he end of the year is just around the corner. As we make our way into the 3rd quarter it is time to ask yourself how you can save money and finish out the year in a strong financial state. IT is essential to businesses.We’ve written about this at length in our other blog posts, but where is IT not essential? Where can we all save a little money and become more efficient at the same time? We’ve compiled a few steps you can take to do this.

1. Go Remote

Ok. It might not be possible for all business models, however think about why this is such a popular trend. With large companies like Buffer, Basecamp and Upworthy all going remote it is becoming a mainstream method of running a business. And why not? When you go remote you instantly cut a number of costs: Office rent, Internet, electricity, and coffee just to name a few. When you move your physical infrastructure to the cloud, all of your employees can access whatever they need from their smartphones or laptops.

2. Go Green

If you aren’t ready to go remote, which will definitely save your business money, consider going green. ‘Going Green’ is a buzzword people use to mean ‘saving energy’, but it should also mean saving money! Switching your office lights to LEDs saves energy and money, recycling toner cartridges gives you cashback, you can get tax breaks for decreased energy use and in some states the government is subsidizing solar panels. So go green, for the planet and for your bank account!

3. Clarify Costs

This is plain old common sense. As the year comes to a close, do a fall cleaning and check your inventory. Review your infrastructure, streamline your processes, root out waste and do a financial review of all your expenses. If you can’t manage the time to do this yourself you can hire a professional to do this review for you. The money it takes to hire someone might be half or a third of what you could be saving over the next year.

What other money saving tricks do you use? Let us know in the comments below.