| |
| |
|
Small Business Information |
|
|
|
Practical Money-Saving Tips For Small Businesses
One of the primary concerns all small businesses have is saving money. When it's time to trim the fat, most look for one giant expense to decrease or eliminate in order to stay within budget. More often than not, it doesn't work that way. Most budgeting experts will tell you that re-evaluating your overall expenses and cutting each by just a bit will actually gain you more ground than doing without something major that you really need. Here are a few ideas of areas to look at and costs to reduce that can have a major impact on your overall profits. 1) Internet Access - Every online business owner must have access to the Web. But consider this. The market is so flooded with ISPs that you have a lot of room to dicker. Start by searching the Internet under keywords like "cheap internet access" or "discount isp" to bring up lists of possibilities. Then, do one of two things. (a) Try some of these independent ISPs. Smaller companies can have high quality service and support just like the "big boys". One business owner I know recently switched from Prodigy ($21.95/mth) to a smaller ISP that only charges $12.50/mth with no contracts. She actually liked the new provider better and it costs her about half as much. [Savings of $113.40 per year.] (b) Renegotiate with your existing ISP. Most larger ISPs know you have a choice of a thousand other companies. Because of this, they are normally more than willing to renegotiate your costs. Be honest. Tell them you are a small business owner and you need to cut expenses. Explain that you've been pleased with their service but will be forced to go with someone else if some sort of arrangement isn't worked out. Another friend of mine did this and received 6 months free! Most will offer 2-3 months free and/or a discount with an annual agreement. NOTE: When you approach your ISP, be fully prepared to switch to someone else if your offer is rejected. [Savings of $105.80 per year with 3 months free and reduced, annual rate.] 2) Switch From A Merchant Account To A Payment Service - If you have a low volume of credit card transactions, it might benefit you to switch from a merchant account to some sort of payment service like Pay Pal or ClickBank. Statement fees, monthly fees, discount percentages and the like can all add up to big money. While payment services normally have reduced fees, they do have higher "per transaction" costs so you'll have to do some math to find out if this is a good idea for your business. Just take an "average" invoice amount from a sale and multiply it times 12 to get a base total to work with. Now, add in your 12 months worth of fees for statement, monthly access, discount percentage, per transaction cost, etc. This is your "example" total. Do the same with several payment services using their costs to see which one, over time, would be less expensive for you. If you were paying a $15 statement fee, $20 monthly fee, 3% + $.35 per transaction and $25 monthly gateway fee, your annual expenses would be $742.20 for an average transaction of $50.00. Your annual fees for a payment service with 3.5%, $1.00 per transaction and a one-time $50.00 set up charge would only be $83.00 per year. [Savings of $659.20 per year.] 3) Re-evaluate Your Long Distance Costs - Competition is the small business owner's friend! With hundreds of long distance companies out there, you can drastically reduce your charges instantly. Again - use the 'Net to search for inexpensive long distance service. A business owner I know changed from a MCI "program" to one of those 10-10 companies and reduced her per minute charge from $ .07 to $ .05. Depending on the volume of calls you make, some programs offer rates as low as $ .03 per minute. [Estimated savings of $20-$30 per year for 1,000 minutes.] From just these three little things, we've saved an estimated $802.60 per year. That's enough to make anyone's spreadsheet sing! Go through your list of costs and you will most likely find other expenses that can easily be reduced with a bit of research and a phone call or two. Diane C. Hughes * ProBizTips.com FREE Report: Amazingly Simple (Yet Super Powerful) Ways To Skyrocket Your Sales And Build Your Business Into A Tower of Profits! ==>> http://madmarketer.com/diane
MORE RESOURCES:
Small-Business - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Collaborative Negotiating: A Win-Win Strategy COLLABORATIVE NEGOTIATING:Collaborative negotiating is a win-win strategy that can focus the resources of the people involved in the process towards strengthening results, productivity, quality, creativity, and innovation in problem-solving. To use the collaborative approach to negotiating you will have to agree on the aim of negotiations. Do I Have to Do EVERYTHING Myself?! The air in my client's office nearly crackled with her irritation. A scheduling snafu had left a client without important services. Business Owners - Do You Actually Own a Job? How many hours do you work a week? When was the last time you took an uninterrupted holiday? Do your staff have a better job than you? Now ask yourself, Do I Own a Business or a Job- with Overheads? Are you happy about the answers to these questions? If not, read on.In Empower Business Solutions experience, too many owners, after investing their time and money, have not got a fair return from their business. Employee Monitoring - Business Risks For Employers And How To Avoid Them E-mail and Internet use are integral parts of the typical worker's daily routine. Because of its speed and overall convenience, e-mail has replaced the interoffice memorandum as the preferred method of communication. 5 Small Business Management Questions to Help Choose Marketing Programs As small business managers, we juggle limited resources in a quest for success. To an extent, when we focus on success in one area we forego attention elsewhere. The Benefits of Using Freelance Consultants / Trainers for Your Project What are the benefits of using a Freelance Consultant / Trainer for your next project?Companies are often wary of employing freelance trainers when setting up a new project or contemplating a 'roll out' operation or 'change' scenario. There are however distinct advantages to using freelance as against permanent resources, and some of these are outlined as follows. Small Business Failure? Nuts! Pardon my enthusiasm, but a large part of your small business' success is somewhere else. Namely, out among the company's important external audiences. A Day in the Life of a Self Employed Professional It's Monday morning and Connie the Consultant sits in her executive office chair overseeing her business empire. Her desk is strewn with half finished projects, several weeks worth of to do lists (none of them completed), scribbled post it notes, and a permission slip for her daughter's field trip to the Planetarium that should have been turned in last week. Got Stimulation? An observation while returning home from a seminar: Getting away from the everyday allows room for analysis and new thoughts. Stimulation while away from the everyday energizes analytical and concept ional thinking. In Home Daycare Businesses for Profit To have one of the popular in home daycare businesses. Many people think all you have to do is love kids and have a home. Growing Your Small Business Through Alliances and Joint Ventures -- Beyond Cold Calling, "Warm" Calling and Sending E-mails --Many Solo Entrepreneurs work from a home office. Our only connections to the outside world are the internet / e-mail and the telephone. Alliances: What works, what does not Why Alliances FailWhen do you know an alliance is falling apart?An alliance will surely fail without good communication on both sides. It will also fail if the alliance partner is not capable of completing the tasks set out in the service level agreement. Small Business Security No Passing Fad How careful are you with the data you collect from your customers? How about the handling of money in your business. And passwords? What controls have you put in place to protect computer data?We don't often think about the security of our businesses, but we should. How Your Habits Control Your Small Business Success Habit: A consistent behavior you perform so frequently that it is automatic. For example, if you learned to drive a car with a standard transmission, the first few lessons were pretty jerky while you learned to synchronize the clutch with the accelerator pedal. Small Business Opportunities And The Tens You may find this Newsletter a little long winded but it's for a good cause: It's all designed for Your Success!One of my favorite quotes is by Alfred d'Souza. It goes like this:"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin, real life. Your Small Business Suggestion Box A suggestion box is a really good idea for your business. It can help you get valuable feedback from your customers -- feedback that they don't normally think to share with you. Overcoming Your Biggest Competitor Before you read any further in this article, I'd like you to take a moment and write down who your biggest competition is.OK, got it?I'm going to go out on a limb here and tell you that no matter what company you wrote down, you're wrong. Basic Psychology of Franchisee Ownership and Expansion If you are a franchisee of a large franchise system; before you expand your franchise to include more stores there are some questions you might ask yourself. If, however, you bought your franchise to expand, grow and amass a small empire of your own, your franchisor will be the last person to stand in your way. Common Sources of Financing for Small Business The choice of financing is an important determinant of whether a product reaches the market, or whether an existing business can survive. The choice of financing is an important part of being an entrepreneur and business owner, and the ability to raise cash when you have no or limited history takes skill and creativity. Specialty Advertising in C-Stores It appears the mini-blimp indoor theme and concept is making significant headway. We have seen them in the halls of Congress sniffing for anthrax.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
