Here we present to you 8 ways to instantly reduce your business costs, and to help you to crack down on unnecessary spending:

1) Buy in bulk where possible – when you buy in bulk, you are usually given a discount straight away. Officeworks offers bulk buy discounts, and even has the discounted prices listed for you on the shelf. If you are buying stock or other goods for resale regularly, consider ordering in bulk instead, and negotiate a discounted rate with your supplier;

2) Where possible, buy second hand furniture and equipment – check out Gumtree, Ebay, etc. You will find many businesses selling their unwanted furniture and equipment, and it is usually due to them closing down or moving on. Great way to grab a good bargain. Of course it must suit your desired décor, and you must see it first before you make an offer;

3) Consider whether you actually need an office or shop front – of course for some professions or businesses, this is not really an option. But it may be an option for your business. Consider renting an office or meeting room hourly instead, or maybe even turn your home office into a meeting room. We have seen this done before, and done very stylish as well! If you have staff, consider setting them up remotely where possible. Who wouldn’t love to work from home for their employer!!

4) Outsource some of your staffing requirements – rather than hiring a full time staff member that can come with problems and complications, consider hiring a contractor or someone on a part time basis. Businesses such as Odesk, Elance and Fiverr have provided many small businesses with access to qualified and skilled professionals, all for a fraction of the price that they would pay if they had to engage a full time staff member;

5) Use  free applications and softwares – make use of the vast applications and softwares out there that are made available to small businesses, for little or no charge. Some software providers have a free version of their software, so you can try it out before you decide to buy. If you find it is worth the investment, then you can purchase it. Use technology to your advantage – your time is money so if you can save on time, you can spend that time to make more money! Great software include Skype (for communication) and Dropbox (for cloud storage);

6)  If you are a service based business, and you need to send documents to your clients, consider using email instead of sending documents by mail. Invest in a good scanner (or hopefully your printer also has a scanning function!), and scan the documents. You save on stamps and envelopes (and yes, it does add up!), and by sending it through email, you also have a record that it was sent to them! No excuses about Australia Post now!!

7) If you receive most of your payments by credit card, consider negotiating a better rate with your bank. If they are unable to help, despite the volume of sales that you are putting through, consider another bank. Or even use Paypal or Pay Advantage (which offers BPAY facilities and charges a lower rate than Paypal);

8) Automate as much as possible – a prime example of this is bookkeeping costs. Moving to a cloud based software that allows for direct downloads of bank transactions can save time, and money. Gone are the days where your bookkeeper has to spend hours entering your transactions. We have seen clients save thousands of dollars, just by moving their accounting and record keeping software.