Eliminate Bullshit Expenses
If you can’t show the value of a current or potential expenditure on paper, strongly consider cutting it out of the budget.  Just because it’s a business norm to have an 800 number or join the Better Business Bureau or buy new computers every year doesn’t mean it’s actually beneficial for your business model.  Cancel your membership with the networking group that nets garbage connections.  Scrap under-performing advertisements.  Cancel your Yellow Pages ad.  Fire the consultant not earning his pay.  Print cheaper business cards.  Do you really need that office?  Would telecommuting hurt or help? You get the picture, slice and dice.  I see so many business owners and start-ups with bloated expenses.  When I press someone guilty of saying “yes” to too much, the typical excuse is because “it’s what you’re supposed to have (or do).”  Reject the idea that you are supposed to have a laundry list of expenses in order to make money in business.  It’s all about profit.  Anything you can do to maximize revenue and minimize expense will net the most profit.   It’s surprising to see how many business owners have forgotten this.  You must question every bill and carefully decide where your money should go.  It’s not that spending money is bad.  As the old saying goes, sometimes you have to spend money to make money.  In fact, I’m not cheap when it comes to very specific expenses.  It’s all about value.  Sometimes hiring a rockstar logo designer or going all out on signage or having a fancy office is a must. But sometimes you have to save money to make money.  Cash is the oil that keeps your business running and where you allocate can make all the different in the world.  So think twice before you say “yes” and negotiate whatever you’re paying now down.  If you feel bad pushing vendors for lower prices, don’t.  After all it’s the economy, stupid!

Apply Elbow Grease to your Marketing
If you’re a small business or a cash-strapped start-up, you might not have buckets of money to throw at an advertising campaign to get momentum going for your brand.  Don’t worry, what you lack in cash you can make up for in bravado.  It’s time to reinvent your digital strategy.  Get a blog and start writing about something within your industry.  Something interesting, something remarkable.  How much does that cost? Use Facebook and Twitter to build a following around your brand or products.  Perhaps even reach new customers through these cost-effective channels.   Google, Yahoo! and Bing all have local business search tools that are 100% free to harness.  Add your site and listing and get it verified, it can take a few weeks for verification, but it’s well worth it. Hire a low cost intern out to prove himself.  Hire sales people on commission.  Partner up with businesses that are complimentary to your’s.  Sell your excess leads to pay for advertising.  If you want to win, you have to be savvier than the rest.  Money won’t solve all of your problems anyways- hiring a big boy marketing firm or purchasing Super Bowl commercials is stupid most of the time.  It’s why bigger businesses lose their focus and waste countless dollars on initiatives that suck.  Think carefully about your target audience and the best way to reach them.  Assuming your product or service is better (and it must be), if you can reach them for less, you will have the upper hand on everyone else.  So it’s all about reaching them with elbow grease instead of cash money.  Start somewhere and let the snowball effect help you as you push.

Fire or Hire
Many small business owners end up hiring friends or relatives to help them build their dream.  Many end up crossing the line between professional and personal and it becomes more and more difficult to objectively manage their performance.  Regardless of who your employees are – friends, relatives, or strangers, you must regularly think about their performance and contribution in objective terms.  Your business or start-up is a machine and it’s not self-running.  You’re job as the owner and leader is to direct the components of the machine to maximize efficiency.  If someone isn’t holding their weight or you could gain 25% in productivity by replacing an employee, it’s something to consider.  You may hurt feelings and ruffle feathers, but business isn’t supposed to be easy.  Zoom out of situations whenever possible to objectively analyize cost and value.  On the other hand, if you’ve been running on your own or with limited support, it may be time to face the risk of taking on another body.  There is an expansive labor market right now due to local and national unemployment that is crippling the workforce.  Potential employees are easier to find than ever, but be careful to avoid only searching from the jobless.  If you are hiring your 2nd or 100th employee, it’s important to not just think in terms of salary outflow without thinking about value inflow.  If it’s more expensive to hire away from the competition an industry rockstar, but they can catapult your business to the next level, it may be worth it.  Think objectively not emotionally before you hire or fire.