What is one business expense I should never cut corners on?
1. Culture
“Most businesses don’t have a culture line item in their budget. That’s a huge mistake. When we invest in culture at RTC, we’re investing in the spirit of our people. They power our business. Our culture budget is nearly twice the size of our marketing budget.”
– COREY BLAKE, Round Table Companies
2. Great Employees
“The value of a great employee is hard to measure, but I’ve learned from painful experience that taking care of and finding great employees is immeasurably important. Don’t skimp on your most valuable assets, or you will never realize your company’s full potential.”
– SETH TALBOTT, CEO and Startup Advisor
3. A Great Accountant
“Paying for great accountants who do their jobs well will actually save businesses money in most cases. Don’t skimp for someone who will rush through the process and miss out on details that could cost you in the long run.”
– DARRAH BRUSTEIN, Network Under 40 / Finance Whiz Kids
4. Compensation
“People are the greatest asset to your business. By not compensating them well, you devalue your business and lower your odds of success. You would rather have your employees focused on doing a great job than how much they are undercompensated.”
5. Nothing
“When we were starting out, we cut corners on everything — perks, legal, finance, website development and more. And had we not cut those corners, the business may have run out of money. We’ve since been able to clean up a lot of those areas, and although there was some pain in getting everything squared away, it was well worth the trade-off — we needed to stay in business!”
6. Web Design
“The best offerings will go unnoticed if they’re shrouded in complication, bad code, and bad design. Never go live with anything below par.”
– SAM SAXTON, Salter Spiral Stair and Mylen Stairs
7. Marketing
“The goal is to spend more money on marketing — not less. The key is to build proper tracking mechanisms in every element of your marketing, so you know which efforts offer the greatest return on your investment (and which need improvement). If you’re making $1.50 for every marketing dollar invested, why would you want to spend less? Oftentimes, people don’t know what’s working and what’s not.”
– CHARLES GAUDET, Predictable Profits
8. Server Infrastructure
“Making sure your business’s website stays up is critical — especially if you’re running a digital-centric company. It is easy enough to use a scalable server solution, like Amazon or Rackspace, but budgeting for growth is more difficult. Make sure you budget for the growth you expect in users or website visits. Server infrastructure can get pricey, and it’s not an expense to cut corners on.”
9. Security
“What are your most important assets? How are you protecting them? Whether you’re selling diamonds or running a website, you have to make sure they are protected. We’re in the online industry, so that means having our properties constantly backed up (in a different location) and implementing safeguards against data corruption and theft.”
– NICOLAS GREMION, Free-eBooks.net
Originally published by StartupCollective
Photo Credits
alamosbasement | StartupCollective
