Consider this: we come home from the store (OR office supply store) with more than we intended, we blow off cooking and head out to a restaurant instead (both at dinner AND at lunch), and us corporate ex-pats have a nasty habit of printing more than we need to.
Sound familiar? I’m guilty of ALL of these, so I’ve been brainstorming ways to save money on my BAU operations. Having developed similar strategies for the management of my personal finances I decided to see which principles could be applied to my small business.
Here are three tips that help me live within my means, which can also be applied to your small business:
- Set a limit on the number of times you eat out each month. If you network regularly consider attending more breakfast meetings, or happy hours, where food costs are considerably less.
- Don’t buy anything until you absolutely need it! Even if it’s on sale – just say “no”. Too often we purchase items for our business anticipating that we’ll use them at a future date; more often than not we don’t. Just like you do for the grocery store, make a shopping list for office supplies then buy only the items on your list.
- Think green at work. You’ll save money and be cool. For example, printing costs can be reduced by filling the second drawer of your printer with used paper (turned upside down), then use that drawer to print test runs.
Turns out successful money management isn’t that complicated – all it takes is a bit of mindfulness.
