Several Ways for Small Businesses to Save Money

Owning a small business can be a serious drain on your personal finances, which is why on the Kiran Trivedi blog, I wanted to share several ways for small businesses to save money.

When You’re a Small Business Owner, Every Little Helps

You’re really putting yourself out there when you start a small business. You don’t have the security and the safety net that comes with working for someone else. Yes, you reap all the rewards, but all the financial risk falls on you as well.

If your company goes bust, you’re the only one who’s going to suffer financially. This is why, to ensure the stability of your own personal finances, you need to find ways to save the money you spend on the business. As some famous adverts have said; every little helps!

Kiran Trivedi’s Top Money Saving Tips for Small Businesses

In fact, there are a thousand ways to cut down the bill of running a small business, including…

• Buying Office Supplies in Bulk: Office supply retailers, as normal chains do, often have special offers for customers who buy in bulk, which cuts down the significant cost of office supplies.
• Embracing Online Marketing: Don’t waste cash on a flashy ad campaign. Rather, set up a blog and social media accounts and use them to effectively market yourself to your target audience for free! You can even monetise your blog and your YouTube page and bring some extra revenue in!
• Turning Things Off: Do you know how much electricity you use when you leave an electrical device or a light on overnight? A laptop constantly left on for a year, for example, will add around £50 to your electricity bill. Get in the habit of turning everything off before you leave and save a serious amount of cash!
• Using the Government to Your Advantage: There are a thousand ways the government try to help small businesses grow i.e. tax credits for certain industries. It’s in their interest to make sure small businesses succeed. Use this to trim down your company’s expenditure.
• Reducing Employee Turnover: A study by experts at Oxford University published earlier this year revealed that the cost of replacing an employee can be over £30,000. Don’t end up letting this drive down your bottom line; treat your employees with respect!

Once Again, Say it with me People, Do Your Research!

All it really takes is some common sense to save money as a small business owner. Best advice I can give you? It’s the advice I always give you here on the Kiran Trivedi blog. If you want to save money as a small business owner, do your research!

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Kiran Trivedi Explains Why it pays to Start Saving Early

Even with all the money saving tips in the world, there’s no substitute for saving, and this week on the KiranTrivedi blog, I want to explain why you need to start saving early.

The Plight of the Young Professional

As a 20-something young professional with a good career and a steady stream of disposable income, it often seems as though you’ve got the world at your feet. You’ve got money, you’ve got time and you’ve got an established career path.

That’s why so many of these people don’t save their money. They think, ‘I’ll have plenty of time in the future, my money’s not going anywhere so I’ll start saving in my thirties.’

Retirement- It’s Kind of Expensive!

I understand this point of view, I really do, but the truth is that you’ve got it all wrong. You need to start saving in your twenties. Quite frankly, the earlier the better.

Why, I hear you ask? Well it’s all about preparing for your future. Even though it seems really far away, your retirement will arrive far quicker than you could ever possibly imagine – only 40 years or so – and young people often underestimate how much money they really need to comfortably see out their golden years. Little clue for you – it’s a lot!

Kiran Trivedi Makes His Pitch: Start Saving Earlier!

Alright, fair enough, retirement is kind of expensive. So now I hear you ask, ‘why can’t I just wait until I’m in my mid-30’s when I’m earning more and start saving then?

Basically when you save, you make interest, then you make interest on your interest, known as compound interest, which means the longer you save, the more money you make. Therefore, if you save a little money each month from your early 20’s you stand to have more in the bank by the time you hit the retirement home, than you would if you started saving later.

Furthermore, it’s actually way better for your personal finances across the board. Saving a little bit every month for 40 years leaves you with far more to live off and gives you a better quality of life, than saving a larger amount for 30 years. Can’t say fairer than that, Kiran Trivedi readers!

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Beware of the Small Print

The devil really is in the details when it comes to financial products, as we’ve yet again seen in the car insurance small print findings released by a consumer group this week. What do you need to know to avoid falling into the small print trap?

Small print are the terms and conditions of the agreement that you are signing up for. It’s all the technical stuff, and the reason they put it in small print is because it usually details the less attractive elements of the deal that you are about to sign up to.

That is why it’s small print – they literally make is as small as they are legally allowed to minimise any chance that these terms and conditions will turn off potential customers. So why is it a particular consumer issue at the moment?

Car Insurance: The Devils in the Details.

Consumer group website Fairer Finance has found this week that several car insurance deals boast word counts that number more than the entire word count for George Orwell’s grim allegorical novel Animal Farm.

The most alarmingly high word count was boasted by car insurer Endsleigh. According to the consumer group it totalled 37,674 words. Other providers of motor insurance that had word counts totalling over the 30,000 mark include Sheila’s Wheels, M&S Bank and Esure.

Founder of Fairer Finance, James Daley, summed up why this was so harmful to consumers. Daley said that "even those who do (read them) are struggling to understand them, (so) what exactly is the point of these documents?"

Avoid the Small Print Trap

Essentially, if small print is too long, people don’t read it. That’s why they’re making it so long in the first place. So how can you tackle this problem?

• Take time away to read it in full

• Ask for clarification on any points you don’t understand.

• Don’t let them pressure you into skim reading the small print.

• Research the company: If people are complaining about them, chances are you shouldn’t even bother considering dealing with them. 

Kiran Trivedi readers, taking in the small print is vital knowledge for you because if you don’t know it, it can damage your personal finances in a thousand small ways. Think about it, you don’t read then you get hit with a charge you didn’t expect, but that was outlined in the small print. Your monthly budget suddenly gets a whole lot tighter.

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The Fight against Counterfeiting: The New One Pound Coin

One of the biggest issues for the UK finance market is counterfeiting. It’s counterproductive and ultimately costs our economy millions of pounds every year. That is why the UK government is taking its fight against counterfeiting a step further with the introduction of a new one pond coin.

There tends to be this culture, Kiran Trivedi readers, of regarding counterfeiting as something that only happens in organised crime. The truth is, however, that it happens in every single city, town and village in this country and it has a direct effect on your personal finances.

 This is because if what happens when counterfeit money enters circulation. Eventually it is found out, and taken out of circulation; this means that money is being taken out of our economy, which rebounds on all of us. This is why counterfeiting can have a direct effect on your bottom line.

 The government, indeed most governments around the world, have long been dedicated to battling counterfeiting, and with certain measures have proved effective in the battle against counterfeit notes. Now it is fairly easy to spot a counterfeit note as long as you have a UV pen.

 However, the battle against counterfeit coins has been somewhat unsuccessful. There are an estimated 45 million counterfeit one pound coins in circulation. This is set to change, as in 2017 the government is planning to introduce a new counterfeit proof one pound coin.

 The coin apparently is set to be designed based on the shape of the old 3d coin (three penny) coin. This was a 12 sided coin that was in circulation between 1937 and 1971, before coinage went decimal.

 The Bank of England believes that this coin will be effective in reducing the estimated 3% of one pound coins that are counterfeit The news is even making it into the yearly budget. Chancellor George Osborne tweeted a picture of the one pound coin next to the budget box before he delivered the annual plan, saying that: "Today I will deliver a Budget for a resilient economy - starting with a resilient pound coin."

Of course, Kiran Trivedi readers, this isn’t going to affect your personal finances in the short term; however it will in the long term. As 2017 approaches, you are going to need to know how this will work, so keep your eyes open and your ear to the ground.

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