Being an entrepreneur means a lot of things – creative freedom, constant decision making, total responsibility, and of course, being our own bosses.

But how do you cut company spending when YOU’RE the company!?

Here are seven money saving tips to keep your hard earned cash in the bank!

1) Coupons are your BEST friend

When shopping online for your custom thank you cards, or renewing your Adobe account, if there is a little box to insert a coupon code during checkout, USE IT! That’s your golden ticket! Look for sites like RetailMeNot and Coupons.com to find codes that work. Never pay shipping, my friends, and never settle for full price when purchasing online. Use the Honey browser extension – it finds the lowest price of the product you’re buying and adds coupon codes automatically.
 

2) Pay attention to price patterns

Plan your big spending around major holidays and sales. Making a large purchase? Don’t forget tax free weekend in August if you live in MA – that’ll save you a few hundred dollars off a new camera body. 2-3 months before Black Friday / Cyber Monday, I make a list of things I need for myself and my business and I WAIT for the price to drop. Patience and planning makes a huge difference!
 

3) Comparison shop

Find the cheapest deal by price shopping between stores. Often, one will be having a unique sale when others are not. The best places to buy are B&H, Amazon, KEH, and eBay – if you shop new on eBay for big ticket items such as lenses or bodies, you get 3% cash back every quarter, which pays for extra batteries and new memory cards. Amazon credit card holders get 5% back on all purchases, and Target credit card holders get 5% off on all purchases. Don’t forget to check prices a week after purchasing, as you can get a price adjustment within 14 days from most retailers if the price drops.
 

4) Buy in bulk

Strike when a major sale is happening, buy in bulk! There’s nothing worse than running out of ribbon while trying to package an order or buying batteries for your flash at – GASP – the drugstore! So the next time your favorite client gift goes on sale, buy two dozen of them and save.
 

5) Reallocate your advertising budget

There’s something to be said for Facebook and Instagram ads. It works really well for some people! But if you can’t directly track dollars spent on ads to bookings, stop paying to boost your Facebook posts. Instead, go for organic reach. Tag your clients, post beneficial content, go live on IG, or rely on word of mouth advertising from your clients. Take what you would have spent on a traditional advertising budget and use that money to treat your clients with gifts, and they will be referring you to everyone. Don’t forget to show your love for past clients, not just future ones. Go above and beyond in service and you will never have to pay a dime in advertising.
 

6) Protect your gear

Be proactive and buy lens hoods ($10, not only to reduce sun flare, but to have a bumper if it gets knocked around), UV filters ($5, to protect the actual glass if dropped), memory card cases ($5 for 25 of them to avoid dust and prevent all around damage) and a durable bag (but not necessarily the most expensive leather one). The more you take care of your gear, clean it, and treat it right, the longer it will last! It’s also worth noting that lenses can be fixed in many cases. My $1,700 24-70mm broke, and I paid less than $500 to get it fixed. I used it for a total of 8 years before it really kicked the bucket. Don’t always jump to buying new gear!
 

7) Prioritize

I would love to take every potential client to dinner, but that isn’t cost effective for a very small business (25 clients/year = ~$1,800). For meetings with clients that haven’t been booked yet, opt for a coffee shop to keep costs down (but of course, always treat them to whatever they want) or even better, a phone call or FaceTime fo free. Save a more luxurious experience and gifts for clients that have already booked you.

BONUS favorite tricks:

CVS app – they send me 30% off my purchase every Thursday, good through the weekend. I pair this with coupons directly on the app to get free household products, my favorite cereal for $1, and earn more Extrabucks.

Get good cash back rewards credit cards for your business and personal spending. Both my business and personal credit cards get me 1-5% cash back with rotating bonus categories! Make sure they don’t have annual fees and you pay the entire balance off every month – no carrying a balance / spending money you don’t really have. Finesse the system, don’t let the system finesse you.

If you travel, getting a credit card with your most used airline is key, and they usually have opening bonuses. I charged $1,500 (part of my college tuition bill lmao) to my new AA card, paid it off immediately, and used the miles for a free roundtrip ticket to California later that year for vacation. Even just having a free JetBlue TrueBlue account gives me at least 1 free flight per year – and that was before I got the credit card.

Pay attention to rebates when buying cameras and lenses on B&H – remember to mail in that $200 rebate! Then, you can take the gift card and deposit it into the bank (yes, that’s a thing!)