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Founding father George Washington once famously wrote: “We must consult our means rather than our wishes.” Nowhere is this truth more evident than in the business world. While it may be tempting to facilitate growth by improving technology or hiring on new employees, you should only increase expenses if you have the operational capital to handle it. This is especially vital for organizations trying to save money.

It should be no surprise that finances are foundational to the success of your business. If regular costs exceed operational capital, it will only be a matter of time before production is shuttered. By cutting costs, business owners minimize the stresses of budgeting and business planning. Doing so helps ensure continued growth and increased profits. 

If you want to save money, look no further. Here are 10 practical and effective ways to start saving money for your business.

1. Buy Wholesale for Your Business and Buy in Bulk

If you want to compete with other retailers by offering a wide variety of products from established brands or publishers at a minimal cost, buying wholesale or in bulk is the way to go. When you do so, you can get usually get impressive discounts on goods. Further, you’ll often pay less in shipment costs, as there are fewer shipments when you buy in bulk.

The best part about buying in bulk is that it enables you to pass some of those savings on to consumers, offering goods at a lower price than competitors. This is a powerful way to spark consumer interest and loyalty in your brand.

Know that you aren’t limited to buying retail goods in this manner; you can also buy items in bulk that facilitate professional development. For instance, buying wholesale books related to business leadership, executive training, and employee motivation for your workforce can net you a discount on educational materials. Teaching hirees these fundamentals can enable you to save even more money by preventing errors and improving employee retention and performance.

2. Go Green and Save Energy

Going green is a great way to foster goodwill and loyalty for your brand. Be proud about your organization’s sustainability efforts. Trumpet them in your marketing materials. Explain the positive impact your business will have on your local community and environment. When customers shop with you, they’ll know they are supporting a  conscientious business — and they may be more likely to refer you to friends and family.

There are many sustainable practices your business can adopt that not only reduce your environmental impact, but also reduce costs in the long run. Interested in making your business more green? The key to embracing sustainable practices is to … 

3. Leverage Technology

Sustainability often goes hand in hand with technology. Keeping abreast of technological advances in your niche is key to minimizing costs, and it is one of the key ways to maintain a competitive advantage. 

While new technologies usually require an upfront investment, they typically save you more money than they cost to use. There are myriad examples, but here are three of the most popular and effective ways to save money with technology today:

• Reducing Paper Use: Printer ink isn’t cheap, and going through reams of paper isn’t exactly financially savvy. Instead, rely on cloud technologies to store and retrieve data. This is more convenient, sustainable, and cost-effective over time.

• Embracing a Remote Workforce: While retail businesses obviously require employees at the premises, clerical and administrative work can often be completed from the comfort of home. Determine who can reasonably work from home, then consider offering remote work opportunities. This will reduce emissions from employees commuting to work and reduce utility costs at the workplace.

• Taking Advantage of Tax Credits: Interested in reducing utility costs? Upgrades designed to reduce emissions and improve energy efficiency may be eligible for tax credits. An excellent example of this is solar panels. Tax credits can reduce the overall cost of important upgrades, meaning they can pay for themselves even sooner.

4. Negotiate With Vendors

If you want to minimize operational costs and save money for your business, negotiating with vendors is a necessary — though admittedly stressful — part of the equation. Doing so can help you score special discounts for goods, allowing you to save more money or set goods at more competitive prices for consumers.

In order to successfully negotiate, you must do plenty of research before entering the conversation. Get several quotes from different vendors regarding the goods you need, and know the actual value of the items. You must be willing to walk away from the vendor if you are not able to find mutually agreeable terms. By being prepared, you maximize your chances of scoring savings.

5. Make Your Employees Happy

Happy employees save your business money, and they are more productive. According to research reported on in Forbes, employees who report high workplace satisfaction are 12% more productive than those who do not. Secondly, higher employee happiness means lower employee turnover. 

Considering the extensive costs associated with hiring and uptraining new employees, this is a major benefit. In short, investing a little capital into employee happiness can pay off with some impressive dividends. A couple examples of practical approaches to bolstering workplace happiness include:

• Introducing new employee benefits: You can get creative with these, and they don’t have to be expensive. Some —  such as flexible work options and pet-friendly work policies — are particularly effective and affordable.

• Eliminating toxicity: Teach your workforce best practices for work etiquette and communication. Educational material can help in this process, so provide management and employees with inspirational and motivational books, as well as books on healthy communication in the workplace.

6. Change Your Marketing Strategies

Marketing budgets can grow to unwieldy proportions. Drawing more customers to your business can be an expensive, confusing process at times. If the sting of marketing expenses has you cutting corners elsewhere in your business, you must carefully assess your current approach. Order your marketing team books on sales if you want to gauge the most cutting-edge marketing strategies.

You should stretch your marketing dollars if you want to maximize savings. In the digital age, this often means embracing marketing strategies on the web. Social media marketing, for instance, offers advertising opportunities for little to no cost. While attracting followers will take a time investment, social media is a powerful way to spread your influence online.

You can also generate interest by creating your own website. Domains can be inexpensive, and there are many website builders that can help you create a professional-looking website at a very low cost. A blog with authoritative content can increase your rankings in search engine results pages, ultimately attracting traffic. 

7. Understand Your Health Insurance Policies

Health insurance prices fluctuate. Each year, you should take some time to evaluate your health insurance policies to ensure you are getting the best deal for your business (and your employees) for the next coverage period. If your current insurance provider has a history of continually increasing rates year over year, you should be particularly diligent about finding a provider in your area with better rates.

Secondly, remember that healthy employees may incur fewer healthcare costs. Health and wellness programs save your business money over time while demonstrating your care for your employees’ well-being. 

8. Lower Your Business Taxes

Taxes can put a serious dent in your budget; on average, small businesses pay a tax rate of nearly 20%. If you feel your blood pressure and heart rate rise as tax season approaches each year, you may want to take measures to lower your business taxes. There are many small steps you can take to reduce taxes, but some highlights include: 

• Making better tax elections;

• Extracting income from your business in tax-free ways;

• Being mindful about your adjusted gross income;

• Changing your business structure;

• Completing year-end planning.

9. Reduce Office Space Costs

You should also look into reducing office space costs. If it would be unreasonable to offer remote work opportunities to your employees (which is arguably the most cost-effective solution) as discussed above, you should still look into ways to reduce utility costs and office waste. Improving your office’s ventilation and insulation, for example, can reduce heating and cooling costs. Creating clear and firm policies on office supply use and focusing on utilizing reusable items in the workplace can curb waste.

If your office space itself is too pricey to give you a sufficient operational budget, consider relocating. If your office is still within the same region and you provide sufficient context to your workforce, many of your employees will likely be on board with the move. While this can be an arduous process, it’s important to be realistic about your budget.

10. Cut Vehicle Expenses

For every vehicle in your fleet that is driven at least 15,000 miles a year, you can expect to pay nearly $8,500 in vehicle maintenance and ownership costs. It’s easy to see that this can stifle your business’ ability to invest money elsewhere. If your business is spending too much on vehicle expenses, there are some approaches you can take to limit spending:

• Lease vehicles instead of buying them outright.

• If you decide to buy business vehicles, purchase used vehicles instead of new ones — preferably fuel-efficient models to cut gas costs.

• When attending conventions or other publicity opportunities, limit the number of representatives you send. 

• Offer remote work opportunities to applicable employees.

• Network via social media and video messaging applications (rather than frequent lunches and meetings).