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5 Ways small business owners waste their cash

5 Ways small business owners waste their cash

In the early days of business, it’s really easy to waste your money on all kinds of things that may seem like a good idea, and which you may think are vitally necessary to the future success of your company, but which are really not all that important after all. Here are a list of some of the most common cash-wasters, which you should try to avoid purchasing unless absolutely necessary if you want to save your startup money and boost your bottom line in those early days…

Really Bad Advertising

Okay, so advertising is really important to new companies because without it, you wouldn’t have any customers, However, there is a difference between good advertising and bad. Good advertising is the kind that is acutely targeted to your market, honest and interesting, whereas bad marketing is not targetted in the right places or at the right people, boring and dishonest, There will be a lot of people trying to convince you to buy the latter, but it will only waste your money, so avoid it like your business depends on it because it just might!

Workspace

Unless you’re running a simple small business from your spare too, you are going to need to buy or rent some workspace, but probably not as much as you think. In most cases, startups can get away with shared office space, which you can find at https://www.sharemyoffice.com/, or with a small amount of footfall. Only when your business gains traction and you need to hire more employees or host more clients need you think about getting more of your own workspace.

Expensive Equipment

Yes, you’ll probably need to buy your own computers and office furniture, but for bigger, more expensive things like servers or construction equipment, renting from a company like www.freogroup.com.au/ is a far better idea. Why” Because if you rent stuff only as and when you need it, not only are you likely to save a whole lot of your startup capital which you can put to use developing better products and services, but you won’t have to worry about maintenance and storage costs either. If you aren’t going to use it every day and if you can get it cheaper by renting (taking into account maintenance and running costs too), don’t buy it yet.

Staff

Staffing your business adequately is never a waste of your money, however, when you’re just starting out, you don’t necessarily need to hire people. There are lots of really good freelancers and contract workers out there who can help you out with everything from IT to accounting on and as and when needed basis and they will save you money while ensuring that your business is run well.

Expensive Websites

Expensive websites can be a big draw for business, but in the early days, they are not necessary, especially when you can use websites like Squarespace.com to create great looking out-of-the-box solutions for a fraction of the cost. Really, they look just as fabulous.


Christine Buske is a former academic who left science at the bench, and now considers herself a woman in tech. She is a frequently invited speaker, and enjoys talking about career transformation (particularly leaving academia for the business world), tech, issues around women in tech, product management, agile, and outreach. She is a proud Canadian resident, and qualifies as a "serial expat".

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