9 Cash Conservation Tips For Those With the Entrepreneurial Spirit (Part II)

Welcome back!  We hope you enjoyed Part I of our little money saving mini-series for entrepreneurs.  It’s all about keeping your overhead low – after all you want to avoid getting into into any major debt and declaring yourself bankrupt, right?  I shudder to think.  So here’s 3 more tips to ponder and work into your business plan (or lack thereof!) to help you survive the small business landscape when starting out on your own.

Go Refurbished

No need to buy new equipment.  Especially for office furniture.  Heck – I got my current office chair from the millionaire-next-store-friend-of-my-dad down the street.  You can probably find a good laser multifunction refurbished for all your print, fax and copy needs on Craigslist or from many of the dying business due to the economy (ouch!).  Plus you never know what goodies you can find at Salvation Army or Goodwill.

Borrowing Space & Co-working

If you’ve got a friend that has some extra space and you absolutely need to get away from the home-office, maybe you can work out a deal where you pay a very low-rate or no money at all.  Just call on the give-a-friend-a-hand clause.  And if that doesn’t work, good old guilt might do the trick!

New on the scene in the last few year: Co-working.  A phenomenon that I just found out about this at a meetup.com group and I must say – it’s the bomb.  A common space of like minded individuals supporting each other in entrepreneurial endeavors.  Ranging from plain-jane to funky-and-hip you can rent a desk for a day, week or monthly with lots of creative, innovative and smart folks living the dream and working for themselves without the man breathing down their neck.  Maybe poor and struggling to make their next buck, but giving it their best shot.

VOIP

Another no-brainer.  If you aren’t using a cheap VOIP plan for a land line replacement or Skype for free VOIP calls or video-conference – what are ya doin’?  I’m not saying Skype’s the cheapest, but copper line service is going the way of the dodo bird (morte!) and everything involving media and communication will be across the Internet soon anyways, so why not switch now?  Plus anywhere there’s an Internet connection you can bring your “land” line with you.  Maybe it’s more of a “island” line, no, wait more like a boat.  You get the idea.

That’s all for Part II!  The last and final 3 tips are coming to a blog near you…well actually this blog.

FPT Guy is a writer, the owner and managing editor of Financial Planning Tips -Turning the boring topic of personal financial planning on its head and helping guide you on the financial path that makes sense for you.

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In his book Automatic Wealth, business guru and investor Michael Masterson lays out a plan for how to achieve financial independence within 7 to 15 years. Though some his principals are oversimplified and general, he does do a good job of laying out what you should do to build wealth quickly.

The three main points in the book are as follows:

1) Increase how much you make at your job by increasing how much value you bring as an employee. Read the rest of this entry