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Five Smart Ways To Save Money

Posted by Gayle Kesten Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008, 04:02 PM ET

For me, one bright spot stood out during a segment on Friday's Today show called "Silver Linings In A Slumping Economy."

People are remembering and learning once again how to save money, according to Matt Lauer (or his teleprompter).

"Our grandparents knew they had to save 10 percent because they remembered the Depression," added Jean Chatzky, Today's financial editor. "We never had that and, as a result, we are great at spending money and we are terrible at putting it away. We're going to regain those lessons."

Let's hope so. Something lasting and of value will hopefully come out of the current financial crisis. On the flip side, it could be your business' offering that winds up on buyers' cutting room floors. That's why you, too, need to get cracking on your own savings plan.

"Businesses need to find every possible way to cut costs -- while, ideally, avoiding morale-busters like layoffs," according to Inc.com. Here are five creative ways it suggests saving money, minus the pink slips:

1. Send Employees Home: Rent and operations costs will decrease if you can cut down on the amount of office space your business requires.

2. Share Your Staff: Rather than laying off people who aren't directly involved in money-generating production or sales, consider dividing these professionals' time with fellow businesses.

3. Get Customers to Put Away Their Credit Cards: Credit cards involve fees that eat into your profit. Realizing that customers like using them for the rewards they receive, some businesses have began similar incentive programs to get customers to use cash or debit cards.

4. Cut Back On Travel: To combat rising fuel costs, some businesses are finding it less expensive to open additional locations than to have their employees on the road.

5. Try Do-It-Yourself Marketing: Tools like blogs are a free way to get the word out about your business. One company got rid of its marketing consultant and offered bonuses to employees to blog. Its payout was far less, and the firm's search-engine rankings improved dramatically.

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