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Forum - Money-saving tips?
Money-saving tips?
Mon, 03/08/2009 - 15:06 — richardp
Obviously, we’d never condone anything remotely dodgy, but nothing makes us happier than being able to share a clever new money-saving tip. Do you have any advice you’d like to pass on to others who are starting or thinking of starting a business? How can they save money and limit their start-up costs? Where do new inexperienced business-owners needlessly waste money?
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I agree with most comments on here - as with finances in life in general saving money can be easy just look for discounts on items you need. For example Sage Accounting software can run between £160 - £600 on average depending on the version but go grab a Barclays bank account or similar with a reference from your accountant and get Sage + other software for £1 per month for the first year (i think) and only £20ish per month after that.
Project management software use software like Basecamp from 37signals (i talk about it on my blog) its a great piece of collaborative software you can use anywhere in the world and doesnt cost hundreds of pounds to outlay.
Websites dont cut costs here by outsourcing to india but certainly look for a designer/developer within you budget.
Marketing - dont waste money on avenues you dont know nothing about - do research first.
Finances certainly try and get customers to pay cash and or bank transfer to avoid waiting on cheques to clear (or bounce!)
Some recent really simple ones for us include:
1.Cheap Marketing - Tell your friends and family to tell their friends and family
2.Finance - Ask people to transfer money to you via online banking rather than giving you a cheque which you then have to pay to pay in !
3.Switch electrical stuff off you don't need on
4.Walk to the post office rather than taking the car (OK its only a 5 min walk for us)
5. Negotiate / find new supplier deals
Hi guys,
Some really great comments.
We have an entire section dedicated to this very topic at: http://www.businesssmiths.co.uk/resources-save_money
and startup specific ones at http://www.businesssmiths.co.uk/resources-start_ups
I'm also happy to add your suggestions for our community.
Si
Basic business running costs will always be an issue. These always impact on your bottom line so getting the Best and most cost effective with the right support are a must. Here at Utility Warehouse we are offering great deals across the board for business utilities including Telecoms, internet, mobile phones and energy al wrapped up on a single billing platform saving businesses admin time with only 12 bills per year to sort and to deliver to the accountant (a money saving point if ever there was one). Takke a closer look at www.telecomplus.org.uk/B47963.
BTW Dare is say, as all business owner have to go home sometime, we also save them money there aswell!
well starting a website will definitely save you start-up cost. You don't really have to spend a lot of money by marketing and maintaining it. At the same time you don't have to rent a space to do that. I can say that this set up really worked for me ^_^ You can check out http://www.fastbusinessprofits.com/ so you can save less on marketing your products and services.
If you already use Sage / Iris / Pegasus software then using compatible forms for your invoices/statements and payslips can save £20 - £30 PER BOX.
I run collateit.co.uk and supply all of the above at 75% off normal retail print.
From the bookkeeping side:
1. Use internet banking to pay suppliers. This is a regular theme of mine, because I have used internet banking for a number of years across a number of business interests. Some banks have better internet platforms than others, but all of them look after you well.
2. Persuade your customers to pay you by Internet Banking/Bank Transfer. No post to open, on Pay-in slip to fill out, no trip to the bank...and it clears immediately.
There's more on my blog - www.bookkeepertim.wordpress.com.
Tim
For my deliveries, I use pay by the hour car/van hire services such as Street Car (http://www.streetcar.co.uk). It works out a lot cheaper than owning my own van (No insurance to pay, congestion charge, servicing etc)
Steven (www.frozen-dna.com)
To further add:
Use Open Source software as much as possible. There is virtually nothing you can do that doesn't have an OS application to help. I've not paid for software in years and always recommend to clients that they consider OS before splashing out on over-priced commercial software.
I've compiled a short list of the most popular packages here: http://www.craig-west.co.uk/free_business_software
Really good post Craig, loads of useful free software in your list...
If you are working from home and do not want to spend money on a new telephone line plus rental of this but don’t want to answer the phone to clients at all hours then I would suggest using a free product such as:
http://www.adcallswitchboard.co.uk/
It allows you to set open time for your switchboard, on hold music, voice mails etc.
I love it and am nothing to do with it – so no commission!!
I'd suggest a great money saving tip to raise awareness about your new business is to exploit free social networking sites. Facebook, Twitter, writing regular blogs, Linked In, writing articles and posting them on sites like E-zine etc. can do wonders to drip feed information about you to your target audience.
Develop a strategy though, don't spend hours and hours on-line without having a plan! It might take some time to develop the right strategy and to be regular contributor to these networks but the result is free advertising and PR just from being yourself! (No need for distant and cold campaigns through expensive and meaningless leaflet drops, swish websites that don't say much (Don't get me wrong, a website is an essential tool, just make sure it works for you) and piles of brochures that are never picked up)...
Not only can social networking save you money, if done correctly it will make you money!
Sara (http://sarabrown.co.uk)
If you do need premises, get somewhere cheap and negotiate on the price and terms. There are heaps of all types of premises available now and landlords are ready to negotiate. If you just need an office get a crummy cheapy place and move when you are doing well. Your business plan and cash flow will suffer from upfront costs.
As mediagranduk said, home working can save businesses time and money. Using Internet telephony can help businesses enable home working and reduce their phone bills.
For example, you use a desk phone at the office, but you need to work from home. Simply unplug the phone, take it home and plug it into your router. Your number and settings stay the same and people can reach you in exactly the same way as if you were in the office.
As for phone costs, all internal calls are free, as are calls to other Internet telephony users, and the regular call costs are very competitive. If you get inclusive minutes with that, you can make some really big savings.
I would say find open source software as a great alternative to spending a fortune. Also look around for free software that gets good reviews. We've just started using Microsoft Accounting which works really well and is free.
http://www.newbabygiftboxes.co.uk
You can also have a virtual switchboard, can't you? So, if you were a conglomerate as mediagrandeuk suggests, you could easily transfer calls from one person to the other via VoIP giving a great impression of your business, even if you're each working from bedrooms.
Get the word-of-mouth machine working. Five things you can do on the marketing front with no money at all: 1) Get your company profile on LinkedIn and other networking sites 2) Set-up a Twitter account and tweet interesting and useful information 3) Identify online groups and forums in your market and make intelligent comments 3) Start a Blog (which now means you have somewhere to link to on your Tweets, etc.) 4) Regularly update your email footer with links to interesting blog articles.
Some good ideas there
Save money by working from home and hiring skilled people who do the same - create conglomerates.
most of the money I have wasted starting up is by trying to do things cheaply then discovering that it wont cut it and ending up spending out to get things done right. My tip is to really evaluate all the options and consider spending on quality up front.
I'd agree with all the comments on here, but particularly the one about knowing when to spend on things and when to save. If you are going to be promoting your business, spend money on a professional e-mail address and on decent business cards - first impressions do count. Don't skimp on equipment and try and get by with an old slow computer, when you get busy you'll then have to go through the pain of upgrading - do it while you have time (and obviously if you can afford to).
There's always lots of office furniture going on Freecycle and similar sites, or go to your local clearance warehouse - you can kit out your office and save money here.
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