u/babies_galore

I slipped and hurt my knee hiking in a small town and an elderly gentleman came over and said he would wait and help me up when I was ready. So sweet. Then the local cafe gave me a bag of ice to put on it and people everywhere were being considerate. I waited out front of the pharmacy for it to open to get some Advil. A homeless man held the door open for me with compassion on his face for my pain. I was really encouraged that people’s hearts are still working.

I know someone high up in finance who says he has all of his money in cash and gold bars.

I wonder if there will be a run on banks the first time a hacker uses AI to find vulnerabilities within a financial institution.

These are just things that I have done to save on business expenses and hope it helps someone and would love to hear from others. ETA: I am based in the US

1. Use free software. I use the free version of WAVE for all my accounting and invoicing clients and tracking income and have never had a problem with it. I use OfficeLibre instead of MS Office.
2. make sure your business checking is FREE and they are not charging you silly fees. I kept seeing a $6.50 fee and $12 fee and was shocked to find out they were charging me $6.50 just to send me a paper statement and $12 to send me a written notice of every wire transfer (on top of wire transfer fee). Lord. I also try to get a check from clients for the retainer as often as possible as they are too large for Zelle.
3. Tax software: I do NOT recommend H&R Block. I used Tax Act this year and it was life-changing...and super inexpensive! I filed early before March and it was only $24 to file my business taxes and the software was so straightforward, my first time using it I was able to figure everything out and complete my LLC taxes for both federal and state in a few hours myself using the numbers from my WAVE accounting software. I do keep up weekly with my accounting entries and have experience working in finance, so I prefer to save my money by doing my own taxes with up to date software. But it does require keeping up on the laws to make sure you are not missing out on deductions.
4. LLC creation - using Northwestern will save you a lot. Forget Zen Business, Legal Zoom and what have you. Save yourself from having to transfer registered agents later.

Also, you can file the docs yourself and save even more. The proceses usually are not that difficult and the charge for convenience is steep.

5. Lactation Education Resources has inexpensive and high quali training on lactation. I spent WAY too much on all kinds of trainings when I began, including multiple doula trainings on top of NCS training, CLC training, etc. I honestly don’t think my clients care. Lol. I am even a licensed massage therapist and not one client has asked for a massage as a night doula.

But more importantly I didn’t get much out of either of the doula training programs took. The CLC training was amazing, but I effectively learned what I needed to support doula clients with the LER training that was over $800 less. So, unless you have money to burn, I don’t recommend spending the extra thousands of dollars I spent on trainings up front. Keep it in your emergency fund and just get the bare essentials. You can always take more training later once you are established.

6. get a business credit card asap and put all trainings, client gifts and tools of the trade etc on it as you get cash back.

That is all I can think of right now…hope others share some tips!