15 Tips to Cut expenses in any startup

Startup/business will require some money to get started and running but there are many places you can save money and use it for more productive purposes. But please don’t have a mindset to save money where it is required to spend, its like you want to go someplace in car and don’t want to fill petrol to reach there, this kind of saving will ruin your startup before it gets started. Below are some tips to make your startup run in a low budget and in super awesome way.

1. Many people rush into registering their company even before they have a concrete product or business plan. Some business requires to register only during funding. 
2. Never pay lump sum amount i.e for annual purchase of insurance, rent or if it is something you are planning to buy go for the EMI option.
3. Lease instead of buying. The less money you spend initially, the more money you will have later for marketing, advertising and promotions.
4. Buy used equipment whenever possible instead of buying new things. Website like Quikr and sulekha make it possible to get anything you want in rock bottom prices. just make sure they are in working condition and go for it. you get real good office chairs, table, rack, desktops, laptops etc
5. Very important, you “have to” learn bargaining to get the best rates for anything you would need for your startup, let it be with landlords, vendors, service providers or investors. Find other entrepreneurs that you can split certain expenses with.
6. Keep using free trails provided by many service providers until you have a stable business with paying customers. Use technology like skpye to reduce your travel bills. There are many SAAS based softwares for startup like accounting, billing and book keeping etc
7. Startup expenses can be controlled by outsourcing some non strategic functions so that time and cost for setting up a full fledged department for the same can be controlled.
8. There are two model of working, Design product > Advertise > Get Prospects > Convert > Advertise more….. and other one is to first find the prospect>design Product>sell>find more prospects. The secound one will be a very good plan to follow for a startup which is tight on funds.
9. Go Online. Minimal startup time & investment. Powerful, fast and efficient marketing and communication tool and medium. Very inexpensive way to reach new markets and interact with them and get feedback and validate your idea.
10. Don’t Pay for PR in initially stage. PR is something you should do it on your know when you are a startup. I have seen people paying INR 20,000 for PR websites and not getting as much results. You should be your Brand ambassador. Instead invest on your clothes and looks and if you look highly professional in any meetings or get together surely you will get noticed. Ask your friends to spread the word.
11. Do tax planning. Government gives a lot of rebates if you are doing business and you can claim the tax deducted as refund by showing appropriate expenses that you did for your business
12. Get interns, freelancers or contractors initially to save hiring costs. But if you get somebody with amazing skill set and complementing to that of yours then don’t hesitate to hire them or even making them partners with you.
13. Office expenses even if you plan to have lot of branches around the world you can go for serviced office spaces which you can get information online and book them whenever required. ex : find serviced offices london – click here
    
14. Initially try to find a way to start your business without a store/office front. Rent’s going to be your largest expense. try to find office spaces which are are given on per chair basics with all the facilities. If you are into retail, try to display your products in the famous retail store to see how customers respond to your products. And of course if you start getting people to buying more and more you can ultimately have your own retail store.
15. Last and biggest cost cutting tip for entrepreneurs will be to build an adviser list. Whether these are alumni from your school, friends in relevant industries, fellow entrepreneurs, etc etc, think through this list first or better yet, reach out to them before spending big money on anything at all.  They will probably be willing to help you for free or make an introduction that reduces your cost.

If you have any more tips, share with Startupfreak in the comments below! Thank you!