8 Ways to Help Your Small Business Save Money
Running a business means balancing growth with thoughtful spending. While investing in expansion is essential, finding ways to save can stretch your profits further. From cutting unnecessary expenses to taking advantage of FNBT’s unique business banking benefits, here are some practical tips to help your business save and thrive.
You’ve worked hard to build your business, and now you want to see it grow. While spending money is usually necessary to build and expand, you also want to consider where to save money to stretch your profits even further.
Just as customers feel price increases, so too do businesses. That’s why it’s essential to think about how you can cut back on your outgoings. We’re here with some business savings tips to help you with a savings-focused money mindset.
Cut Wasteful Spending
Evaluating your business budget, just like you would with your personal budget, is always a great place to start. Review your commercial business account statements to find expenses you’re not using and consider cutting those services.
Look for lower-cost alternatives to some of the tools you already use if you don’t want to cut those services completely. Consider moving to cloud-based storage technology if you’re not already using this. The
right technical tools are essential but can quickly become one of the biggest costs in your business.
Negotiate with Suppliers and Vendors
Asking for discounts if you purchase multiple products from a supplier or vendor is common but remember that they’re likely feeling the financial pressure in their own business as much as you. Try to make any negotiations reciprocal rather than simply asking for a discount. This benefits you both in terms of receiving supplies or services and can
strengthen your ongoing business relationship.
Think about where you might be able to bundle services from bigger providers like utilities or communications providers. Insurance costs can also be bundled if you have several policies, like building insurance for your business location and any vehicles specifically used for the company.
One of the exclusive benefits available to our VIP Business and
oneBusiness account holders is BillShark for Business
3. This service helps you save money on essential recurring expenses, such as waste management, SaaS subscriptions, and other service bills. A team of experts negotiates on your behalf to secure better rates, allowing you to save both time and money.
Outsource What You Can
For many small businesses, hiring full-time staff is not always an option. Your team may be small, and with that, you likely won’t have everything covered in the skill set you have. Growing your business will often involve bringing in those additional skills, even for a short time, so think about what roles you could outsource to another small business or freelancers.
Just like you work with vendors or suppliers for other areas of your business, consider outsourcing roles like IT, marketing, or accounting to other local businesses that specialize in those areas. Leave these tasks to the experts so that you can focus on what brings in more money for your company.
Save on Office Space with Remote Work
The costs of renting office space continue to increase each year, both from rent and paying for essentials like electricity, water, and communications. Office equipment needed to furnish those spaces can also add up quickly.
Virtual companies often have much lower overhead costs than brick-and-mortar offices, and offering remote work can provide your team with valuable flexibility to work from home. This can help long-term staff retention and also open up options for hiring outside of your immediate location.
Go Green
Investing in more
energy-efficient alternatives to heating, water, and electricity isn’t only good for the planet; it’s great for your wallet, too. Saving on energy bills is one of the best ways to lower your overall business costs and can sometimes make you eligible for business tax breaks, too.
Even if you’re a home-based business, you can benefit from energy savings when you upgrade your property. Appliances, windows, and HVAC systems can all be improved to increase your energy efficiency.
Open a Savings Account for Your Business
Like personal savings,
business savings accounts earn interest year-round and provide an excellent way to grow your company’s financial reserves. You may think that having a business checking account is enough for your company finances, but there are plenty of benefits to a savings account specifically made for business.
With a
commercial savings account, you have a separate account to set aside any money you’ll need to pay throughout the year and earn interest on these funds at the same time. It’s also a good idea to separate your personal and business savings for legal and tax purposes. Keeping some additional savings on hand is also useful should you have an emergency in the business that you need to pay for.
At First National Bank and Trust, we offer several savings options, including our popular
business savings account and business
matrix money market accounts.
Another effective way to grow your business's financial reserves is by earning interest on idle funds beyond your operating needs by opening an Investment Sweep Account. An
Investment Sweep Account from FNBT ensures that funds exceeding your target balance are automatically invested into higher-yielding deposits, helping you maximize your earning potential without extra effort.
Consider Checking Accounts with Extra Benefits
Make the most of your
business checking account by taking advantage of the perks that come along with it. At FNBT, our
oneBusiness and VIP Business Checking accounts come with
BaZing Business Benefits.
Account holders with access to BaZing Biz Benefits enjoy a wide range of perks that go beyond traditional banking services. From Buyer’s Protection & Extended Warranty
1,2 to safeguard your purchases to BizPay for seamless payroll and vendor payments and Cyber Liability Protection
2 to shield your business from the financial impact of a data breach or cyber attack — plus many more perks — these benefits are designed to provide extra value to your business checking account.
You’ll also get support with our Solutions and Corporate Checking accounts, including retirement and estate planning, along with analysis reports to give you greater insight into your business finances.
Hire a Good Accountant
Having an experienced accountant on your side is an expense that will save you significant amounts of money over the time you work with them. Let a professional focus on the taxes so that you can focus on growing your business.
A local accountant should be familiar with business tax credits that you might be eligible for to help you save extra money each tax season, and they’ll know all of the tax laws and updates to those laws so that you don’t have to worry.
Help Your Business Save with FNBT
When you’re looking for additional business support, the commercial team at FNBT is ready to help you. We’re always here to give you new ideas and solutions for saving money in your business, along with options for expansion and growth. As a long-time presence in the local community since 1882, we love to see small businesses succeed and will do what we can to help.
Open a
business bank account or explore our commercial banking products today. If you’re already an FNBT customer, let’s talk about what we can do to simplify your business finances and save you more time and money with options like
online bill pay and
digital payments for your organization.
Contact our commercial bankers to see how we can help your business grow this year! Stop by one of our convenient Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois
locations to learn more about how our family business can help yours.
1 Subject to the terms and conditions detailed in the Guide to Benefits. 2 Insurance products are: NOT A DEPOSIT. NOT FDIC-INSURED. NOT INSURED BY ANY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY. NOT GUARANTEED BY THE BANK. 3 Requires additional activation to begin.
BaZing or Gentreo are not a law firm or a substitute for a law firm or an attorney’s advice.