Starting your own business is exciting but tough! You are lucky you have found something you are passionate enough about to invest time and energy, as well as money in. You may have saved enough capital to start your business, but we all know how anxious a person can be for their first sales to come in so they can get a return on their investments as quickly as possible.

Practicing prudence in all of your business decisions is a good habit to start in order to keep a healthy bottom line. One way you can effectively do this is to minimize your costs – whether they are fixed costs, operational costs, the cost of your goods themselves, or even your payroll costs. Whatever area it may be, if you can do without it, then make the decision to do so. Evaluate the overall value you can gain from an investment before pushing through with it.

Here are some ways you can keep your costs at a minimum for your startup business:

1. Defer spending on heavy equipment.

If there is a way you can rent heavy equipment, or have a third party manufacturer produce goods for you initially, it may be wiser to do this first and test the market before investing in buying your own machines or manufacturing plants. See how responsive your customers will be and how frequently you make conversions before considering these hefty capital investments. Also consider how much more you will be saving if you handled your own manufacturing, or owned your own delivery vehicles, instead of renting what you needed.

2. Consider your real estate rentals and how you can save.

Would it be wiser to own your own office space or rent first? Do you even have to have your own unit or would a coworking space be more efficient for your needs? These have shared common areas, utilities, and maintenance, plus even shorter lock-in periods, so you don’t have to commit as long as the conventional commercial rental agreements require you to.

If you need warehouse space, is it wiser to have your own facility built or bought, or would it be more cost-efficient to rent first, or even for the long run? Consider the sustainability of the whole exercise and which options are more cost-efficient for your needs as well.

3. Hire only what or who you can afford.

Be wise with your staff as payroll is every business’s biggest investment – not just financially but opportunity cost-wise as well. Make sure you only start hiring when you can actually afford it. Also, hire people who will be happy with what you can offer so as not to compromise on quality of work or output. It will cost you more in the long run to cover up for their mistakes if they are half-hearted about the job.

If you can outsource, do that first. It may be more cost-efficient to outsource peripheral services and hire people on a per project basis instead of offering contract-based permanency at the outset.

These are three of the basics you can start with in considering how to keep your costs as low as possible. Considering you are just starting out, it would be wise to take care of your finances from the very beginning and have enough to sustain you for the long run.