Starting a business can be expensive, especially during your early seed years. While there are some unavoidable costs such as salaries and health care, there are also many easy ways to save on your monthly expenses. When researching ways to reduce expenses, the information you read can sometimes be overwhelming, complicated, or outdated, leaving you wondering where to begin. Which is why we’ve put together this post. Here are 7 easy-to-use apps that will save you cash that you can invest elsewhere to help grow your business.
Related eBook: Marketing without a Budget
7 Money-Saving Apps for Small Business Owners
Ebates
If you are a small business, chances are you’re not yet purchasing in bulk, meaning you’ll likely be placing a lot of individual, as-needed orders. Ebates is a great way to help manage and lower some of those costs. Ebates is a multi-purpose extension for your web browser and offers cash back for more than 2,000 websites.
Ebates also displays all coupons currently available from that retailer, to get you the most bang for your buck. While offers vary by retailer, rebates can reach as high as 40% cash back. As a reminder to use Ebates on every online purchase, the browser extension will flash in the corner when a retailer offers cash back. Cash back is sent in the form of a PayPal payment or check four times per year, and is a super easy way to help business owners save time and money.
Qapital
If you are struggling with money management, Qapital is the fiscally-savvy app that will help you save, plan, and spend smart. When you register and connect your Qapital Visa card, all purchases will be rounded up automatically and the change will be put towards one of your savings goals. Savings goals can be selected on the app and changed at any time. Qapital offers a checking account with fraud monitoring, goal-based accounts, no required opening deposit or minimum required balance, and even $0 overdraft fees. Qapital is a great app to help small business owners save money in easy ways.
PS if you’re looking for help with your marketing expenses specifically, check out 5 Tips for Setting an Effective Marketing Budget.
Trim
Whether you need to cancel Netflix or you think your cable bill is too high, Trim is everything you’ve been looking for and then some. Trim is an electronic personal assistant that will not only regularly negotiate bills for you for a nominal fee—such as Comcast and AT&T— but they will also remind you of recurring subscriptions and give you the option to cancel any for free that you aren’t utilizing.
Trim will also send you text messages for balance updates or account changes, keeping you updated in real time. Trim is an easy-to-use app that finds opportunities for small business owners to save money with the bills they already have.
Mint
When you run a small business, it’s often difficult to see the big financial picture when things become overwhelming day-to-day. That’s where Mint comes in. Once you connect your financial institution, bills, and cards to Mint, the app generates regular, easy to understand, financial reports. Mint will even track your budget, help you find new ways to save, and include recommendations for where to cut back on expenses. Mint will send you notifications when bills are due, and even track and send you credit score alerts, improving your financial health and helping you save money every step of the way.
SkyScanner
If you’re a frequent flyer, there is no app more useful than SkyScanner. Unlike Expedia or Kayak, SkyScanner is not a booking agent, and therefore provides a completely unbiased list of flight details and pricing. With SkyScanner, you can search lowest prices to your destination by day, week, or month, arming you with the ability to choose the most affordable and beneficial flight times. On SkyScanner, you are even able to set alerts for price drops, watch flights in real time with the flight tracker capabilities, and book the lowest cost car rentals and hotels for your trip. SkyScanner is a useful multi-purpose travel app that will help you save money for your small business.
Boxed
Warehouse clubs like Costco, BJ’s, and Sam’s Club can be a great way to cut down on daily costs, such as snacks and toiletries. But oftentimes those wholesale retailers are in inconvenient locations, come with hefty membership fees, and require heavy lifting to the office. That’s where Boxed comes in. Boxed has no annual membership fees, and carries everything from health products to cleaning supplies to groceries, delivered straight to your home or office. Boxed is perfect for small business owners trying to keep expenses low, but also provide a friendly and clean work environment for employees. Boxed will help your small business save money through efficient deliveries and wholesale options.
Earny
These days, dozens of retailers offer refunds as part of their price protection policy. This means that when the paper towels you purchased on July 2nd drop by $5 on July 10th, you’re entitled to that $5 difference. Small business owners know those small discrepancies can add up, but it’s difficult to find time to do the research and track your past purchases.
That’s where Earny steps in. Once you connect your email and Amazon accounts, you are free to purchase as usual, but Earny will track any purchases made and negotiate a refund for you if the price of the item drops. Refunds are sent straight to your linked debit card, making your savings experience hassle-free.
As a small business owner, your time is valuable, so it’s important to make sure your technology is working as hard as you are. These 7 apps will help you save money and make your life easier!
For more ways to save money while growing your business, download our free eBook below:
