By Dan Messina
As a business owner, you are always thinking of ways to add revenue to your business. When I ran my business, there were only so many services we could offer to make money. In business, as in your personal life, there are two parts of the equation for financial survival. You can make more money by adding more services or getting a second job, or you can lower your expenses.
When I ran my towing company, my wife would point out all the expenses we had that did not relate to towing. Things for the office like supplies, cleaning stuff, paper products like toilet paper and paper towels, computer paper and ink and the list goes on. We immediately went out and got a Sam’s card for the business. The advantages with this card were that the store would open early for businesses, you could buy in bulk, and they gave me a line of credit. I can’t tell you how many thousands of dollars I save with this card.
As owners, you don’t have time to look for opportunities that can save you money. You have been buying from your friend down the street for years because that’s what everyone else does. If you want to survive in business today, you have to take advantage of every savings opportunity. That’s what www.djanddan.com provides for you. We research ways for you to save money, and then we show you how to spend it.
Here is what I want you all to do. Write down a monthly expense that you are making payments on. Then I want you to see when that expense will be paid off. What we are going to do is start buying things using a discount program and apply the savings to that expense. We will then determine how early we can pay off that expense using the money we save with our discounts. Once we pay off that expense, we then apply that monthly payment to another monthly expense and get it paid off. Our goal will be to get out of debt earlier than planned.
1. Sam’s Club
Look at what you can buy there that can be used for the business Things like office supplies, food, cleaning products, cloths, cleaning towels, tools. There are hundreds of products that Sam’s carries that you can use at the office. Remember the products you buy can be a tax deduction. I would purchase shirts for my employees and add my log to them; that was a cheap way to look good.
I had a dispatcher that worked a discount coupon program, and she came to work one day with 27 jars of peanut butter. She passed then out to other employees. When I asked her about the 27 jars of peanut butter, she said they were free through her discount program. She told me her discount program offers many other free products. By managing her household budget, she was able to save a lot of money.
2. Allied Business Network
Allied Business Network (ABN) is a collection of 165,481 businesses, entrepreneurs, small business owners and individuals located throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. ABN has been providing discounts to businesses through group buying since 1997. Allied Business Network negotiates prices with national suppliers to get our members the best discounts available. ABN Members are able to save 5% to 85% on office supplies, car rentals, business forms, promotional products, computers and printers, flowers and gifts, office furniture, shipping, print & copy and more.
Once you become a member, you will receive an email welcome packet with special offers and coupons exclusively for ABN Members. ABN is constantly growing and adding new discounts to help small businesses succeed. As a member, you will receive up-to-date information and notifications about our current and future discount programs.
CorpMatch is an online business-to-business networking group created for the purpose of saving small businesses money. CorpMatch leverages the buying power of its 3,000 plus members (all businesses) and its expertise in negotiation to command discounts not normally available to small businesses. Because CorpMatch executives come from a small business background, CorpMatch understands the needs of and problems that challenge small business owners in today’s world.
With CorpMatch you will save both time and money in securing the goods and services that are essential to ensuring that your business runs smoothly and efficiently. CorpMatch is unique because through membership in CorpMatch you will not only be able to save money on your daily needs, but also have the opportunity to introduce your company’s products and services for sale to other CorpMatch members.
CorpMatch locates products from around the world, new and interesting products and innovative ideas that many companies may never be exposed to unless they happen to be walking down the right aisle at the right trade show. They also give you an opportunity to offer your products or services to other businesses. This can be a great way to market your business Associations are starting to offer these types of programs to its members. It’s a great way to get new members for your association while allowing them to save thousands of dollars each year.
Southwest Tow Operators, one of the largest towing associations in the country, worked out an agreement with CorpMatch that allows Southwest Tow Operators members the opportunity to take advantage of some great savings.
As an owner, you are usually too busy to look for opportunities like this, but, as a business owner, you can’t afford not to. Take a few minutes out of your week and Google business discounts. You will be amazed at all the discount programs available from companies such as:
- Staples
- Shell
- Liberty Mutual
- U.P.S.
- AT&T
- Aramart
- H. & R. Block
- Orlando Vacations
- Hotels.com
- PayChex
- T. Mobile
- Lenove
- Quicken
- Hertz
- Quick Books
- Stamps.com
There are hundreds more ready to offer you tremendous savings on their products. Try our exercise and select a monthly expense and then apply your savings through these programs and see how soon you can become get debt-free.
If you need help, www.djanddan.com can be of assistance.
