Business Resolutions - Small Business Savings While Going Green part 2

Well, we're through the first month of the new decade and hopefully everyone is hangin in there with your new year's resolution. Whether it be to lose weight, quit smoking, or save money, all personal resolutions lead to a positive result (hopefully anyway), so stick with it.

How about resolutions for your business? I bet not too many people think about this, but why not? The new year is all about new beginnings, and I'm sure if you took some time to think about it, there would be a number of changes you could make to help your business run more efficiently. It's not too late to make a new year's resolution for your business, and I thought I'd help you out with a couple friendly suggestions:

1. Reduce spending. Here's a resolution I'm sure every business could afford. 2. Go Green. Not only is this good for the environment, it can help to reduce costs.

So how do you implement these resolutions? Well, I'm glad you asked! There are a great deal of tools and resources available to help businesses, as well as households, reduce costs and become more eco-friendly. For starters, you can check out CouponShack's Small Business Savings and Go Green blogs, where Sok outlines a number of helpful hints and tips. Additionally, here are a few more ways to go green and reduce spending.

In one of his previous posts, Sok discussed vampire or phantom power which is energy that's used by electronics and appliances that are kept running or idle. The remedy for eliminating phantom power is simply to turn off or unplug these items when you're not using them. A power strip is the easiest way to accomplish this because with the flip of one switch you can turn off five or six devices. Well the EcoStrip 2.0 from Smarthome takes the convenience of a power strip one step further and makes reducing phantom power that much easier. The EcoStrip 2.0 is USB controlled and acts as a normal power strip and surge protector for your computer and peripheral devices. But because it's USB controlled, when your computer is shut off it automatically shuts down all the peripheral devices as well. So this means at the end of the day when you shut down your computer, you will also be turning off your printer, fax, copier, or any other peripheral device that would normally drain idle power if left on. You might not think that phantom power adds that much more to your energy bill, but reduce it for a month and you'll be surprised at the savings.

Another great tool to utilize if you want to make your business more eco-friendly is DocuSign which is a service that allows you to send, receive, and electronically sign important documents and contracts. Now, I love this service because it not only reduces the use of paper, it allows you to network, negotiate, and close deals faster, and on a much broader scale. For instance, I could send a contract from New York to a client in California and he or she could sign it and have it back to me that same day. This process would normally require either one of us flying cross country, or waiting a couple weeks for snail mail. DocuSign allows your business to run just a little smoother, and would certainly reduce the monthly cost of paper, not to mention you'd be going green!

New year's resolutions often take time and don't always yield immediate results. They require planning, implementation, and stick-to-itness. Make this year one of positive change, both on a personal and occupational level. By reducing costs and going green, you'll be surprised at the changes you can make!

Small Business Savings While Going Green part 1