The following tips work equally well for your personal life as they do for your business. Tightening your wallet in either endeavor does not result in settling for a diminished quality. The goal is to better account for the “money black holes” – such as credit card debt and frivolous expenditures, for example. Maximizing how far your money goes is the first step to staying out of the red at the end of each month.
First Order Of Business: Track Your Spending
If you don’t know how much you’re spending, how can you effectively cut back? Whether in your personal life or business, there are several options you can take advantage of to know where the dollars are going – as well the return you’re getting from investments.
A virtual wallet works quite well in your personal life; but if you’re dealing with businesses and sole proprietors all day, then B2B credit card processing – Dharma Merchant Services is one of the available options for effectively tracking expenditures. It is easily amenable to processing small sales or large; and a unique benefit it offers is the exposure of hidden fees and ways to reduce the rates you’re charged by a particular business.
Invest Your Savings And Loose Change
If you usually keep your cash in a savings account, then you’re well aware of just how little interest you earn from it – despite the fact that the bank makes free use of the money for loans to other people and businesses. Depending on how your business is structured, investing a portion of the savings might be a better way to go – the stock market has traditional returns far greater than anything a bank could offer.
If you’re a beginner when it comes to investing, then apps such as RobinHood and Stash Invest could give you a smooth transition into the world of Wall Street Exchanges. These practically hold your hand all the way through, providing you with an investment portfolio for mere dollars – whereas before, in the offline world of yesteryear, it would’ve required thousands of dollars to make any meaningful investments.
Streamline Business Actions
If you’re like many companies, there are probably several actions you take every day that could be made more efficient. In fact, this is the whole idea behind lean manufacturing and sigma-six. Identifying these and putting practices into place that maximize your resources is perhaps the biggest way to save cash.
For example, payroll services and remote employee tracking could save you tons on overhead and time. Website Clockspot understands these money drains – and many others – perfectly, and has a tried-and-true system for improving your ROI with regards to them. Services like this, which reduce labor costs, are simple to use and handles time sheets, are an effective way to manage the amount of money you spend in your business life.
Eliminate Credit Card Debt
Mentioned in the introduction; this deserves its own section. By eliminating your credit card debt, you accomplish several things at once: reduce your monthly expenditures, and improve your credit worthiness. Your debt-to-income ratio is a big factor in calculating your credit score, which determines the quality of loans you can receive.
By reducing your credit card balances to zero, you stop feeding the interest rate black hole, which extends the prices of items you might have purchased years ago. In fact, you often end up paying double for those items as you continue to carry the debt load. Just as importantly, clearing this debt makes it easier to pursue any business plans you may have.