Comments on: How to Be a Frugal Business Owner

By: Sam Li

Sam Li — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:50:49 +0000

To me business subject is far more complicated than just to be a frugal business owner. As a tactics sure why not but in a long term frugality not going to make your business profitable. I would call it optimization and not frugality. As a business you should be permanently in optimization mode. Business expenses review and how to minimize them should happen on daily basis (tactics) but the strategy should include things like business development, new markets and so on. Although I agree with the post in general, it does not cover the business overview even from 10,000 feet height.

By: DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad

DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:58:27 +0000

Nice post!

You could apply these tips to the business known as your household as well.

By: Neal@Wealth Pilgrim

Neal@Wealth Pilgrim — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 08:26:00 +0000

The greatest expense I have – and greatest opportunity I have to reduce costs – is staff.

I invested in going paperless and it was by far the best investment I ever made.

Now, we don’t waste time filing or looking for documents. I was able to reduce staff by 30 hours/week.

My suggestion is to look for ways to enhance service yet reduce costs by using technology to replace man hours.
Sorry, forgot to add great post! Can’t wait to see your next post!

By: Neal@Wealth Pilgrim

Neal@Wealth Pilgrim — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:36:13 +0000

The greatest expense I have – and greatest opportunity I have to reduce costs – is staff.

I invested in going paperless and it was by far the best investment I ever made.

Now, we don’t waste time filing or looking for documents. I was able to reduce staff by 30 hours/week.

My suggestion is to look for ways to enhance service yet reduce costs by using technology to replace man hours.

By: Squeaky

Squeaky — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:41:47 +0000

It’s also important to keep advertising and promotions expenses under control. It’s true you have to spend money to make money and customers have to know about your product in order to buy it, but there’s such a thing as spending wisely. You can cut back on advertising expenses IF you use more than one form of advertising and IF you understand which methods are effective.

In the last three years, I’ve advertised with pens, business cards, Internet ads, classified ads, public performances, a sign, and a Web site. I’ve not all media are equally effective when it comes to bringing customers in. The pens were cute and popular, but they did not generate even one gig or new student. Probably the most I can use pens for is name recognition. Print classifieds have been mediocre, but on-line advertising has been outstanding. The Web site paid for itself, and all its setup costs, in less than a year even though the first guy I paid to do it didn’t deliver a working site and I had to buy DreamWeaver and make the site myself.

So I suppose you have to track your advertising and find out how to get the most bang for your buck.

By: Pam

Pam — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:32:53 +0000

So true. My husband and I own a comic book shop, and we made the tough decision to be closed on Mondays.

While this doesn’t sound like a big deal, now our customers have to remember which day they can’t come in. It has reduced our overhead though, and makes it easier to hit our daily sales projection.

By: The Half Assed Housewife

The Half Assed Housewife — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:08:43 +0000

In the not going overboard category, it is also helpful to remember that time you spend trying to save money by doing things yourself takes away from time you have to make money. Hopefully you opened a business doing something you are good at, makes you money and you love. Rolling around on the ground trying to get computers hooked up because you are too cheap to pay someone to set up your network is not a good use of your talents or resources unless you run an IT business.