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When you’re starting a business, the costs can soon mount up, so, especially if you’re planning to bootstrap, it’s important to have a plan of action in place to keep your costs to a minimum and to prioritise the things you will need to invest in right away to get things moving and the things that may be nice to have, but can probably wait a while.
If this is the first time you’ve looked into starting a business, then there’s a good chance you won’t even know where to start with this, and it can feel pretty overwhelming at stressful at times, so with this post, we’re going to cover some of the key areas of your business that you can start looking to cut costs whilst at the same time getting your business moving so that you’re able to make a profit sooner rather than later.
Work From Home If You Can:
Whether you can work from home or not will always depend on the business you have. If you’ve just opened a salon or any other kind of business that requires your physical presence in order to serve customers or work with your staff, then you obviously won’t be able to work from home and this part won’t apply to you.
However, if you’re starting something like a web design agency or a marketing agency, then working from home, at least in the beginning is definitely something to consider if you’re looking to cut costs.
It’s totally understandable when you start a business like this that you’d love to have an office where your team can meet up, collaborate, and even a place where you can invite clients for meetings.
Though there’s certainly nothing wrong with this idea, the costs of renting office space before you’re making money in your business really isn’t something you need to be dealing with, so it’s best to wait until this is a cost you can really justify and that won’t cause you additional stress.
DIY Your Marketing & PR:
If you’re bootstrapping your business at the beginning, then it really makes sense to focus on things that will move your business forward, but that you can also do yourself. Although it certainly doesn’t need to be and shouldn’t be the case forever, things like marketing and PR are areas of your business that you can probably work on for a while.
Once you start generating more profit, and if you feel that these areas aren’t where your time and effort are best spent then you can start outsourcing them to freelancers or even hire full time members of staff to take over.
Get Some Tools In Place:
In order to stay organised in your business, but also save time and money then it’s really going to help you in the long and short term to have simple, yet effective tools and systems in place.
Tools that you may want to consider, are things like project management software, automation tools, and a graphic design software to help with the visual marketing side of things. If you’re not at the stage yet where you’re handing everything over to an account, then you could use tools to track your finances, such as an invoice tracking software or you could consider subscription management software to help you stay on track of your incomings and outgoings.
Build Your Team Slowly:
A lot of new business owners are so keen to get started that they focus on running before they can walk, and this is especially noticeable when hiring staff and building a team.
When you’re building your team, it could be that you do need to find a few people right away because this really depends on the type of business you have, but just like with any relationship, you’re always better to take your time and find the right people.
Another thing is making sure you don’t try to hire every team member you need at the one time. You should begin by making a list of all the areas of your business you’re looking to hire someone for and then working from there to see what needs to be given priority.
For example, if you’re okay to manage the marketing side of things on your own for a few months, but really struggle with the finance side, then this is something you should focus on hiring someone for.
Barter With Other Business Owners:
Bartering certainly isn’t something that you should be doing longterm, and also not something you should be considering for high-end or premium services when you have nothing of the same standard to offer in return.
However, if you’re just starting out and you know some business owners who offer complimentary services to yours, then you could potentially work out some deals where you trade services for a while in order to save some money. It’s also a good way of building your own reputation and getting your name out there to other customers.
We hope this post has been helpful in showing you the different ways that you can easily keep costs low when you’re starting your business.
You may also like: Payroll Management Tips For New Businesses
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