1. How Small Businesses Saved Money in 2011
Posted on December 8, 2011 by Usha Prasad
As a small business owner, every penny you save means a lot. Small business owners across
industries have made wise savings by adopting various methods to cut costs this year.
When LaShonda Rahming launched a new collaboration platform „All About Collaboration‟ in
March this year, he used resources from all over the world using a platform called odesk that can
be found at www.odesk.com.This service is very similar to elance.com where freelancers are
registered and businesses looking for talent. He has also co-authored a book ‘The next big
thing’, that was among the best sellers on Amazon.”I used them for everything from my intro
and outro for my video trailers, to book covers for my collaboration books, graphic work, and
joomla web design. They saved me so much money and continue to do so. I plan on using them
for my upcoming initiatives and have found great talent that I try to reuse,” said Rahming.
Zaria & Bella’s, a small gifts and collectibles shop in Downtown Schenectady, NY, saved a lot
on buying from local shops instead of big stores, used local flyers and social media for
advertisement.
“When we decided to open Zaria & Bella‟s, we had decided that in order to survive the economic
side of the business, we would have to build, beg and borrow all our display cases, cash wraps
and wall units. What we could not build ourselves we bought local for two reasons. First, we
wanted only to support local small business in our community and limit all purchases through
large box stores and second we knew buying close to home meant we could always get help if
something went wrong with a purchase. In one case, we saved 30 percent in buying our wall
© 2011 Apptivo Inc. All rights reserved.

2. units from a local dealer who had them in stock, and when we could not use them he accepted
them back at full value and minimal pick up fee. We would have otherwise been stuck with them
or had to deal with deliver charges and return charges from any other company,” says Lance
Dzintars, Member – Zaria & Bella’s LLC.
“To reduce advertising costs, we used local flyers, social media and blogs while limiting our pay
for click costs and by limiting the amount of sites used. We use whatever we can out of our
home, and daily we view what our customer base is looking for to cater specialty items towards
them. Otherwise, we offer online purchases, with store pick up, and we reuse all packing and
shipment to limit our expense,” adds Dzintars.
Chris Rovin and his co-founder saved money for their company we-search.org by doing all of
their web design. “Neither of us comes from a programming/technical background, so we were
very hesitant to do all of the work ourselves. After receiving a number of quotes for a site in the
$5,000 to $25,000 range, we decided to save some money and get a site together,” said Chris
Rovin.
“With a little Googling, we were able to get a functional site together using WordPress. Many
small business owners might be surprised how easy it is to get a pretty good site together. We
ended up saving the company thousands while learning a ton about web design — a very
valuable skill these days,” he added.
© 2011 Apptivo Inc. All rights reserved.

3. Small business Jimmy Beans Wool, a leading online knitting and crocheting store that ships
300-500 orders per day, saved money in 2011 by re-purposing it‟s dually- purposing and
everyday materials to act as marketing collateral and by buying in bulk.
“Jimmy Beans created and purchased in bulk mailers/packaging that include a knitting pattern
on the outside, which acts as take-home/extra for the customer that is actually of use to them and
also draws attention to the company‟s unique offering for every person that sees the package
during its journey to reach the customer. By dually-purposing the packaging and letting it be the
marketer, Jimmy Beans saved on its traditional marketing expenses. As an additional perk,
Jimmy Beans increased brand awareness and made customers very happy,” says Kaity Ocean of
Jimmy Beans Wool.
Looking at the experiences shared by small business owners in this post on how they saved
money this year, I am sure there are many of you, who have saved money in unimaginable ways.
Feel free to write to us and share your experiences.
We welcome your valuable comments and feedback.
© 2011 Apptivo Inc. All rights reserved.