every company out there spends a lot of money on office supplies. Even though you simply can’t operate without office products, there’s no need to buy name brand supplies. Some generic office products may be just as good and you can purchase them for less money. If you buy office supplies in bulk, you can always try to negotiate with your supplier. Chances are they’ll be ready to offer you a better deal and not risk you turning to their competitors. Encouraging your employees to go paperless is also something you just can’t go wrong with. This way, not only will you reduce your costs but you’ll also be helping preserve the environment.

Use free software

No matter what kind of work your company does, there’s always going to be plenty of software you need to use for your operations. And instead of purchasing premium software, you could give open source software a go. Do this and you might just be able to stumble upon free software that can do wonders for your entire company. For example, purchasing an MS Office package for your entire company can be a huge expanse and you might want to think about using software such as Open Office instead. Your employees may not be accustomed to software like this but they’ll be able to get a hang of it and help your company save a quite a lot.

Turn to freelancers

Full-time workers can cost your business quite a lot, and your small business may not be able to for too many of them. Luckily, we live in an age where there are so many freelancers who can contribute just as much as full-time employees can. Ideally, you’ll want to have everyone in your office, but this means higher paychecks and more office equipment needed. Another great thing about working with freelancers is that you’ll usually get to hire an expert in their field, which means you won’t have to pay for their training. And with platforms like Upwork, finding freelancers you can hire will be a real piece of cake.

Think about utilities

When running an office, you’ll be guaranteed to use more water and power than you’ve ever imagined. What this means is that you’ll be spending a lot of money on your utilities. Therefore, when choosing the location for your small business, you might want to compare electricity prices before you make any final decisions. That way, you’ll be able to opt for a part of the city where utilities won’t take a big chunk of your budget. Even if you manage to get the best possible deal for your utilities, it’s still recommended that you try and save as much water and electricity as you can.

Speak on industry events

Attracting as many customers to your business is something you’ll always need to focus on. However, most of the marketing channels that do the trick for small businesses tend to cost a lot and chances are you won’t be able to afford them. Luckily, there are local industry events you could use to get your business closer to consumers. What you can do is volunteer to speak on such events and use your expertise to get your business out there. Of course, this means you might want to work on improving your presentation skills and make sure you always have enough business cards in your pocket.

With these 5 practices, you should be able to save a lot of money without putting the quality of your products or services at risk. Use the money you’ve managed to save carefully and there should be nothing stopping your business from growing even more and staying ahead of the pack.