Launching a business is no easy feat. Entrepreneurs put in upwards of 70 or 80 hours a week into their companies to make sure it can stay afloat in the short term while building foundations to ensure success over the long term.
One of the biggest challenges for any start-up is the cash flow. The costs required to start a business and keep it running can be quite high. This is even more challenging to do while trying to find and retain clients and gain revenue. Often, start-ups rely on either an angel investor, several investors contributing smaller amounts, or even the business owner’s own pockets.
If you’re trying to run a business on a shoestring budget, you’re not alone. Here are some tips on how start-ups can save money.
Rent equipment
Getting all the equipment that your staff will need to do their jobs is a significant expense, especially if there isn’t a lot of revenue coming in yet. A solution to this problem is to rent your equipment instead of buying it. Companies like smart.uk.com provide computer rentals, as well as other electronic equipment like projectors and iPads, for long-term rentals or short-term rentals. Of course, you won’t be renting your computers forever, but while your business is getting established, this is an excellent way to save some money.
Another way to get around paying a lot of money upfront for computer equipment is to ask your employees to use their own computers at work for the time being. Once you have a healthier revenue stream, you can start investing that money back into your company and buy equipment for your staff.
Use software instead of hiring full-time employees
For new start-ups, a full-time employee is a significant expense. When the budget is stretched incredibly thin, having a dedicated human resource employee or accounting department is a luxury that you probably can’t afford just yet. To bridge the gap, you can instead invest in a software service that can accomplish those tasks for you. Accounting software and human resources software are just two examples, but they can help automate a lot of tedious processes that you can offload from your staff, who are most likely already incredibly busy.
Work remotely
Another good way to curb unnecessary spending is to skip the pricey rental fees for an office. If your start-up is in its infancy, you can probably get away with having your teamwork remotely or out of a co-working space. Remote working means you don’t have to spend any money on office space, so as long as you have good team communication measures in place and good work-from-anywhere policies and processes, you can manage an office-free environment for the time being.
If you need to see your staff face-to-face, either because of the nature of your business or because of your working preferences and requirements, renting a few hot desks at a co-working space is still much cheaper than renting an entire office. You could even work mostly remotely but have weekly meetings at a co-working space to get that face time with your employees and catch up on any work that needs to be done in person.
