Money Saving Ideas for New Businesses

Good budgeting is the bedrock of any successful business. It’s especially important for small and new companies to provide an overview of your finances, balance income and outgoings, and identify areas where you need to cut back and save. Good planning and budgeting can help your new business minimise expenditure.

There are five key steps to budgeting carefully as a new business:

1. Estimate expenses – start by adding in all your outgoings including fixed, variable, and one-off costs. This could be for the full year, a quarter, or a month. It should provide a good idea of how much you need to break even.
2. Contrast with your income – include the amount your new business expects to earn. Compare this to your predicted expenses to see if you can cover the costs and if not, find ways to cut back on expenditure. Your income should be more to demonstrate the viability of your business.
3. Track your finances – project whether you’ll make a profit or loss. Then keep a daily, weekly, and/or monthly tracker of your sending and income to ensure your company stays on track. Identify any issues as they arise so you can control them to keep within your budget.
4. Add an emergency fund – set aside some savings in a separate pot or account and send a percentage of your income into these savings to create an emergency fund. It could help if you have an unforeseen issue such as sudden building work, a lost client, or staff issues due to illness.
5. Review the budget – regularly review your budget to highlight any problems and fix them to avoid losing money. Even if your profits exceed expectations you can adjust your budget to make the money work better for your business.

Successful business owners know when to delegate tasks to others. You can’t do everything yourself and it’s often more cost-effective to pay an expert to do work they’re experienced in rather than have a go yourself. The costs to fix any mistakes and the valuable time saved to focus on other important business will be worth it.

Hiring employees can be expensive though when paying them an annual salary. If your budget plan won’t stretch to cover a full wage then consider outsourcing work. Using freelancers, agencies, and contractors saves money. You pay for a specific amount of time, don’t have to pay for any training or the other costs of hiring a full-time employee, and you get expert work.

It’s almost always cheaper to buy anything in bulk, so your new business should do this where possible. Bulk buying can save hundreds and thousands of pounds every month whether it’s paper for the office printer, cardboard boxes to package your products, or bottles of wine for a restaurant.

Seek suppliers that offer the best rates for any food, equipment, and other items that your business uses regularly. The more your order the better price you’re likely to get. Arranging regular deliveries of items in bulk cuts costs and makes budgeting easier as you should have a clear idea of how much you spend on such things every week or month.

There are thousands of free online tools out there that can make many business processes a lot cheaper. These range from logo makers to get your organisation’s branding up and running quickly to communication apps such as Slack to keep your team engaged and even free accounting software.

Some tools and apps simply offer a free trial for a limited period while others are completely free to use. Search around online to find the best tools, software, and apps that suit your company’s needs best without paying a penny. However, if you find some tools aren’t quite up to scratch then you might have to pay for a better service.

Any new business must legally meet its waste obligations by using licensed waste carriers to remove rubbish from their premises. Simply throwing everything in one general waste bin might seem like a good idea but it’s terrible for the environment and can be more expensive. Lots of general waste goes to landfill so you’ll pay a high landfill tax.

Switching to recycling bins – even if you use a few – should be cheaper than having one general waste bin. Plus, you can reduce the number of collections you need. Separating materials into different recycling bins helps the environment and reduces how much general waste you produce, minimising the amount of landfill tax you pay.

Get a free quote and free bins for waste removal anywhere in the UK with Business Waste – you only pay for collections. Call 0800 211 8390 or contact us online today for a free no no-obligation quote bespoke to your new company’s needs. One of our experts can advise on a cost-effective solution.