How to Save Money at Home and In Your Business

There are more small business owners in the UK than ever before. Many are solopreneurs or work in a small business where they are responsible for its success and ensuring they can meet the payroll for their staff every pay period.

While as a business owner, you’ll always want to operate your business sensibly, it’s also necessary to keep an eye on the expenses on the home front too. Otherwise, you risk making money in the one hand and losing it out of the other! Then your life is completely out of balance financially, even if it seems to be in balance in all other respects.

Here are some tips on how to save money both at home and in your business.

Keep a Budget at Home and at Work

Having a budget (or financial forecast) is normal at work. There are few businesses that successfully operate without having a good sense of the numbers.

With home finances though, not enough people start with a plan for every pound they bring in. As a result, they tend to spend more than what they would if they were being more mindful about their spending and how it matches up to their plan.

Insure Vehicles Used for Personal and Business Use

You want to get a good fleet insurance policy to insure the company vehicles if you have one or more cars owned by your business. Usually, this is most appropriate when you run the business as a limited company. With motor fleet insurance, the idea is that the policy can cover a group of company cars, which makes it less complicated for business owners to guarantee all company cars are properly insured.

To get a reasonable price for business fleet insurance, look at Quotezone. They seek out competitive fleet car insurance quotes for businesses all across the UK. They are in touch with many UK insurance providers and lay out the best options to cover all your vehicles. This way, your business is protected from any significant financial loss due to a vehicle accident. This is important because not being adequately insured can wipe out the year’s profits if you’re not careful.

Don’t Shy Away from Refurbished & Second-hand Goods

Many businesses have a thing about buying everything new. They feel the need to keep up appearances and buy new, often in bulk. As a small business owner, what you want is money that falls to the bottom-line in the form of profits. That doesn’t happen when spending too much trying to impress visitors who don’t really care anyway (they care about the product or service you provide).

Look at what items are perfectly usable while being previously owned. Certainly, a company car is one where considerable savings can be had by skipping the loss of value when buying new and driving the car off the showroom’s driveway. Others include any office furniture, telephones, laser printers, computers, and servers.

There are specialist providers that buy up almost new furniture and other items from companies that have gone to the wall. They then offer them for sale to other businesses. Companies like Barkham Office Furniture and King’s Office Furniture come to mind. There’s also Gumtree too.

Obviously, charity shops are great places to find a good deal for items for the home. They often have home furniture, heavily discounted clothing that’s barely been worn, books, DVDs, and many other items of interest.

Renegotiate Supplier Deals Yearly

The energy provider that you use at home is ripe for a renegotiation of the rate they charge you for energy. You’re thinking about installing solar… do they have a more competitive rate for you? Your telephone service at home is no different. Look at what deals are available, as the telephone service market has opened up since the days of BT being the sole provider.

Run down your list of regular and irregular expenses for your personal budget and see what deals you can squeeze out. This is an excellent way to mitigate any inflationary price increases too.

For your business, there are usually many more providers of business services to choose from. See what offers you can get to switch service providers. That could be anything from office paper to electricity to internet and phone lines. Don’t make the mistake of failing to seek out better deals on a regular basis. You’ll be surprised how much you can save. If you used a energy broker, make sure that they didn’t receive any commission from the energy provider you ended up going with, as this could have been paid for by you without you knowing. Should you discover this was the case, you may wish to reach out to a lawyer who has previously handled mis sold energy claims to see if you might be able to make a claim for compensation and recover some of the costs you unknowingly paid. You can then shop for a new energy supplier with an extra air of caution and potentially get a lower rate than you were paying before.

Being Environmentally Friendly

Being environmentally friendly is great for home life and at work too. However, it can also deliver cost savings by shifting to a green approach. What does the item cost, what value does it deliver, and how long will it last? Then figure out the monthly or yearly cost of each item during its full ownership period. Compare it to what the original item’s price tag and you’ll see whether the green product is cost efficient as well as being environmentally efficient too. There’s the feel-good aspect too.

Being smart about your home and how you operate your business is often the difference between making profits or losing money. When your business fails to deliver, you suffer. However, when you overspent at home and get little value for it, then the long-term outlook is poor too. Be smart all round for the best results.

 

*This is a collaborative post.