Trim the Budget Without Impacting the Business

Being a small business owner means you are in charge of it - all of it.

Sometimes you need to make some tough choices, especially when your budget tightens or income decreases. Those choices may mean letting some employees go or change how things affect your customers. But they don't always have to.

Try doing some of these things first before the crunch hits your employees and/or customers:

• Cut the printing - This may not seem like a big one, but printer ink and paper add up fast, especially if you have multiple printers. Encourage employees to skip the printing and view documents and communication from their screens. Send invoices and quotes via email to customers, and not only can you save on ink and paper products, but postage as well.

• Let employees go remote - Sure, this impacts your employees a bit, but usually for the better. If you cut out the cost of your office space (which also includes utilities and more) and let employees work from home, you can save big $$ (as long as they remain productive and get the job done).

• On the same space note, if you want to hold onto your office space but don't need it all, rent some of it out to another small business.

• Switch to VoIP instead of traditional phone service - This is voice over the Internet, and more and more small businesses are making this change. Really all it affects is keeping more money in the budget.

• Stop buying in bulk - Sure, it seems like a great idea to keep a fully stocked office supply cabinet, but do you really need or use all those pens and staples? If you do, bulk may be a cost saver, but if supplies are just sitting around unused, you're not saving anything.

• Shift to social media marketing rather than traditional advertising - Traditional methods of advertising, like radio, print and TV can suck your budget dry. The best advertising for small business is word of mouth anyway, so hit up social media and let your fans and friends do the talking. Make sure you have a good website with social media widgets and thorough information, including contact info. You may be surprised just how far this can take you.

• Cut some fluff - No one can argue that it's nice to bring in lunch for employees or keep a fully stocked coffee bar available, but you don't need to do it on a regular basis. Save the fluff for rewards and goal incentives; they'd much rather brown bag than lost their jobs. Same goes for other extras in the office; if budget is tight, cut the fat.

• However ... don't skimp on quality. No matter if you are a builder or a baker, don't switch to less reliable or sub quality product - your customers love you for what you do, don't change it on them or you risk losing them.

Just like running a household, small business budgets need to be flexible - we have good times and tight times and need to spend accordingly.

Let your employees know what is happening budget wise so they can be on the same page with you.

Honesty will get you a long way and they will be more apt to try and save with you then being resentful about cutbacks without knowing the real reason.

Please share any money saving business tips you've tried that work!