Being in charge of a startup is a complex challenge as years may pass before you make it to your first investor. Fortunately, there’s a way to overcome the lack of funding by learning how to save on multiple areas of IT business. Even if you already have a decent source of funding, it will be extremely helpful to cut expenses and redistribute the money to a more important development sector. 

1. Outstaffing

With the help of modern IT outstaffing services, you can hire entire teams of professionals to accomplish your job. This approach to hiring remote talents is more cost-efficient than outsourcing. While both models look technically similar, the first one provides you with much more control over the process as you can directly manage remote employees. In simple terms, such a remote team feels like your own one, and you don’t face such outsourcing problems as poor code quality, violated deadlines, overinflated budgets, etc. The outstaffing model is already common for corporations, tech startups of any vector, SaaS companies, and more. 

2. Free Tools

We all know that paid business tools usually provide more features and better service. However, any IT worker also knows that there’s plenty of free online and offline tools for a variety of purposes. You can use: 

• free collaborative IDEs, 
• free tiers of popular cloud planners, 
• messengers, 
• Google Drive (15GB per person)

The number of free tools for accomplishing projects is immense. You only have to do little research by typing “Best free tools for … “

3. Don’t Hurry to Introduce Custom Software

If you run a software startup, you should realize that your unique idea (no matter how great it is) can be quickly mimicked by a larger developer while you are stuck on testing. You should focus on validating the idea first, which requires the use of the most basic tools to attract your first real-world customers. One of the best solutions is to purchase a cheap piece of software that is similar to yours and quickly adapt it for your purposes. You will have enough time to come up with a perfectly sleek custom platform later. 

4. Seek for Discounts

Many of us feel uncomfortable asking for a discount, especially when it comes to purchasing software, electronics, and subscriptions. The truth is that you must always ask for discounts as many sellers are willing to sell you the product or even give it to you for a longer trial period. They just don’t tell you this if you seem to be ready to pay the full price from the start. 

5. Search for Small Brands

Of course, you are in competition with other startups in your space, but what about the startups in other areas? How big are the changes they are developing a much better version of an expensive solution from a big brand and charge a significantly lower fee? Well, the chances are immense! Besides, you can use such collaborations as mutually beneficial cross-promotions. 

6. Share an Office / Ditch an Office

How much space do you really need to keep working efficiently? Maybe you need fewer rooms? If so, you can significantly cut your monthly rental costs by reducing the space of your office. Another option is to share an office with another company or even with your investors. There’s no shame in asking your investors for some support during the seeding period, and you’d better use this opportunity. Don’t stay for too long, though!

7. Grants & Competitions

Even if that startup across the street has a similar idea on a higher level than you, it might miss the opportunity to make a statement on one or more annual IT competitions. It’s usually quite cheap to take part, and the outcomes may include beneficial relationships, money prizes, and, of course, publicity. You should apply for IT grants to achieve more sources of income as well. Some of the opportunities will come from tech giants, by the way!

8. Test Marketing Strategies

An urge to invest in a loud marketing campaign can be very strong when you get your first big investment check, but you mustn’t go on without decent campaign testing. Run several small campaigns to gather the statistics and work on mistakes. This will save your budget. 

Think Over

Finding a cheaper and faster way to deliver a working product to your customer is one of the business essentials. The earlier your team adopts the philosophy of reasonable expense cutting, the more financially productive you will be in the future. Investors just love the ones who know how to save!