5 Shopping Tips for the Bootstrapping Entrepreneur

Thursday, March 1, 2007 at 01:28pm by David Askaripour in Bootstrapping

What’s a bootstrapping entrepreneur? A bootstrapping entrepreneur is someone who is always looking to save money during the course of running a business. Most of us don’t have funding or fat wallets to dump tons of cash into our businesses, so we rely on creative ways to save money and keep the wheels of our ventures rolling.

Just after running my business and paying my rent, my second largest expense is food. Living in NYC is no joke when you’re talking about food expense, just ask anyone that lives in a major city.

But, rest assured, there are ways to save money when shopping no matter where you live. Here are 5 tips that I live by when shopping.

1. Always have a list.

   Never go to store not knowing exactly what you want or at least some idea of what you want to purchase. Otherwise, you are more than likely to spend money frivolously and for items that you really don’t need. Think of shopping like running a business: you should have some idea or a plan of the company that you want to start before you begin. That way, you can assess how much it’ll cost to start the business.

2. Purchase in bulk.

   Think about it, does it make more sense to purchase three bottles of Poland Spring water per day for $1.50 a piece or to purchase a 24 pack for $8.00 once a week? See what I mean, you should always try to purchase in large quantities so you can get the discounted priced. In the long-run, you’ll save much more cash.

3. Forget about Mom and Pop shops, go for the big guys.

   I hate to say it, but most “mom and pop” shops across the country charge insane prices for items. Stick to the large supermarket chains such as Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Walmart, Sam’s Club, ect… When you use these big brand stores, you area able to get the benefits of their locked in prices that they obtained through their distributors. The mom and pop shops are small operations – with much less volume – so they push high prices onto the customers to make up for the less volume.

4. Save your receipts for everything.

   You’d be surprised on the things that you can receive a tax refund from at the end of the year. Depending on your business/living situation, you can get a return on books, supply, material, and possibly even food at the end of the year. So save those receipts and make sure to include them into this year’s accounting.

5. Learn how to cook.

   Believe it or not, by cooking your own meals you can cut down on your shopping. If you are like me, you purchase a lot of prepared food and sometimes find yourself spending too much time in restaurants. I’m not an expert chef, but I definitely noticed a decrease in spending when I started to do more cooking than eating out.

It’s all about spending less money where and when you can. When you do that, you free up more expenses to invest back into your business.

Do you have any tips for other bootstrapping entrepreneurs? Share your thoughts on the Bootstrapping forum »

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