How to stretch your dollars
2011/03/23 8:12 AM
So we all want to know what the crystal ball says right? How do you cut corners and stay on your growth track at the same time?
I asked my experts for some tips they are using right now and it seems that the most common are brown bagging it, getting VA's instead of employees and taking a look every 6 months at all the services you use to see if you can negotiate a better rate. Give a call to your providers and see if they are running specials, or even better, have lowered rates on newer equipment which I find happens at least once a year. Some of them might include: Internet provider, cable, telephone and cell phone providers, and even your various insurance plans. Hey if you can shave off $20 here and there it adds up to a bigger total – who would say no to that?
When I do this roundy-round of calls every 6 months – I take the savings and roll it into my marketing budget!!
What will you do with yours?? Leave me a comment………
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Nancy McClelland says: Some great ideas here, which I’m excited to share with my accounting clients. One word of caution, since most of these suggestions seem to be for small businesses — the credit cards that offer perks such as frequent-flyer miles or cash-back cost an enormous amount to the businesses that have to accept them. Because the fees paid by the vendor to accept a regular MasterCard versus a Frequent Flyer Mastercard are substantial, I make sure to use a regular credit card at all small businesses and save my perks credit cards for big chains or large online stores. It makes a very real difference to the bottom line!
Freecycle.org is a great resource for free stuff! Most communities have a Freecycle in their area – it’s fee to join and it saves resources for the earth, and you wallet. It’s a trading site free of charge – I often post when I need boxes, bubble, etc…for shipping or office items like shelves – anything you can think of and you can also post when you wan to get rid of unneeded items so someone else can use them. Also Facebook is a great way to post and share news about my business and my new products and when I post I set my account settings to go not only to my friends but their friends as well.
The Magic Bean Company on Facebook (artist or group pages)
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