Cutting Costs for 2011
It’s a new year which means time for new goals. Sure I want to lose a few pounds, but business wise I’d like to lose a few bills this year. I have spent most of January really going over our books trying to find where we can save some money. Of course we want to see our sales go up this year, but along with that I would like to see better revenue at the end of 2011. I will admit I hate the accounting side of the business. I am much better on the front line with our customers, or behind the scenes on the website. That is why my partner, (a “number junkie”) handles the accounting for the business. Together we have found a few ways to save us some money this year and I wanted to share them with you.
Call your phone company and ask about their pricing, do they have any promotions right now? I have been with our toll free phone service for five years, I gave them a call told them I was scaling back a bit and wanted to know what they could do to help me. They were happy to help, I’m a good customer and in good standing. In the end I will save $360 this year.
Have you called your insurance agent lately? I wasn’t able to scale back on my commercial policy, but my home and auto policies were changed and personally I am saving $500/ month!
Advertising. This is a tough one. I spent quite a bit of time on our analytics and found that some of our ad campaigns just weren’t seeing the ROI we wanted. I was able to scale back a bit, and use the savings on the campaigns that were giving us the results we wanted. I didn’t save any money here, but we are seeing more sales from the successful ad campaigns. In the end it is a win for us.
Our cell phones are up for renewal soon and I am currently researching new plans. By the time we renew I should be able to save us at least $100 a month.
- Do you have any monthly bills that could be paid annually instead of monthly? Some companies offer discounts for paying annually – check it out, it might be worth it.
I would love to hear your money saving tips for 2011. Have you found a way to cut some costs? Please share them!
3 Comments
tekgems says:
It never hurts to ask. Worse anyone can say is no. If you can receive a discount or concession, then your 15 minute phone call can be very profitable.
Pamela Hazelton says:
The wisest investment I made a few years back was in a rolling scanner. I scan everything into my system, then shred. I print every online receipt/report to a PDF and I dumped the physical fax machine.
With less printing, I leave my printer unplugged most of the time (it's a huge energy hog even when not in use), and use the web for faxing.
I estimated my total savings to run about $350 a year (energy, paper, the cost of junk faxes, etc).
Kara English says:
Great idea Pamela! Thanks!!
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