These days, early-stage startups and unicorns alike face stiff competition to get ahead and scale up. To keep up with the company’s growth, founders tend to take on more than they can handle. This could result in unnecessary financial and administrative issues that can get in the way of innovation and efficiency一particularly in the early stages where startups may operate with a lean team.
Unnecessary overhead costs could potentially leak through the cracks if you’re not looking too closely, which might hamper your startup’s growth.
But what if there is a way to solve the pain points you’re experiencing?
To avoid the usual pitfalls that could bog down your startup's longevity, we examine the potential overhead costs that’s unnecessarily draining your capital and the ways you can avoid them with the help of Aspire.
But first, what are overhead costs?
Overhead costs is the money you need to spend to run your business. This could include unavoidable expenses such as rent, software subscription plans, electricity bills, digital marketing tools, even the transportation fees needed to get you to and fro meetings.
It is highly important to factor in overhead costs as it will give you a more accurate picture of your business expenses and revenue.
How can founders reduce overhead costs using Aspire?
Here are some of the ways your company can achieve its full potential and save on unnecessary overhead costs by utilizing Aspire’s suite of financial services. Let’s dive in.
- Master team expenses with multi-cards
Gone are the days of the dreaded sharing of that sole credit card for all your business expenses. Not only is it unsecure as it involves sharing OTPs with other team members, it also does not give you the important insights you need on how much money is moving throughout your business. Unnecessary expenses could potentially skip detection without transparent insights on your company’s overall spending.
The Aspire Card allows you to move faster by issuing cards for your entire team quickly and instantly. Set spending limits and varying permissions so you’ll never go over-budget. On top of that, you can easily keep track of your team expenses and account activities via your synced Aspire Business Account. Most importantly, you can cancel or freeze the cards should there be a need to.
- Pay attention to FX fees
Have you taken a closer look at how much your credit card company charges for each international payment you’re received or sent? Overlooking sneaky FX fees could be what’s adding up to unnecessary overhead costs as they can be avoided altogether, saving your business more money in the long run.
Aspire’s FX rates are unmatched as it is radically low and comes with 100% transparency, so you’ll always know the real cost upfront. Inbound transfers are pegged at a low transparent fee of 0.5% while outbound transfers are set at the mid-market rate.
- Spot unwanted subscriptions from a mile away
If you’re running a startup, chances are you are juggling numerous SaaS subscription plans for a variety of functions, whether it’s marketing, HR, tech, customer service, sales and more. However, if you’re relying on a single credit card for these recurring payments, there’s a higher chance that you might be overlooking payments that your business no longer needs. The lack of insights could also mask the fact that you might be overpaying for certain subscriptions when there are more affordable alternatives out there.
As Aspire Cards are unlimited, you can assign a different card for each spend category, allowing you to keep track of how much of your money is actually going to the different vendors each and every month. The real-time insights can empower you to make the best financial decisions for your business, resulting in more money saved that would otherwise go under the radar.
- Optimize your cash flow by automated bill payments
Overlooking bill payments or paying a bill past its due date could add up to your overhead costs due to the snowballing interest fees. This could easily be a recurring issue if your finances are disorganized, resulting in more money down the drain where it could be better spent growing your business.
Use Aspire to maximize your cash flow by paying invoices exactly on their due date so you’ll never have to worry about overdue bills ever again. To save on time, you can automate these payments as Aspire does the work for you, sparing you from the laborious tasks of keeping track of countless payments. Better yet, it seamlessly syncs with your accounting software, giving you real-time visibility on all your payments.
Business finance made simple with Aspire
Ready to take full control of your startup’s finances? Let us help you get started.
With the Aspire Business Account, startup founders can gain access to a plethora of features that will help simplify the way you manage your business finances. Virtual corporate cards, accounting integrations, automated bill payments, expense reimbursement has never been this simple.
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