What Harms Your Business Budget The Most?

Every single business out there has a budget. Every single business who wants to survive beyond the first five years is going to listen to and obey their budget! It might be hard going at times, but it’ll be worth any potential risks in the long run.

And because of that, you might want to work out what costs are currently the biggest sucks on your budget. You need to be sure you can provide for them, month in and month out, and always be sure to prioritise them until you feel secure enough to move on. It might just be an example of growth, at the end of the day!

Advertising Costs

Advertising is a big part of the business process. If you have a company, and that company sells a product, everything from brand name to your finished logo is going to come off as an advertising expense. It’s been found that businesses can spend at least 20% of their total budget on marketing, and that’s a huge chunk of money for one department alone.

As a small business, you’re going to be placing emphasis on advertising, to ensure you get the word out – have you budgeted enough money?

Travel Costs

Ferrying yourself to and from work every day is going to get expensive. Of course, you should be able to claim at least most of these expenses back at the end of the fiscal year, but that doesn’t change how expensive they can be in the meantime. You’ll still have to fork out for the fuel, and the car costs, and the mileage covered under your insurance, and that’s hard on a small business or startup fund.

At the same time, if your business makes use of a company fleet for general employee use, these costs are going to be maximised tenfold. How do you cut back on these kinds of expenses, when every working day is filled with employees going from A to B and back again? You’ve got investors to meet and clients to satisfy, after all.

Well, mandating a policy of writing down time spent with a vehicle, and making sure it’s returned at a certain time at the end of the day can help you to gather control. And with something like a Fleet Fuel Card, you should be able to save on standard fuel costs, no matter how much you need to use each year.

Rent Costs

And finally, you’re going to have to fork out for rent costs month by month too. Even if you’re running a home business, and have a mortgage to pay, you’re still going to end up counting these living expenses as a business cost.

And seeing as lease agreements are usually dependent on the kind of business you’re running, you’re going to be using some very niche and specific calculations to try and factor rent into the budget.

Your business budget can be quite stretched, so make sure you’re aware of sinkholes.