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Small business budgeting is as much an art as it is a skill. Creating a budget is akin to throwing darts at a target. You aim for the goal and sometimes you hit it but more often the dart hits just shy of the target. Small businesses do not usually have a lot of wiggle room in the budget so here are a few suggestions to help stretch the limited funds.
Recycled Ink Cartridges
We as a society are striving for a paperless society but that goal is still a long way off. In the mean time we still have to print off reams of paper on a daily basis it seems. One quick and painless way to save some money is to buy recycled ink cartridges. At the very least, buy a printer whose cartridges have the store-brand equivalent.
The Four Day Workweek
If your business is not based on walk-in customers, this is a good solution. Manufacturing companies should have no problem converting to the four-day, ten-hour workweek. This is a plan that many employees would heartily encourage especially if it allowed them three-day weekends.
Emergency Fund
Take a cue from the family budget and build up an emergency fund for the company. Figure up the average expenses from the last year. Divide that number by twelve and multiply that number by six to come up with a healthy number to shoot for. Too many companies slide by on paycheck-to-paycheck and when an emergency arises they have to rely on their lines of credit.
