Nanette
February 3, 2020
Last week, I talked about business credit cards. In short, I suggested Chase Ink for small business owners looking for a good cashback solution with no annual fees or caps on rewards and 0% financing for a year. It’s also easy to redeem rewards. That’s one of my 5 tips for decreasing small business owner expenses.
Chase Ink pays referral fees for approved credit card customers that come through me. While I’d sure appreciate your using the affiliate link, that’s not why I’m recommending this card to you. I’m mentioning it because it’s the best card I’ve found for typical small business needs.
Now on to my 5 tips for decreasing small business owner expenses.
It may not seem like much at first, but the dollars and cents you save with smarter approaches to your business expenses can add up fast.Nanette’s top five tips for decreasing small business owner costs
- Get your books in order. You’re writing off all appropriate expenses for your business, right? Probably not. You’re likely gifting too much to the Commonwealth and the IRS if you’re not keeping close track of everything that can be deducted from business operations. Meals, mileage, and all other costs of doing business can reduce your bottom line business income. That means more money in your pocket come tax time. Delegating this task to another more skilled is usually a wise investment.
- Screen vendors carefully. The cheapest solution is rarely the best. What’s best is the person who can be most efficient and effective at providing the expertise you need. Be wary of service providers who require a deposit before they start work. The good ones want customers to be thrilled with what they deliver before requiring compensation.
- Get clear on your cost of goods sold. Most small business owners fail to recognize all the money that goes into handing over a product or service to a customer. Your time has a value. Your office space isn’t free. Packaging and postage aren’t cheap. Employee and vendor costs need to be covered in your pricing too. If you’re charging $50/hour for your time, you’re not making $50 an hour. Marketing a product or service you’re selling for less than what it costs you to provide isn’t going to help your business grow; it will cause it to fail faster.
- Set a budget in advance. This helps reduce impulse buys, track return on investment figures, coordinate promotional campaigns to maximize reach, and ensure all your marketing activities are aligned with your goals. That’s because you need to think about what you’re doing and why when you create a useful budget document.
- Shop around for credit cards. This can translate to a lot of money if you’re carrying balances over from month to month, not getting cashback on purchases or paying annual fees. Consider transferring balances over to a card offering 0% interest for a year or more, cashback on all purchases, and/or no annual fees. My choice is Chase Ink because I’m a cash is king kind of gal, but if you’re looking for travel points or other types of rewards, you may find a different card more to your liking.
Spend time considering the wisdom of where and how you’re handling money outflows along with some ideas to put cash back in your pocket with creative approaches. You might be amazed at how quickly decreasing expenses has you making more money with no extra work needed. It’s worth the effort to get smarter about how you handle costs.
