We all need and want to have plenty of money. Unfortunately, not all of us are so lucky. There are quite a few of us that life paycheck to paycheck or month to month. Even those in the business world. Below are some tips to help you spend what money you do have as wisely as possible.
Prioritize Your Purchases
When running a small business, or a household for that matter, you won’t always have enough money to pay every bill you need to. Let’s face it. Some weeks are better than others. Some seasons see huge boosts in sales while others are like walking through the Mojave Desert with no water. Sometimes, you have to decide which bills take priority over the others. Most of us would be familiar with the term “juggling the bills.” For example, you can’t run a pizza shop without the ingredients to make the crust or the electricity to run the ovens. However, you may be able to skip buying one or two of the toppings for a couple weeks. Yes, some of your customers may be disappointed, but you will have your more important bills paid and the anchovies and banana peppers will only return shortly.
Balance Quality and Quantity
Right now, there are small business owners everywhere squirming in their chairs. Yes, the customer is always right and genuinely good hearted owners view their businesses almost as a ministry to the patron, but if we gave them the absolute best on the market in everything all the time, we would go bankrupt in the first week and run out of product quicker than you can say “I spy with my little eye.” Also, just because the brand name is well known does not mean that it is the best on the market. Do your research. Balance the quality with the quantity.
Save! Save! Save!
Too many times we, as new business owners, get excited about our product, the buzz it creates, and the whole adventure of finally living out the dream of owning our own business. However, in the chaos, we forget to save. We make sure everything is set up and we can cover all of our bills, payroll, stock, and insurance, but we forget to put back that little for a rainy day. Remember those walks in the Mojave Desert we mentioned earlier? Saving when we can helps make sure that those days are few and far between.
Running a small business is a lot of work and responsibility and can be a very scary prospect especially in the beginning, but following these three common sense tips will save you a lot of stress and heartache. Refer to them often.