Maybe your business is doing pretty well considering the circumstances and you see this as an opportunity to gain an advantage over the competition…  I know of a consulting firm that is currently overpaying on a lease.  The fact is, they really don’t need the kind of space they have, It is on the ‘fancy’ side… To impress visitors and make the owner feel good about himself. Don’t get me wrong, nothing wrong with either of those things necessarily.  But now, the owner of the building is looking to get out. They are probably losing money with the empty suites. So the consulting firm wants to buy the building and use most of the space to expand the business into a new direction.  (an untested direction)   Is this the time to go out on a limb like this and risk taking on a big mortgage payment?

Sure, It might be. I am the first to encourage taking risks.  You can not dominate without taking risks. But please make sure you know what you are doing. Make sure your decisions are sound.  Talk them over with your network of like minded business people.   If everyone shoots your ideas down you are either a genius or an idiot.  Do you have what it takes to find out which one?

In the example I gave above the kicker is that there is an easy way to test the market for the new expansion… without the need for the additional space.  The new services could be offered at the clients sites. If they can build the business that way, taking the service to the client then they can work on bringing the clients to them.  But are they doing this testing… Nope.

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Every dollar you shave off the bottom line is a dollar in your pocket

You need to be thinking of ways to cut costs every time you spend money! Again, that doesn’t mean you have to be cheap. But if you have spontaneous tendencies and on a whim decide to go get some embroidered polo shirts or some foam fingers with your logo on them and you run right over to the local t-shirt, trophy and tool rental shop — stop and ask yourself these two things:

1. will this purchase make me money
2. Did I check for cheeper sources. (probably online)

I understand that sometimes you want something for your business even if it will not have a direct return on investment in terms of sales. There could be benefits that are hard to quantify –  such as exposure and reputation. As long as you don’t do this all the time you will probably be ok.  For those times that you choose to spend some money on something silly make sure you are getting the best price. Salespeople are good (sometimes) and we can all be sold… so just be careful.

It amazes me when a client comes to me and tells me about (insert cool thing here) that they just bought and I ask them where thy got it from and I just want to take that (insert cool thing here) and smash it over their head because I could have directed them to a place where they could get it for HALF what they paid.

Bottom line:  Don’t throw your money away. Do your research and talk to others in your network and find the best price.  Chances are that 10 minutes on Google will get you a better price.

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Here is the problem,  If you have an at least somewhat successful business, that is you are actually bringing in some money you have to sometimes decide to spend some money.

I’ll give you a scenerio,  I just wrote an article on an opensource CRM but in order to use it you have to install the software on your own server.  Now, I’m sure you are pretty busy running your business, so you need to decide if you can spare the hours it will take in reality to get this software installed. Even if it’s your IT guy doing it you have to weigh the cost of doing the install yourself vs. paying for a monthly service.

This example can be adapted to many situations.  Let’s talk about web design.  Sure, if you have some skills you can buy a template or use a free wordpress template and maybe get a pretty good looking site up, but is it good enough?  and was it worth the time you put into it?

Keep these questions in mind everytime you are looking for a way to save money or you might end up spending more anyways….  And know when to cut your losses and call it quits.  If you have been trying to get that CRM software installed for 2 weeks,  you need to go to a hosted solution or call someone who can do it for you. (and yes, PAY them)

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