Maximising Your Business Finances: How to Stretch Every Dollar (Without Becoming a Miser)

If you’re doing the “new year, new me” thing right now, can I suggest a far less dramatic makeover?

Give your business finances a quick glow-up.

Not a full-blown “cancel everything and live off instant noodles” situation. Just a smart, slightly ruthless audit of where your money is quietly leaking out every month like a tap you forgot to turn off completely.

This is the kind of check-in you want to do at the start of the year… and then again quarterly. Because expenses have a funny habit of multiplying when you’re busy actually running the business.

Here’s the vibe: strategic, not stingy. Yes, you need to invest to grow. But you also need to know what’s going out, why it’s going out, and whether it’s doing its job. Because “I’m pretty sure I need it” is not a financial strategy.

Subscriptions are the easiest place to start because they’re designed to be invisible.

You sign up for a tool in a moment of optimism. You use it twice.

Then it sits there, quietly charging you every month like a polite little thief.

So do this:

• Audit every subscription (yes, all of them)

• Ask: Do I actually use this? Does it genuinely help?

• If it hasn’t been touched in 3 months, that’s not a tool. That’s a donation.

• Cancel immediately if it’s a “meh”

And please, track your free trials. Put the end date in your calendar the minute you sign up.

Otherwise you’ll wake up one day like, “Why am I paying $49/month for something I don’t even remember subscribing to?”

Here’s a fun little plot twist: sometimes when you go to cancel, the company suddenly discovers they can offer you a discount.

Amazing how that works.

If you’re genuinely on the fence, take the discount as a temporary measure, but only if the tool is still useful.

I’ve personally had services drop from $99 to $45, then eventually down to $10/month just by attempting to cancel.

Same with a redundant phone line I kept “just in case” (don’t judge me). It’s now sitting there at $5/month, cheap enough to keep, but still something I review regularly.

Telecom companies love a lapsed contract. Because when your contract ends, your price often quietly goes up… and they hope you won’t notice.

So check:

• broadband

• mobile

• any business phone plans

Re-contracting can bring your rate back down (yes, you’ll commit to a new term, but the savings can be worth it).

I recently did this and saved about $40/month.

Not life-changing… but also not nothing. That’s a nice dinner. Or two. Or a very smug coffee per week.

I recommend doing this audit not just in the new year but every quarter:

• review subscriptions

• review contracts

• review recurring tools/services

• ask what’s still essential vs. what’s just hanging around

When I did my last check, I cut around $400/month.

That’s not “small change.” That’s “why didn’t I do this sooner?” money.

One warning: don’t swing into extreme frugality. If a tool saves you hours, reduces stress, or helps you make money, keep it.

The goal isn’t to run your business like a broke student. It's to stop funding things that aren’t pulling their weight.

Stretching every dollar in your business isn’t about being cheap.

It’s about being awake.

A few small, thoughtful tweaks like cancelling what you don’t use, renegotiating what you do, and checking in quarterly can make a noticeable difference to your bottom line.

And the best part? You’ll feel instantly more in control, which makes this a very underrated business strategy.

If you’re a Gen X business builder who’s done with the hype and ready for practical strategies you can implement without burning out, join the waitlist for The Next Chapter.

It’s where I’ll be sharing regular insights, tools, and learning that can genuinely transform how you run and grow your business.

Join the waitlist (and let’s make the next chapter the profitable one).