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How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips)

3/7/2008

98 comments

NOTE: I’m no longer blogging, but rather sending my thoughts, advice and insider information to my friends via email.

If you would like to get my thoughts by email visit www.jasonnation.com to signup.

[ UPDATE: This post caused some big debate over at TechCrunch. I respond here with the blog post titled "can you work at a startup and have a life?" I updated #11 to make my point a little less harsh, more true to my true feelings ]

The HowTo team at Mahalo has been an amazing surprise effort. We didn’t plan on making howto articles, but when we built various how to search pages we realized that many howto articles were, well, lacking. So, we started building select ones where we thought we could help. This one on how to save money is very good.

I’ve got a bunch of tips on how to do this for business. Among them:

  1. Buy Macintosh computers, save money on an IT department
  2. Buy second monitors for everyone, they will save at least 30 minutes a day, which is 100 hours a year… which is at least $2,000 a year…. which is $6,000 over three years. A second monitor cost $300-500 depending on which one you get. That means you’re getting 10-20x return on your investment… and you’ve got a happy team member.
  3. Buy everyone lunch four days a week and establish a no-meetings policy. Going out for food or ording in takes at least 20-60 minutes more than walking up to the buffet and eating. If you do meetings over lunch you also save that time. So, 30 minutes a day across say four days a week is two hours a week… which is 100 hours a year. You get the idea.
  4. Buy cheap tables and expensive chairs. Tables are a complete rip off. We buy stainless steel restaurant tables that are $100 and $600 Areon chairs. Total cost per workstation? $700. Compare that to buying a $500-$1,500 cube/designer workstation. The chair is the only thing that matters… invest in it.
  5. Don’t buy a phone system. No one will use it. No one at Mahalo has a desk phone except the admin folks. Everyone else is on IRC, chat, and their cell phone. Everyone has a cell phone, folks would rather get calls on it, and 99% of communication is NOT on the phone. Savings? At least $500 a year per person… 50 people over three years? $75-100k
  6. Rent out your extra space. Many folks have extra space in their office. If you rent 5-10 desks for $500 each you can cut your burn $2,500 to $5,000 a month, or $30-60,000 a year. That’s big money.
  7. Outsource accounting and HR—such a no brainer.
  8. Don’t buy everyone Microsoft Office–it’s too much money. Put Office on three or four common computers and use Google Docs.
  9. Use Google hosted email. $50 or free per user…. how can you beat that?!?! Why screw with an exchange server!?!?
  10. Buy your hardest working folks computers for home. If you have folks who are willing to work an extra hour a day a week you should get them a computer for home. Once you get to three hours of work a week from home you’re at 150 hours a year and that’s a no brainer. Invest in equipment *if* the person is a workaholic.
  11. Fire people who are not workaholics. don’t love their work… come on folks, this is startup life, it’s not a game. don’t work at a startup if you’re not into it–go work at the post office or stabucks if you’re not into it you want balance in your life. For realz.
  12. Jura espresso machineGet an expensive, automatic espresso machine at the office. Going to starbucks twice a day cost $4 each time, but more importantly it costs 20 minutes. Buy a $3-5,000 Jura industrial, get the good beans, and supply the coffee room with soy, low fat, etc. 50 people making one trip a day is 20 hours of wasted time for the company, and $150 in coffee costs for the employees. Makes no sense.
  13. Stock the fridge with sodas—same drill as above.
  14. Allow folks to work off hours. Commuting sucks and is a waste of time for everyone. Let folks start at 6am or 11am and you’ll cut their commute in half (at least in LA).
  15. Go to each of your vendors every 6-9 months and ask for 10-30% off. If half of them say yes you’ll save 5-15% on fixed costs. People will give you a discount if they think they are going to lose the business.
  16. Don’t waste money on recruiters. Get inside of linkedin and Facebook and start looking for people–it works better anyway.
  17. Really think about if you need that $15,000 a month PR firm. Perhaps you can get a PR consultant to work on 2-3 projects a year for $10-15k each and save 75%. More PR firms are wasted half the year while you build up your product anyway.{I’m going to add a couple more of mine as I remember them }
  18. Outsource to middle America: There are tons of brilliant people living between San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York who don’t live in a $4,000 one bedroom apartment and pay $8 to dry clean a shirt–hire them!

Anyone else have startup money saving tips? I will post them below as they come in…

  1. Peter Rojas of RCRDLBL: You probably don’t need to rent an office, at least not at first. It’s really easy to collaborate online, and unless you have a really compelling reason for everyone being in the same place at the same time, you should save your money for as long as you can get away with it. Plus it’ll force you to hire people who don’t need to be micromanaged.
  2. Pat Phelan gives a ton of advice including: a) No company cars, b) put your HQ in the burbs to save 50% on rent, c) Blog instead of hiring a PR firm, d) let one person book flights since it’s an art, e) keep conference calls to a minimum (amen to that!).
  • http://www.deserthighwayriders.com/archives/6075 The New Work-Life Balance | mesothelioma

    [...] Crunch recently posted a few controversial articles in reference to Jason Calcanis’s post about the necessity of hiring workaholics in a start-up. Mike Arrington said, “You should hire [...]

  • http://www.diariodeunpm.com/2008/08/mas-monitores-mas-productivos/ Diario de un PM » Más Monitores, Más Productivos

    [...] algunos meses leía un artículo publicado inicialmente por Jason Calacanis y traducido al español por Alec Oxenford acerca de como ahorrar dinero implementando tips rápidos [...]

  • http://www.thecreativeconnector.com/a-recap-of-favorite-posts-interviews-and-links/ A Recap of Favorite Posts, Links and Interviews » The Creative Connector – Connecting Ideas in Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital

    [...] How to save money running a startup (By Web Entrepreneur Jason Calacanis) [...]

  • Dean Gebert

    #8 – Or use OpenOffice. You may see some hiccups, when converting from their proprietary file naming system and MSFT Office, so convert to *.pdf before sending outside thecompany.

    #17 – Couldn’t agree more. I’ve never hired a PR firm, but have fired a few that I’ve been saddled with. You ought to link back to your article…

    http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/jason-calacanis-on-how-to-get-pr-for-your-startup-fire-your-pr-company

  • http://www.mindu.co.il Shlomi Shlush

    a) If your startup requires a servers farm, think about leasing the equipment rather than buying it.

  • http://www.wellnessaid.com WellnessAid

    Keep a close eye on your cash flow. Make sure that you make more money than spend. Even if you have to borrow initially, calculate when your inflow will become bigger than outflow.

    Another point is to use creative leverage to your advantage through cross-promotion (cross-marketing) with non-competing businesses. This idea can be expanded further, for example sharing office, staff and doing other activities in a cooperative way.

  • http://www.adveho.net/?p=105 Jason Calacanis – work hard and succeed. don’t and fail | small fish, big pond

    [...] Calacanis has more advice on “How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips)“ here [...]

  • http://twodayslate.com ://

    I like #18. Thank you. :)

  • Mark

    $5,000 espresso machine? I love it.

    However, by the 90/10 rule you can get one (almost) as
    good for much less.

    And a $5,000 espresso machine is going to offer a strong
    incentive for one of the founders to make sure the
    business fails, so s/he can end up taking the machine
    home in a couple years. Don’t tell me you didn’t have
    that thought in the back of your mind. I sure would.

    Also, one room studios do not cost $4,000 in San Francisco.
    Nor do people working at startups in SF need to dry clean
    their shirts. That is just ridiculous.

    Macs/monitors/meetings/outsourcing/Google Docs/no phone system:
    absolutely, 100% spot on.

  • http://www.charlasweb.com/2008/10/19/como-ahorrar-dinero-en-tu-startup/ Como ahorrar dinero en tu startup – CharlasWeb

    [...] Jason Calanacis da varios consejos de como bajar costos y ahorrar dinero en una pequeña empresa. [...]

  • http://notphil.com Philipp Pfeiffenberger

    “Outsource to middle America: There are tons of brilliant people living between San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York who don’t live in a $4,000 one bedroom apartment and pay $8 to dry clean a shirt–hire them!”

    I run a startup out of SF and pay $1000/month in rent, shop at farmers markets and live comfortably. I’m not saying that nobody meets your stereotype, but it’s definitely not the norm.

  • http://www.devgrow.com/development/how-to-save-money-when-starting-a-business/ How To Save Money When Starting A Business | DevGrow – Design, Develop and Grow

    [...] Calcanis provided some really useful tips today about how to save money when running a startup.  While they’re great tips, a lot of them don’t apply to budding entrepreneurs who are [...]

  • Wayne B

    “Buy Macintosh computers, save money on an IT department”

    Pfffft. Yeah, and don’t forget to buy puppies too. Puppies
    make everyone happy, therefore they will work harder.

  • Frank Williams

    I actually made a list of tips for making a startup (compared to running one) not too long ago.

    Just published an updated version on DevGrow:
    http://tinyurl.com/56p5rh

  • http://www.breckyunits.com Breck Yunits

    For Tip #8: Don’t buy MS Office, get the free 60 day trial instead. That will give each employee 60 days to test whether it would be essential to them.

  • http://google.com sh3l1

    Buy Macintosh computers, save money on an IT department.

    More like spend gratutious amounts of money on
    incompatible hardware, be unable to make small upgrades in
    the future thus spending more money in the long run.

  • potato

    Agreed on all except 2 points: lunch and coffee. At my previous
    job coffee and lunch breaks were invaluable time to tear yourself
    away from the monitor and get some much needed downtime. Your folks
    are working hard X hours a day, and can really use the 20 minutes to
    refresh their minds and clear the clutter.

    If you chain your developers to their desks – even if voluntarily,
    with great incentives, you will still suffer a loss of productivity.

  • cwillu

    Could make the text a bit darker? #999 on white is _really_ hard to read.

  • http://articles.bplans.co.uk/index.php/business-articles/starting-a-business/bootstrapping-your-way-to-success/402 Bootstrapping your way to success | Business Plan Help & Small Business Articles – Bplans.co.uk

    [...] examples can be found in Jason Calacanis’ excellent article called ‘How to Save Money running a Start-up’ and the article by Guy Kawasaki entitled ‘The Art of [...]

  • http://pymecrunch.com/calacanis-te-invita-a-ahorrar-invirtiendo Calacanis te invita a AHORRAR invirtiendo PymeCrunch »

    [...]  Artículo original: How to save money running a startup. [...]

  • Hema

    ———————–
    Hema

    Calacanis.com provided some useful tips today about how to save
    money running a start up. Some tips are very useful in my life.
    Thanks for your Tips Calacanis.

  • http://mytimemanagement.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/17-fakt-dobrych-tipov-ako-usetrit-peniaze-ked-zakladate-start-up/ 17 fakt dobrých tipov ako ušetriť peniaze, keď zakladáte start-up « My Time Management

    [...] Time management Nasledujúci článok je prebratý z blogu pána menom Jason Calacanis, ktorý pred časom vyvolal vo svete bloggerov veľký rozruch. Prečo? Navrhuje napríklad z firmy [...]

  • Tamara

    I just got an ebook for under $20, that tells you where to find free software, antiviruse, spam protection, VOIP, games and and and. It claims that if you use all the tips, you’ll save up to $20 000. I’m gonna see if I can do that! Check it out at http://www.best-free-stuff-online.com.

  • http://madebusiness.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/17-tips-on-how-to-save-money-running-a-startup/ 17 tips on how to save money running a startup « Madebusiness’s Blog

    [...] tips on how to save money running a startup 17 tips on how to save money running a startup. From the CEO of [...]

  • Pranav

    Hi,
    You have some intersting tips. Could you please explain your first tip (Buy Macintosh computers, save money on an IT department) with some details. I have mostly been a PC user and am not aware of the savings of the IT department.

    I don’t follow your blog, so I would appreciate if you could e-mail me the details or when you provide the answer here.

    Thnaks,
    Pranav

  • http://indoband.wordpress.com blowind

    hii

    thanks for your advice
    could you tell me where to buy it best

  • http://www.joanpinyol.com/2008/12/14/jason-calcanis/ The Joan Pinyol Blog » Jason Calcanis

    [...] Posts How to save money monney running a startup [...]

  • http://www.bzkicks.com/blog/2008/12/dumb-moneygood-money-start-series-36/ Dumb Money/Good Money (Start Series 3/6) | BZKICKS – the blog

    [...] Bring in lunch a couple times per week •    By an espresso machine – taken from “How to save money running a startup – 17 really good tips” •    Have cereal in the office at all times – taken from the google playbook •    [...]

  • http://techiteasy.org/2008/12/19/the-how-to-furnish-your-startup-conundrum-revisited/ The “how to furnish your startup” conundrum, revisited « Tech IT Easy

    [...] 19, 2008 About 6 months ago, or longer, Jason Calacanis wrote an essay about what he viewed as the optimal setup, furniture-wise, for the productivity centre that is a [...]

  • http://jeff.henshaw.org/?p=172 Jeff Henshaw’s Hog Blog » My top 5 for running a tech startup

    [...] startup. It seems to have kicked off with Jason Calacanis, the founder of Mahalo, posting about “How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips)” It was a great post with some good ideas, but people knee-jerked at some of the work ethic [...]

  • http://www.onlyiwillremain.com Make Save Money

    Starbuck’s will really end up setting you back. Consider:
    $5 per day (the average cost of a latte x 7 days = $35 per week

    $35/week = $150/month

    $150 per month invested at a rate of 10% annual return =

    1 year = $1,885
    2 years = $3,967
    5 years =$11,616
    10 years = $30,727
    15 years = $62,171
    30 years = $339,073
    *40 years = $948,611*

    http://www.finishrich.com/free_resources/fr_lattefactor.php

    Avoid the Siren!

  • http://www.solostartup.com/2008/03/08/working-at-a-startup-and-also-having-a-life/ Working at a Startup and Also Having a Life | Solo Startup

    [...] on the web regarding this type of personality. It all started with Jason Calcanis’ post, How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips) which was picked up by TechCrunch and the post, Calacanis Fires People Who Have A Life. To which, [...]

  • http://www.madeisgood.com/blog/?p=24 Save money on a new startup « Made Business

    [...] nice tips on keeping a firm grip on that startup budget and how to use it [...]

  • http://tiadpeterson.com/2008/03/how-fire-people-who-arent-workaholics-started-a-blog-war/ How “fire people who aren’t workaholics” started a blog war | Tia D. Peterson

    [...] post detailing the blog war that started when Mahalo founder Jason Calcanis posted about money-saving tips for startups. Really, some of the tips are at least worth a thought. Others are just silly. And for real, the [...]

  • h

    Someone who is a workaholic or spends long hrs at the job might not necessarily be a more dedicated employee. They might just have poor time management skills. People who are incredibly productive and focused can accomplish a lot in 6-8 hrs a day. If they need to work over the weekend then they aren’t managing their time well or your project schedules aren’t realistic.

    Of course, you work 7 days a week. It is your company! Why would anyone who doesn’t have equity in your company want to work so hard to make you rich?

  • http://www.ehow.com/how_4694593_makeovers-hairstyles-using-own-photo.html cindy

    great tips! funny too

  • http://gunson.ca/blog/2008/03/12/throwing-walls/ Gillianic Tendencies » Blog Archive » Throwing walls

    [...] called Fire the workaholics. The author was responding to another person’s list of tips on how to save money in a startup company, where the tip in question was to fire those employees who were not workaholics (since amended to [...]

  • http://bigtechnical.com/ butter

    thanxs for the details mate. usually helpful

  • http://bigtecnical.com sam

    thanxs for putting these tips out here,

  • http://blog.ftofani.com/2009/como-melhorar-o-seu-ambiente-de-trabalho/ Como melhorar o seu ambiente de trabalho | blog.ftofani.com

    [...] E depois de uma indireta sútil (já que ele não me segue e não me conhece mesmo) do Fábio Seixas via twitter, já que ele não viu o link acima onde eu mencionava a fonte, segue aqui a fonte original. [...]

  • http://www.propagandamt.com.br/cronicas/como-melhorar-o-seu-ambiente-de-trabalho/ Como melhorar o seu ambiente de trabalho | Propaganda MT | Um Estado de criatividade…

    [...] Eu vi no FTofani, que traduziu do Calacanis. [...]

  • Luco

    dude, seriously. you tell people to respect the HR and THEN do the hiring in Facebook? don’t you know how HR works?

  • http://video.tictop.net/mediatheque2/2008/03/10/bureau-et-chaise/ bureau et chaise | MEDIATHEQUE2010.FR – PROSPECTIVES

    [...] quelques conseils débiles sur les économies à faire dans votre start-up, l’entrepreneur Jason Calacanis donne quelques conseils intéressants pour l’organisation du [...]

  • http://www.drama20show.com/2009/02/20/my-condolences/ My Condolences : The Drama 2.0 Show

    [...] of living the workaholic startup life he argued is all but a prerequisite for employees, he has traveled the [...]

  • http://rafaelalcalde.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/links-for-2009-02-22/ links for 2009-02-22 « Rafael Alcalde Cazorla

    [...] How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips) « The Jason Calacanis Weblog (tags: business jaratec startup) [...]

  • Danielle

    Two thumbs up for money saving tip #6. In New York, people are already doing this – renting out office space to save money. In addition, people are saving money on commuting and travel by using video conferencing and teleconferencing from companies like http://www.24conference.com. These tips have been very helpful, thanks!

  • Dan

    Here’s one: barter for services. Go to places like http://services4stock.com and get advertising, lawyers, etc, without spending cash – great way to cut back on startup costs.

  • http://smari.yaxic.org/blag/2009/03/05/radically-distributed-startup/ Smári McCarthy`s blagoblag on Yaxic.org :: Radically distributed startup

    [...] is something I’ve been planning on doing for a while now. (See also: fire the workaholics, 17 really good tips) Don’t think it’s going to happen for several more months.. but it’s worth [...]

  • Matt V.

    Good post, BTW I am a MAC user and I also use Google Apps, so couldn’t agree more with you. Here is what I wanted to add. If the company requires its employees to travel for business technically speaking the company could own all of the awards associated with this travel, here is how this could be done. Fist set up company credit cards, you can use something like Wright Express. Second you can require employees to create company reward account with airlines, hotels and car rental. The employees could then securely share all of their rewards with the company’s travel agent via http://www.AwardWallet.com what this website does is it tracks rewards for people and allows sharing of this reward information. It will also tell you if some rewards are going to expire, which is very nice. So this way some of the travel that the company books could be done using those reward points instead of spending cash. This alone could save a lot of money. Hope this helps.

  • http://www.BendYourBuck.com Brandon

    Great post.. i am actually taking some of these into consideration

  • http://bestmovies.100besteverything.com Linda Moore

    Umm, I’m not sure you’ll save money buying Macs. Fewer people
    know how to use them rather than PCs, unless you’re in an
    arty industry.

  • http://SaveFewBucks.Blogspot.com Save Few Bucks

    All practical tips, especially the one related to coffee. Thats a big waste of money, and time.

  • http://www.lonegunman.co.uk/2009/03/17/13-17-tips-for-startups/ 13 + 17 Tips for Startups » Lone Gunman

    [...] How to Save Money Running a Startup, by Jason Calacanis of Mahalo, Weblogs, and Silicon Alley. Purely financial, this post details some simple ways to save money running a startup. Many may not be suitable, but you can get the general gist of it. Permalink|Comments RSS Feed – Post a comment|Trackback URL. [...]

  • http://www.e27.sg/2008/03/10/some-timely-advice-for-needy-entrepreneurs/ Some Timely Advice for Needy Entrepreneurs » e27 – Discovering Web Innovation in Asia

    [...] Calacanis, the CEO of Mahalo.com, a human powered search engine, recently blogged about “How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips)“. In his post he talks about money saving techniques like investing in chairs instead of [...]

  • http://codepad.classhelper.org/money-saving-tips-from-around-the-web/193/ Money-Saving Tips From Around the Web at Codepad – The ClassHelper.org™ Blog

    [...] Calacanis.com – How to Save Money Running a Startup – If you’re involved in a startup business, you’re keenly aware of the need to keep expenses down. Why not add a few more tricks to your repertoire? Ideas include buying cheap tables and expensive chairs (ergonomics), skipping a phone system purchase, only putting MS Office on shared computers and using Google Docs (I personally prefer OpenOffice), along with a slew of other ideas. Some are fairly controversial, but as always, take what you can use and leave the rest. [...]

  • jessica

    More like spend gratutious amounts of money on
    incompatible hardware, resimler be unable to make small upgrades in
    the future thus spending more money in the long run

  • http://blog.roncastry.com/2009/03/26/not-just-for-startups-for-big-companies-too/ theGullBlodder » Blog Archive » Not just for startups, for big companies, too

    [...] Here are his ⇒17 tips for a startup to save money⇐. [...]

  • http://www.freepursuits.com/2009/03/30/how-flexible-is-being-an-internet-startup-founder/ How flexible is being an Internet startup founder? – Free Pursuits

    [...] prevailing attitude (in Silicon Valley California, at least) is that only workaholic-led startups succeed. Whether or [...]

  • http://www.webguild.org/2008/03/17-startup-tips-start-a-blog-fight.php 17 Startup Tips Start A Blog Fight

    [...] recent post by internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis suggested 17 tips for startups to use to save money and maximize productivity. These included [...]

  • http://iit-kec.com/media-room/a-couple-of-my-rules-for-startups/ A Couple of My Rules for Startups | IIT-Knapp Entrepreneurship Center

    [...] buddy Jason had a GREAT post about rules for startups. Read it, love it learn [...]

  • http://africantech.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/how-to-save-money-running-a-startup-17-really-good-tips/ How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips) « Africantech’s Blog

    [...] Buy cheap tables and expensive chairs. Tables are a complete rip off. We buy stainless steel restaurant tables that are $100 and $600 Areon chairs. Total cost per workstation? $700. Compare that to buying a $500-$1,500 cube/designer workstation. The chair is the only thing that matters… invest in it…More Here [...]

  • http://loan2009.net/ store

    what is mortgage? :)

  • http://www.lindqvist.com/b/snart-dags-for-kontor-igen Snart dags för kontor igen

    [...] som ser ut som frostat glas. Sedan tänkte jag att vi skulle satsa på råt 4 i Jason Calacanis 17 goda råd om hur man sparar pengar i startup-företag och satsa på riktigt bra kontorsstolar. Den här gången tänkte jag nämligen göra kontorsgrejen [...]

  • http://dowlive.com/corporate-jets-and-office-savings-212 Corporate jets and office expenditure savings | Dow Live Report

    [...] are many simple ways to cut back on expenditure and improve company profits. In Calacanis post on how to save money running a startup , step 8 can be made even better… instead of buying everyone Microsoft Office, and [...]

  • http://adirondackchairshub.info/story.php?id=6964 How to save money running a startup 17 really good tips The | adirondack chairs

    [...] How to save money running a startup 17 really good tips The Posted by root 7 minutes ago (http://calacanis.com) Buy cheap tables and expensive chairs tables are a complete rip off we buy stainless steel restaurant could you tell me where to buy it best comment by blowind december 12 2008 10 12 am powered by blog at wordpress com Discuss  |  Bury |  News | How to save money running a startup 17 really good tips The [...]

  • http://www.pyrameda.com Lav

    Thank you for the very useful article.

    Here is a link to another article about the top mistakes
    made by startups:

    http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html

  • http://startupdonutblog.co.uk/2009/06/30/bootstrapping-your-way-to-success/ Bootstrapping your way to success « Start Up Donut blog

    [...] examples can be found in Jason Calacanis’ excellent article called ‘How to Save Money running a Start-up’ and the article by Guy Kawasaki entitled ‘The Art of [...]

  • http://averyblog.com/entrepreneurship/great-startup-advice/ Great Startup Advice : averyBlog

    [...] How to save money running a startup from Jason Calacanis – I think the dustup over the "workaholics" comment is just people looking for links, pretty sure Jason meant people who love their job and are passionate. [...]

  • http://dontrepreneur.com/2009/07/19/the-official-curriculum-for-a-degree-in-startups/ The Official Curriculum for a Degree in Startups (1st Edition) « Dontrepreneur

    [...] How to Save Money Operating a Startup – Jason Calacanis ARTICLE – In addition to great advice like, “Buy cheap desks and expensive chairs”, Jason provides a great list of tips on how to spend less money on the things that don’t really help your business succeed. [...]

  • http://genuinechris.com/5-ways-to-crush-overhead-in-your-freelance-business/ Cutting Overhead In Your Freelance Business: — GenuineChris.com

    [...] Jason And Mark Talk about Startups. Tags: happiness, money, overhead [...]

  • james

    I found “outsource to middle america” rather amusing.
    Peoplesupport.com use to be in St. Louis before moving to Manila,
    and NetworkSolutions has a few buildings there too

  • http://www.thoughtclusters.com/2008/03/the-distinct-types-of-workaholics/ The Distinct Types of Workaholics | Thought Clusters

    [...] Calacanis, CEO of mahalo.com, recently generated some heated controversy over his statement “Fire people who are not workaholics” as part of a longer post about how to save money running a startup. While many people criticized [...]

  • http://www.hpsem.com/blog/http:/www.hpsem.com/blog/do-you-have-startup-mentality Do You Have ‘Startup Mentality’? | High Performance Search Engine Marketing

    [...] Calacanis wrote a tremendous blog post about how to save money running a startup. If an entrepreneur didn’t figure out how to save some money after reading Jason’s [...]

  • http://www.derekville.net/2008/03/21/jason-calacanis-and-his-human-powered-spam/ Jason Calacanis and his human powered spam « Derek Gathright's Blog

    [...] ready for primetime.  I’m really interested to see what Calacanis will have his army of undervalued & volunteer scrapers do over the next couple years to keep themselves in the game, and [...]

  • http://www.savemoneyhound.com Save Money Hound

    Some interesting tips on how to save money with a start up.
    Curious whether your formula has changed since your first
    start up.

  • http://www.hpsem.com Luke Brown

    Even though this post is over one year old, it’s worth even more now than when it was first written. than when it was written. I send this to people almost daily
    and the thanks I get for educating them is amazing. But it’s
    not me, it’s Jason’s ideas and thoughts. You get credit, as well
    you should. This should be in every entrepreneur’s brain.

    -Luke

  • http://www.premierfastenersolutions.com Stainless Steel Fasteners

    As a small Business owner of stainless steel products we use open source programs like open office from Sun Microsystems.

  • http://www.hpsem.com/blog/http:/www.hpsem.com/blog/are-you-a-billionaire-if-not-take-ones-advice Are You A Billionaire? If Not, Take One’s Advice | High Performance Search Engine Marketing

    [...] is on the ball. Take 5 minutes to read his advice regarding start up businesses. Read his friend Jason’s post, [...]

  • carol

    No matter what you earn, it’s easier than you believe to take control of your money. A few simple things done regularly can really make a lot of difference.

  • http://www.karyn.com.br/?p=55 Karyn Nassif | Dicas úteis de como montar uma empresa

    [...] MacLeod, Michael E. Gerber, Ben Casnocha, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, Marc Cuban, Brad Feld, Jason Calacanis, Marcel [...]

  • http://smallbiztrends.com/2009/09/startups-financial-tips-entrepreneurs.html Startup Financial Tips From Mark Cuban and 4 Other Entrepreneurs | Small Business Trends

    [...] Seek out discounts.  Not only should you watch every penny – but squeeze those nickels for more.  According to [...]

  • http://businesssmallstartup.com/2009/09/27/startup-financial-tips-from-mark-cuban-and-4-other-entrepreneurs/ Startup Financial Tips From Mark Cuban and 4 Other Entrepreneurs | Business Small Startup

    [...] Seek out discounts.  Not only should you watch every penny – but squeeze those nickels for more.  According to [...]

  • http://www.cogniance.com Michael Shraybman

    I’m a bit surprised that outsourcing actual product development is not one of the tips. I don’t mean traditional outsourcing destinations in Asia, where communication / coordination costs can quickly erase the benefits and slow down time-to-market, but rather high-value-for-money regions such as Eastern Europe, where you could find great and opinionated engineering and creative talent at a fraction of Silicon Valley rates, especially in this economy. As an added benefit, you’d free yourself of some of the worries related to scaling office space, etc.

  • http://entertainmentbookorlando.blogspot.com/ Denis

    I also use Open Office as the Microsoft alternative and have been comepletely happy with it. Good idea’s … many which I can use. Thanks

  • Andrew Waber

    The 17 tips you have given in the blog are really useful. Thank you for posting such a useful blog.

    http://letterdash.com/saver/how-to-save-money-on-your-domestic-electricity-bill

  • Rachel

    What do you mean by no meetings?

  • http://isakib.com/10-reasons-you-are-not-a-successful-entrepreneur/ 10 Reasons You Are Not A Successful Entrepreneur | Sakib Mahmud Aka Internet Inspiration

    [...] need to learn when to spend your money and when you should not. For example, if your employees want fancy desks or cubicles, when it will not help them do their job better, tell them no. But if a developer wants two [...]

  • http://ceciiil.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/37-signals-digital-natives-leadership-in-action/ 37 Signals : Digital Natives Leadership in action « Heavy Mental

    [...] have the overtime culture ? DHH openly takes on à Jason Calcanis when the latter recommends in his start-up management principles to only recruit [...]

  • http://www.earn40kamonth.com ianmalone

    thank for the tips you shared. it would be useful for people
    who are planning to manage a business.. it’s a great way of
    earning money if you know how to use it or manage it
    thanks

  • http://www.unwacky.com/2008/03/why-i-work-hard/ Why I work hard. | Unwacky

    [...] week, a well known silicon valley entrepreneur, Jason Calacanis, wrote a blog post about a few tips for start up companies on how to save money. There were some good things in there. [...]

  • http://www.sugarrae.com/valuable-financial-advice-for-startups/ Good Financial Advice for Startups – Sugarrae

    [...] money and hiring processes or risk failing that came as a result of a post by Jason Calacanis about how startups can save money that was then sensationalized and heavily criticized. The debate reminded me of the thoughts on [...]

  • http://www.productivity501.com/fire-or-keep-the-workaholics/529/ Fire (or keep) the Workaholics | Productivity501

    [...] while back Jason Calacanis has list of things to save money in a startup. One of his points was to fire people who aren’t workaholics. David from 37 Signals responded with a post saying that you should fire the people who are [...]

  • http://sachinpat.wordpress.com sachinpat

    Another great way to save money is to budget and allow yourself an allotted amount of money for the week – that fits into your budget. Then, take that amount out of the bank and ONLY spend the cash you have in your wallet.
    http://www.financeandmarkets.net/10-ways-to-save-money.html

  • http://www.saglikmoda.com sağlık moda

    [...] need to learn when to spend your money and when you should not. For example, if your employees want fancy desks or cubicles, when it will not help them do their job better, tell them no. But if a developer wants two [...]

  • http://www.abetterconnection.net/ Eric Myers

    Ive recently outsourced my company’s phones to a telephone answering service and have been very pleased. It has helped us cut back on costs and improve efficiency.

  • http://www.financialspreadbettingsystem.co.uk financial spreadbetting

    “Buy Macintosh computers” – Aren’t these more expensive than PCs?

  • http://www.instigatorblog.com/should-you-hire-workaholics-for-your-startup/2008/03/11/ Should You Hire Workaholics For Your Startup?

    [...] hubbub over Jason Calacanis’ post How to save money running a startup is completely absurd. Congratulations to Jason for causing a colossal sh*t storm where none should [...]

  • http://www.baileyswines.com Colin Hall

    This has to be the most realistic list that I’ve ever read. Cheap tables and expensive chairs … very nice. Adjusting working practices to suit your staff’s desire to work to their need for professional success is certainly a winner.

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English Bulldog

Hello, my name is Jason. Welcome to my blog on the interwebs. You can reach me on twitter @jason and by email at jason@calacanis.com. My Skype is jasoncalacanis, and my mobile phone is 310-456-4900.

I only pick up numbers I recognize, and in terms of emailing me, the best strategy is to write short, blunt and to the point requests. I can quickly respond to short messages, and many times I simply don't have the time to read five page pitches. In terms of taking meetings, I only do that after reviewing an actual product (not a business plan). So, the best time to ping me is when you have mockups or an alpha site. I don't read business plans, and I've never written one.

Other twitter accounts you can follow: Video Games, Open Angel Forum, and LAUNCH Conference & Newsletter

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