For start-up businesses to succeed in today’s unforgiving economy they need to save every penny possible. The technology necessary to function in web-based industries makes that hard especially when you’re learning on-the-go. Every opportunity you have to utilize necessary technologies cheaply or in an effort to make other aspects of your enterprise cheaper must be taken without hesitation. The following are five simple ways to get the most of out the capabilities of the modern small business:
#1 Only Use Open Source Software
There’s plenty of free-to-use business-oriented software and applications for you to use at your leisure. While donations to the creators are always welcomed, it certainly comes cheaper than paying for expensive brand-name word processors and other document creators. Anything from spreadsheets to photo editing can be accomplished via open source software. For startups, there’s no easier way to shave off the starting costs of establishing yourself than to remove the need to buy up costly software.
#2 Commit to a Virtual Working Environment
The advent of the virtual office has been a long-awaited event that should have already happened by now. Simply doing away with the office itself is a great way to save enormous amounts of money in the early days of a small business. Data storage, worker progress, projections, and budget breakdown can all occur through remote means. Increasing numbers of consumers are choosing to do business with entities based not on real world perception but from what they gather online.
#3 Let Workers Work from Anywhere
Studies indicate that employees are not only happier working outside of an office, they actually do more work. But let’s ignore that side of why it pays off to not make your workers have to commute. Not only can almost any task of the modern business be accomplished remotely, but by not making employees commute you justify paying them less money. Plus, you save money on desks and all that other stuff that comes with making office workers happy.
#4 Utilize Facebook and Skype to the Max
If you can’t keep employees away from Facebook, then bring work into the social network. While it’s not suggested to startle employees with invasive use of their Facebook profiles, the social network gives you the opportunity to share big events and other community-sized notices with the rest of company. Instead of the primitive state of the email forward, Facebook lets you keep better track of who is involved in what and guarantees that everybody will receive the same information at the same time. If you don’t like Facebook, then consider the more privacy-oriented Google+ although then you don’t get to use Skype for meetings and other essentials.
#5 Refuse to Buy a Printer
Whether you end up establishing your own office or convert the den into one, avoid buying a printer. Of course a printer would come incredibly handy and you’d use it all of the time. The problem with that is that ink and paper eat an enormous amount of a small business budget every month. The solution may involve buying a tablet or netbook, but in the long-run these purchases will be a pittance compared to the costs of supplying a printer. Printed information has now become an unnecessary luxury and considering the amount of paper the human race uses it should be that way.
No matter what your independent venture might be these tactics are sure to help you pay the bills on time. In today’s unruly market, don’t spend money on anything you don’t have to especially when it comes to establishing a new enterprise. In those first few months how you spend the little money you have will determine whether or not you make more of it.