11 Money-Saving Moves To Make For Your Small Business This Month

Running a small business is expensive, but there are ways to cut costs and put more money in your pocket.

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You work hard managing daily operations, training employees, and trying to make a profit. Running a small business is a herculean task, but it can be more successful if you have the right tools for the job. 

These money-saving moves connect you with services that automate the tasks that squander your precious time. Because, as you know, time is money. 

Here’s what you need to start saving.

1. Cut your credit card processing fees by 40%

Credit card processing fees are too expensive. You do all the hard work, and some credit card company or bank takes 3% of your revenue after every swipe. How is that fair?

Do you know there are platforms that charge up to 40% less for credit card processing? 

That’s why we love Stax. It has figured out a way to cut fees for businesses while still providing timely payments. You pay a flat monthly fee, and Stax gives you some of the cheapest processing rates on the market in return.

Sign up with Stax here to cut down processing costs. Want to know more? Check out our Stax review.

2. Get free accounting software

Wave Accounting is the best free accounting software for freelancers, solopreneurs, and small-business owners.

When you work for yourself, you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars a month on fancy accounting software with every possible bell and whistle. You just need software that crunches numbers and an app that easily accepts payments.

Of course, Wave doesn’t have as many features as paid competitors like QuickBooks. But if you are a solopreneur or freelancer, Wave has exactly what you need for free: Unlimited expense tracking, invoicing, receipt scanning, and basic reporting.

Get started with Wave.

3. Slash your phone bill by $1,003

Did you know that most businesses pay $1,234 per employee on phones annually? That’s $1,003 more than you could pay per employee if you switch to RingCentral.

RingCentral’s Core plan costs just $20 per user, per month―a surprisingly competitive price. 

The RingCentral mobile app and desktop platform let your employees ditch the clunky office phones of the past. Not to mention, the online management platform makes it easy to juggle multiple lines—even when your employees are all working from different locations.

RingCentral has a 3.9 out of 5 user score on G2. Users love how RingCentral’s focus on scalability makes it easy to add or subtract services as needed.

See what RingCentral can do for you.

4. Avoid checking account fees

Banking fees are obnoxious, and most banks charge hefty sums. If you’re paying overdraft fees, monthly service fees, wire fees, ATM fees, checkbook fees, or ACH fees, you’re basically throwing money away.

The good news: Modern banks are eliminating fees altogether.

Different businesses at different stages and different sizes have different banking needs. For solopreneurs and freelancers, Found offers basic banking features like debit card access, direct deposit plus expense tracking, invoicing, and tax categorization—all for free. (We share our thoughts on Found in our review.)

For businesses with more employees, Bluevine offers interest-bearing checking—and that’s just the start. You don’t have to pay a monthly fee, transaction fees, ATM fees, or insufficient fund fees. There’s no minimum opening deposit, either. (Bluevine has lots more to offer too.)

Open an account with Found or Bluevine—or both.

5. Increase restaurant sales by 30%

Many restaurants run at a 30% sales deficit. Why? Because they’re using an out-of-date  restaurant point-of-sale (POS) system.

A well-designed restaurant POS system boosts sales by automating crucial tasks, like managing orders, automating accounting, cutting down delivery costs, and much more.

Each of these small benefits can create big gains in productivity and significant boosts in overall customer experience—but not every POS system has these features.

That’s why we recommend Toast. The 74,000 restaurants using Toast POS tend to outperform their peers by 10-30%. (Read the Toast nitty gritty deets here.)

Compare Toast’s POS plans

6. Swap your payroll to SurePayroll and get six months free

Payroll can be a total headache and massive timesuck. Save your brain and precious time by automating your payroll process with software.

With SurePayroll, you can pay your employees in a timely, accurate, and legally compliant manner.

Best of all, SurePayroll receives raving user reviews across the internet. It has a combined score of 4.3/5 when you add together reviews from TrustPilot, Capterra, and G2. Users love its customer service and the peace of mind it offers for those worried about legal compliance.

Compared to the alternatives, SurePayroll is as good as it gets. If you want affordable, user-friendly software for your small to midsize business, SurePayroll is a great way to go.

Get SurePayroll free for six months.

7. Get a free credit card with rewards

Using a business credit card with no annual fee or rewards can save your business money in more ways than one.

We love Nav because it’s a financing marketplace where you can compare cards, perks, and points to find the right credit card for your business needs. 

Nav can match you with cards that offer features including: 

  • Cash back rewards
  • Points rewards 
  • No annual fee 
  • 0% intro APR 
  • Welcome offers 

Also, Nav is completely free to use. You don’t need to spend anything to find the right card. 

Find your credit card with Nav today.

8. Attract new customers with a free website and save $180

Website builders should be easy to use, fully customizable, and able to create beautiful websites. Website builders that include all these features usually cost an average of $15 a month. Wix is free, and it does all of that and then some. That’s a savings of $180 a year.

Over 220 million people use Wix’s free service, which is comparable to top website builders' paid plans. Wix offers more than 1,000 design features, a customizable template, advanced SEO tools, and integrated marketing solutions. Wix makes the website-building process pain free and wallet friendly. 

Build your website with Wix for free.

9. Protect your assets with a security system

If your business has physical assets, setting up a security system to protect them could save you some money and a lot of frustration in the long run. 

SimpliSafe is an inexpensive service that monitors your business. You can install the custom system yourself and even take it with you if you move. 

SimpliSafe also offers small-batch monitoring, which isn’t common. You can buy 30 days of pro monitoring to use whenever you want—when you are on vacation, for the weekends, or any time that works best for you. 

Order your SimpliSafe system to keep an eye on your assets.

10. Pay less for business insurance

Good business insurance can help protect your business and your budget from unforseeable accidents like property damage and bodily injury. 

Tivly business insurance marketplace matches business owners with insurers. With more than 200 providers in its network and 20 years in the industry, Tivly scores a solid A from the Better Business Bureau. 

These are some of the Tivly features we like most: 

  • Coverage in all 50 states 
  • Operating hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST, Monday through Saturday 
  • More than 200 providers in network

Get a free quote from Tivly.

11. Save $90 a month on inventory management

Poor inventory management could cost your business more than you might think.

This is where Zoho jumps in. Zoho’s inventory and order management, shipping, ecommerce, tracking, and warehouse operations are fantastic. There are also simple third-party integrations for Shopify, Amazon Marketplace, and Etsy. 

And Zoho is free. That’s much cheaper than spending $90 a month for similar inventory management software.

Start saving with Zoho.

Former staff writer Andrew Mosteller contributed.


Nicolle Okoren
Written by
Nicolle Okoren focuses on finding solutions to the barriers that prevent entrepreneurs from thriving. A writer for more than 12 years, she has a BS in sociology and MA in journalism from Goldsmiths, University of London. Nicolle has bylines in The Guardian, Huffpost UK, Independent, CNN, Irish Independent, BridgeUniverse and Utah Business Magazine. Prior to jumping into journalism, she worked as a content writer for multiple startups.
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