Use it or Lose It: 3 Tips for Your Year End Budget

‘Tis the season for thankfulness, generosity and giving.

One thing that drives me crazy is seeing money go to waste. If you’re like me, you probably have some “use it or lose it” budget left over for the last few weeks of the year. If you don’t use it, it goes to waste. However, if you throw it at something just for the sake of spending it, that can be pretty wasteful too.

I put together a few tips to help you get the most bang for your end-of-year bucks:

1. Find opportunities to spend now, for work that can be delivered later. The end of the year is crunch time. You’re focused on closing deals, strategic planning and getting your house in order so you can try to enjoy the holidays. The last thing you have the time or energy for is a new project. So look for opportunities to spend your extra budget on products or services that you can utilize when things free up. Think of it as a sort of layaway for the future.

Pro Tip: One of my favorite “layaway” spend items is banking a little maintenance time with my various online tool providers. This way I have already budgeted the funds if I need help with my website, CRM or marketing automation (or updates to your digital parts catalog). I can bank some hours with vendors now for future use, so there’s no need to scramble to find the funds when I need them the most.

2. Invest in your people. ‘Tis the season for thankfulness, generosity and giving. Your team supports you year-round. Show them they’re appreciated with some small tokens of gratitude. If your company permits it and you can shuffle some miscellaneous expense dollars around, get creative and pass out movie tickets, gift cards or bottles of wine to your team. It will go and long way and be money well spent. Your employees are your best spokespeople, and when they feel they’re appreciated, they’ll be strong advocates for your company and your brand, helping you financially in the long run.

3. Go digital. For marketers, almost anything digital is a good bet for the end-of-year budget. It’s a quick and easy spend, with higher ROI than traditional expenses. Whether it’s some additional online ad spend, kickstarting your mobile app, or adding new products or features to your online catalog, you can’t go wrong putting extra dollars into digital.

I hope these tips inspired you to be smart about your end budget. Good luck and continued success!