4 Business expenses small business owners often overlook

Anybody can start a business, but not everyone knows how to manage one. Money mismanagement is one of the biggest reasons why so many businesses fail and why financial planning should be viewed as one of the top milestones for success.

However, even when they have a plan in place, many business owners are simply unaware of expenses that could creep up. When these add up, they could severely affect your cash flow and even lead to insolvency. Let’s take a look at some business expenses small business owners often overlook.

Water Charges

If your business uses a lot of water in its processes, then you will have to pay special attention to water prices. This includes businesses like laundrettes, garages, and anything in the restaurant/agro-business. This is especially true if you’re located somewhere like Scotland where you can make significant savings on your water bill by taking advantage of the competition. There are plenty of services that will allow you to  compare prices between business water suppliers in Scotland and find the best one for your needs. Some will even go a step further and negotiate prices for you.

Training

This is another very common business expense a lot of start-up owners don’t think about. However, you might find yourself training employees only for them to leave after a few days - that is, if they even come back at all. You will have to pay not only for the employee’s time, but for the person training them as well. Not only that, but those who are in charge of training are often top employees which you can’t use while they are giving the training.

Also, you might have to invest a lot in internal resources if you’re in a process-heavy business. Some will choose to have a central computerised database and others will prefer manuals. Either way, it will cost you.

IT

Speaking of computerised systems, chances are you will also need to find someone to deal with your IT needs. You might not need to hire someone in-house for this, however. Outsourcing IT is very common and is a good option if your needs are limited. But you might need to hire someone full-time if you rely a lot on electronics or regularly deal with sensitive or proprietary information. This might also be the case if you’re running a hybrid team or if you want to implement a BYOD policy in your organisation.

Consulting

You also need to set money aside for outside help. There is no reason to jump into a new venture without benefiting from the expertise of a consultant. You might not need them every step of the way, but working with an IT consultant could allow you to identify security blind spots, for instance, or an expansion consultant could help you tell if you’re ready to take the next step.

These are just a few examples of common expenses many small business owners forget. Make sure that you take note of these and don’t hesitate to speak with an expert to know what else you can expect.