6 Effective Tips for Starting a Small Business and Saving Money…

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By Sam Kessler

Starting a business from scratch can be both a liberating and exhilarating experience for the aspiring entrepreneur. However, it is not a decision to take lightly as it requires the person to willingly make significant changes to their lifestyle, mindset, and level of commitment that is required for building a business. After all, it is significantly different being a small business owner rather than being an employee that works for someone else. For instance, a person that is someone else’s employee enjoys the reliability of receiving wages and benefits for their daily efforts in helping the business stay functional. It also means the employee has vast amounts of company resources at their disposal, whereas the small business owner has to develop it themselves.

Building up resources that help aid in making a small business operational, functional, and income generating takes time, money, and patience. It also requires one to determine their level of willingness to take risks while knowing their limits, as well as understanding the potential for failure and intense scrutiny by others. This is why an organization

like the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE)

was created as its sole intention is to offer entrepreneurs and small business owners a wide range of resources and tools to help people run their businesses more successfully. This article will discuss three ways of starting and growing a small business as well as three ways to save money when doing it. Whether you’re a small business, micro business, or a family business, there are valuable points to be taken for all seeking to become their own bosses.

Starting and Growing Your Small Business

Know Your Customers and Niche Markets:

You’ve decided to start and grow your own small business. In other words, you’ve decided to become your own entity. This creates an invigorating sense of independence. However, it’s always important to stay focused on the rationale that you are still a business that must continue to operate like a business. When meeting with potential clients or dealing with existing ones, it’s important to remember the fact that it’s your job to produce results as well as solving an important problem for them. In this case, it is not about you, as it is more about the client and their needs.

This is why it is extremely

crucial to figure out which niche markets and industries your business is going to cater, as well as understanding the specific customer needs.

These are two crucial areas that the small business owner can easily marry together since they tend to synchronize perfectly. After all, it enables them to know in greater detail their clients’ industries, changing needs, and current capabilities, in regards to their overall strength and competitiveness. Focusing on every industry or niche market makes it harder to specialize and develop a high-level reputation and expertise for your small business. It will also make it significantly harder for your small business to climb the client totem pole. In addition, it can also prevent the business owner from gaining the capability of receiving higher quality and higher paying

clients that immediately require someone to begin solving their problems

and needs at day one.

Be Willing to Take Risks and Finding Out What Works:

Being an entrepreneur, small business owner, or even a micro business owner means that one cannot afford to always be risk aversive. In fact, taking risks is part of the everyday mindset of any business owner since they decided to become an independent entity. With that said,

knowing the ability to calculate and manage risk

is needed in order to learn how to capitalize on great opportunities. The key to risk reduction is to reduce the level of uncertainty when making big decisions for your business growth projection.

In addition to risk management, it is

always important to experiment and find out what works and what does not work for your business model.

This means that you cannot be afraid to experience a failure while undergoing the process of starting your business. In fact, being able to learn from failure can provide the business owner with a valuable and strategic edge when reaching a vital point in their entrepreneurial careers. Experimentation of business ideas and practices can help elevate your business in ways that the business owner may not have even considered previously. Knowledge gained is knowledge earned and it provides the entrepreneur with both a long-term edge and life long expertise that can be repeatedly incorporated throughout their lives.

Concentrate on Establishing Loyalty and Dependability with Clients:

Whether you are handling new, existing, or potential clients, it is always important to continue reinforcing your business persona as the primary go-to entity for their needs. This should be a top priority for every business owner for several reasons. The two most important reasons are to

establish brand loyalty in regards to your services, products, and expertise as well as dependability.

In other words, show your client that you are the most reliable business vendor that they can do business with at all times. After all, there are always other businesses looking to compete for your client’s attention as well as seeking ways to steal them from your business. As a general rule, it is

wise to keep your client relations in pristine condition

at all times. Never take them for granted, especially if they become an economic lifeblood for your business survival.

Bang for the Buck Money Saving Tips When Starting a Business

Focusing on Hiring Older Professionals:

For ten plus years there has become a growing trend for businesses to hire only young professionals for their positions. Between the retiring baby boomers and Gen Xers, the numbers are becoming more staggering each year. A

comprehensive study by the San Francisco Federal Reserve

showed that job applicants who are above the age of 49 are more likely to experience age discrimination at higher levels. This is a growing problem but it also spells a potential opportunity for the small business owner looking to hire and expand their growth. Making it a policy to hire older and seasoned professionals can be an excellent way to gain access to high-quality talent but at lower prices. It would be considered a pay cut for them, however, it also gives them the incentive and determination to see the business succeed. More importantly, any professional development with them can be considered more cost-efficient and streamlining as a result of their seasoned experience.

Work from Home and Purchasing Used Equipment:

One thing new entrepreneurs should realize is they don’t really need to start out with all the fancy new gadgets and have a perfect ideal location for their new business. In fact, it will end up eating their limited budgets that they need to extend and conserve for an unknown period of time until their business is fully profitable.

Working from home

is a key money saver for the new business owner and it provides additional capital that can be used elsewhere. For instance, that additional capital can be used for purchasing used equipment that is needed for the business startup. The added expenses of purchasing new and advanced equipment are something established businesses might be able to afford. However, the new business starting out is most likely unable to afford them. Instead, it is

wise for them to purchase used and reliable equipment that is significantly cheaper

than their newer counterparts. This is truly getting bang for the buck for a piece of equipment that has a proven track record of use and reliability.

Don’t Hire Full-Time Employees in the Beginning:

It can be extremely difficult to hire full-time staff for your business startup venture. After all, the business is being built from scratch

with limited resources while

having an abundant amount of goals and objectives that need to be achieved by the entrepreneur. Funding and allocating resources to daily operations and future vision will require both a strategic and tactical mindset. In other words, it is best to hire people whenever the entrepreneur truly needs them to fulfill a specific task.

Hiring freelancers is a great way

to do this. They’re in business for themselves to help other businesses grow and thrive without the entrepreneur having to worry about doing things in-house.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, these are some great tips for new, existing, and aspiring entrepreneurs to start and grow their business start-ups while saving expenses at the same time. It takes a great deal of time, patience, and willingness to test what works for your business model. Also, markets and trends fluctuate all the time and that is why the small business owner must always be prepared to adapt and take advantage whenever times are volatile and advantageous for growth expansion.

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Sam Kessler is a writer, analyst, and consultant with a global security, geopolitics, and business/finance background. He is also a Geopolitical Advisor for North Star Support Group. Sam has an M.A. in National Security and Intelligence Analysis from American Military University (AMU), which is part of the American Public University System (APUS). He can be contacted via his website/blog at

www.samkessler.com