Starting a business is an exciting time for any entrepreneur, but it comes with tough financial challenges. In your early days, it’s crucial that you lay the foundation for a sustainable business.
To help you out, we’ve put together a list of five budgeting tips for startup’s budget to help you avoid some common financial mistakes entrepreneurs make when starting a business.
Access An Incubator
Startup incubators are set up to reduce the chance of failure in early-stage startups. They provide your business with key structures and support that your entrepreneurialism may be missing — without any of the complications that may be involved with a partner company.
Incubators offer so many different types of resources to startups, ranging from office space and equipment such as printers and copiers to free coffee and snacks.
Most incubators will be managed by a highly skilled team. Not only will this team be available to assist you whenever you need it, they focus on the success of the incubator, allowing you to focus solely on driving your business.
Take The Free Stuff
When you’re a startup, take everything you can get. Don’t shy away from free stuff! Some people believe that taking advantage of freebies implies they don’t have money, but this is not how business works.
Consider this: when a company is offering you something for free, they believe it is of significant value. They want you to experience it so badly that they’re willing to give you a taste for free. It’s a win win scenario — not only are you helping another business out, you’re also saving yourself money.
But Don’t Be Cheap
Every business wants to find ways to save money, none more than a fledgling startup. When buying essential products/services, it’s always worth shopping around and looking for the best deal. However, the cheapest price is not always the best deal.
Sometimes, spending money on the lowest-priced product can mean getting the lowest quality. As a result, you could end up having to replace things multiple times, and this can be way more expensive than going with a pricier option in the first place.
Budget
Planning and tracking your finances is crucial to your startup’s success. For your business to thrive, you need to turn a profit, and this is extremely difficult if you don’t track your money and set spending and expense limits.
There are several factors to consider when drawing up your budget:
- A lot of businesses have periods that are quieter than others throughout the year. If your company has an off season, you should account for your expenses during that time when budgeting.
- If your business operates on a project-to-project basis, you know that every client is different and no two projects are exactly the same. This means you may find it difficult to predict when something will go over budget.
- Your budget should never be static. It should evolve with your business — so remember to adjust it based on your growth and profit patterns.
Go Green
No doubt you’ve heard the saying ‘going green saves green’ before, and it’s true. Reducing your business’ carbon footprint can help save money and the environment.
Whether you’re running your business from or an office, the more energy-efficient your space is, the lower your utility costs will be. The best thing about going green is that no act is too small. Doing something simple like using LED lightbulbs can save you three quarters of your lighting bill per year!
Want to learn more about going green?
Check out our blog: 9 Ways to Reduce Your Business’ Carbon Footprint.
Bonus Tip: REMITR
One of the most annoying costs involved with running a small business is the cost of sending payments. With REMITR, you can send money to over 150 other countries for just $5 per transfer. That’s it! We also use the best live exchange rate to ensure you don’t lose any money.
