Richard

Whether you just launched your company or have been running it for years, making money last is always a challenge. There are so many tempting things that seem like they could help promote your brand or take your business to the next level. But the truth is, not every expense actually brings a return on the investment.

I have seen a lot of businesses accidentally waste funds on ideas that look good on the surface but don’t really do much for profits or growth. Then down the road, they wish they had that money back for when it was really needed. That’s why I wanted to share my thoughts on some common business expenses that you may want to reconsider or tweak before you add them to your budget.

Related: 10 Essential Startup Expenses, and 10 You Should Avoid

1. Expensive office decor and furniture

When first setting up a new office, it can be tempting to go all out and buy expensive furniture and decorations to make the office look great. While having a nice workspace is important, spending a ton of money on decor when you’re first starting out probably isn’t a good idea. Funky rugs, expensive art on the walls and super comfy lounge chairs in the break room sound nice, but they won’t directly help your business make money. It’s usually better to get basic, affordable furniture and spend money on things that will attract customers or clients instead. You can always upgrade the office look later when you have more money coming in.

2. Lavish company parties

Throwing big, fancy company parties can be a fun way to boost morale, but they can also be a major business expense if not done carefully. Before planning a blowout holiday bash or summer cookout, think about whether the cost is really worth it versus other ways you could spend the money. Consider hosting lower-key, affordable events instead of going all out at expensive venues and catering top-shelf food and drinks. Employee appreciation is great, but focus on building the business first before splurging too much on parties.

3. Unnecessary office space

Renting more office space than your business truly needs is wasting money that could be better spent elsewhere. If your company is still small with just a few employees working remotely most of the time or in a shared co-working space, you may not need a huge private office yet. Only expand your physical workspace as your employee count and on-site needs grow. Consider if a smaller, less expensive space could still meet your short-term needs to avoid overpaying for space sitting empty much of the time. Location can also affect rent prices, so evaluate if an equally good but less pricey area could work for you as well.

4. Overpaying for services

When first starting out, it’s easy to overpay for services since you likely have little negotiating experience yet. Make sure to get multiple quotes for services like website development, graphic design, legal help and more so you don’t get charged way more than necessary. Ask other local business owners for recommendations of reasonably priced service providers too. Additionally, confirm that your service providers will clearly outline the costs upfront so you aren’t shocked by unexpected extra fees later on.

Related: 8 Unconventional Ways to Cut Costs in Your Business

5. Unnecessary business insurance coverage

While proper insurance is important, not all types of policies are absolutely necessary for every business. Evaluate your specific risks and needs before just signing up for every coverage type an agent suggests. For example, you may not require international business travel insurance if you have no overseas plans yet. Confirm you only insure assets you truly own — like not paying to cover leased equipment you will return. Always shop around quotes too to avoid overpaying due to lack of knowledge. Note that understanding your insurance basics will help avoid wasting funds on unnecessary policies.

6. Expensive conferences

The chance to network sounds exciting, but understand that industry events require plane tickets, hotels, food expenses and time away from running the core business. Ensure any conference truly aligns with specific goals like making three deals or more. If your attendance won’t directly lead to quantifiable results, the major investment may not be worth it starting out. Consider cheaper local meetups first.

7. Business gifts and swag

Customized mugs, pens, luggage tags and other branded swag sure can look nice, but they may not directly improve your sales or service enough to justify the often hefty upfront costs. Consider lower-cost or digital-only alternatives like email signatures and social graphics when possible. You can, either way, spend your gift and swag money on proven marketing tactics or employee bonuses instead if your goal is pure business growth versus brand exposure. Quality clients will care more about your work than free tchotchkes.

Related: The 8 Most Common Areas of Overspending in Business

8. Wasteful office supplies

It’s easy to over-order basic office supplies in a quest for organizational perfection, especially at the start. But supplies have storage and expiration costs, so only buy what you will reasonably use within about six months to avoid waste. This goes for snacks and beverages, too. Also, take inventory before repurchasing to avoid duplicates sitting around unused. Remember you can always do smaller, more frequent supply orders as needed to cut back on excess. And don’t forget to look for lower-priced bulk or wholesale suppliers, which is better than always relying on major brands.

Hope this gives you all something to think about next time an inviting expense comes your way. Entrepreneurship is all about being scrappy — so get creative allocating funds strategically to where they’ll have the highest ROI for your unique goals first.

In a feature published Thursday, Costco Chairman Hamilton “Tony” James told Chief Executive Magazine that even though he’s been on Costco’s board for 36 years, he still loves attending the meetings.

“I find it fascinating,” James said in the Q&A. “The company is a great window on what’s going in the world of consumers, what they’re buying or not buying.”

And what they’re buying, in addition to the beloved $1.50 hot dog combo, are 10-carat diamonds and gold bars. (Wells Fargo analysts found in September that the company sells up to $200 million worth of gold bars monthly.)

Related: Would You Live Above a Costco? Thrive Living Is Building an Apartment Complex on Top of the Warehouse Chain

“A Porsche dealer in Seattle put their cars on the floor of a Costco, and they sold out in a week,” James said.

Costco had about 137 million paying members in 2024, and most, James said, are “average-income earners nationally” but the warehouse chain also has “affluent members with two times the average income.”

Those members allow the company to do “remarkable things” like selling more high-priced Dom Perignon Champagne than “anyone else” — and for decades. In 2001, for example, the then-director of wine at Costco told the Los Angeles Times that the warehouse chain was the “nation’s biggest retailer of Dom Perignon.”

Business Insider reports that, according to data from analytics firm Numerator, millennial and Gen X households with higher income preferred shopping at Costco over the competition.

Related: Costco Bulks Up Most Store Workers’ Paychecks to More Than $30 an Hour.

“We’ve always known we could move anything in volume if the quality was good and the price was great — Rolex watches, Dom Perignon, 10-carat diamonds,” James said.

“Affluent people love a good deal,” he added, though they aren’t only buying luxury items.

The company’s Kirkland brand is “the second-largest brand anywhere,” James notes.

Costco reported net sales of $19.51 billion for January 2025, an increase of 9.2 percent from the same period last year.

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Time moves differently for founders. It does not unfold in a predictable rhythm of hours and days but stretches and contracts under the weight of ambition, urgency and uncertainty. Entrepreneurs exist in a paradox: They work at relentless speeds, yet months vanish in an instant as they race toward their next milestone.

This phenomenon, which I call the Founder’s Time Dilation Effect, mirrors the physics of gravitational time dilation, where time slows under extreme gravitational forces or at high velocities. Founders, operating at what can feel like the speed of vision, experience a similar distortion. Their obsession with long-term impact lifts them above the everyday routine, altering their perception of time itself.

Related: 6 Habits That Help Successful People Maximize Their Time

A shift in perception: From employee to founder

I first recognized this shift when transitioning from an employee to an entrepreneur. As an employee, time felt structured defined by pay cycles, deadlines and predictable performance metrics. There was always another meeting, another review, another quarter. But as a founder, time became something else entirely. Every moment became a resource, measured not by the clock but by progress toward survival and success.

Breaking free from that structured existence was both exhilarating and daunting. The weight of decision-making, innovation and risk compressed time, leaving little room for anything that did not directly serve the mission. There was no waiting for the next quarter — everything had to happen now.

Elon Musk captured this mindset perfectly when he said, “If you need inspiring words, don’t do it.” Founders do not need external motivation because their internal drive dictates their pace. They experience time differently because every second counts.

The physics of founders: When vision distorts time

Physics tells us that time slows in strong gravitational fields or at extreme speeds. In much the same way, founders experience time distortion because they operate under relentless pressure while pushing forward at full velocity.

This effect does not eliminate gravity, though. Founders remain weighed down by existential business realities — funding, operations, payroll and execution. Jeff Bezos spoke candidly about Amazon’s early struggles, often describing how the company teetered on the edge of failure. He made critical decisions under extreme time pressure, knowing that survival depended on moving faster than the market.

This phenomenon is not exclusive to startup founders. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Effective Time Management highlights how even experienced business leaders must master time efficiency to maintain their competitive edge. Corporate executives face similar challenges, balancing operational urgency with long-term strategic execution. Satya Nadella’s transformation of Microsoft into a cloud-first company required navigating both immediate and future-oriented demands.

The founder’s duality: The Actor and the Observer

At the heart of the Founder’s Time Dilation Effect lies a cognitive duality that defines how entrepreneurs experience time:

• The Actor: The execution-focused self that operates in the now, making rapid decisions, solving problems and driving momentum. The Actor lives in compressed time, where days disappear in a blur of meetings, deadlines and crises.

• The Observer: The strategic self that steps back to analyze, course-correct and plan for the long term. The Observer sees time accelerating, feeling the pressure of dwindling runway and shrinking windows of opportunity.

Both roles are essential, but maintaining balance is difficult. The Actor risks burnout, and the Observer risks paralysis from over-analysis. A Journal of Applied Psychology study emphasizes the importance of leaders balancing action and reflection to improve decision-making and resilience under pressure.

This challenge intensifies for founders making the transition to CEO. How to Successfully Make the Leap from Founder to CEO explores how entrepreneurs must shift from hands-on execution to strategic leadership without losing control of their vision.

Related: 15 Time Management Tips for Achieving Your Goals

Breaking free from gravity: The entrepreneurial altitude shift

The shift from employee to entrepreneur is not just a career change — it is a transformation in how time is experienced. Employees operate within a structured timeline, while founders must create their own.

This newfound altitude provides a broader perspective, but it also increases the stakes. Founders must reconcile the gravitational pull of operational demands with their need to stay focused on long-term vision.

Steve Jobs mastered this balance by championing relentless prioritization. His famous mantra, “Innovation is saying no to a thousand things,” illustrates how successful entrepreneurs eliminate distractions to sustain momentum.

Are You Thinking Like a Founder? 4 Principles Every Successful Team Should Follow delves into the mindset shifts required to sustain this level of adaptability, resilience and clarity of purpose.

Mastering the Founder’s Time Dilation Effect: 3 strategies for success

Entrepreneurs must learn to manage time as both a tactical and strategic resource. Here are three proven strategies to avoid being overwhelmed by the distortion of time:

1. Balance execution and reflection

   • Allocate dedicated time for deep work (Actor mode) and strategic reflection (Observer mode).

   • Research from McKinsey suggests that leaders who balance these two states report significantly higher productivity and clarity.

2. Prioritize with ruthless discipline

   • Use frameworks like the Eisenhower Matrix to separate urgent distractions from important priorities.

   • Steve Jobs’ ability to cut through the noise and focus on critical goals kept Apple on a path to industry dominance.

3. Stay grounded in purpose

Related: 11 Time Management Mistakes You Are Probably Making

Entrepreneurs do not experience time as a neutral force. It bends and warps under the weight of urgency, ambition and uncertainty. The Founder’s Time Dilation Effect is both an advantage and a challenge, it compresses the present and accelerates the future, demanding that leaders master both execution and vision.

For me, this realization marked the difference between working a job and building a legacy. Breaking free from conventional time structures required abandoning external validation and embracing the reality that time is the entrepreneur’s greatest asset.

Elon Musk’s words remain true: Entrepreneurship is not for those who need external motivation. It is for those willing to operate at the altitude of purpose and vision, where time becomes elastic and every decision shapes the future. The question is not whether time will pass — it is how you will choose to navigate it.

Budding entrepreneurs and startup founders know this to be true: time is money. According to Zippia, the average business owner works more than 50 hours per week, meaning every minute counts. Instead of sitting through meetings attempting to multi-task and pay attention, let My Notes AI help you out.

What is it? It’s an AI-powered note transcriber and summarizer app that works with your iPhone, iPad, and Mac to help you catch every single word, even as you’re drafting emails to partners or completing separate tasks during presentations.Think of it as your very own personal assistant. Grab lifetime access for only $39.99 (reg. $299) for a little while longer—that’s the best price you’ll find online.

The AI tool that captures every word

Whether you’re meeting with vendors or listening in on an internal company meeting, you likely don’t want to miss anything. That’s why My Notes AI exists, to help you capture every word. Quit trying to draft emails while frantically scribbling down what the finance or engineering team is saying—that’s what this app is for.

You’ll be able to transcribe both live recordings and audio files, and this iOS-friendly app even offers unlimited transcriptions. However, the app doesn’t stop there. Its AI is capable of producing instantaneous summaries from lengthy transcriptions, allowing you to take the big ideas of any lecture or presentation and apply them more practically. Thismight be perfect if you’re brainstorming a new marketing or outreach campaign for your brand.

Once you’ve let My Notes AI take notes from your transcriptions or audio files, you’ll get summaries you can organize with the app’s advanced tools. Sort them by topic, dates, and more to help you avoid losing vital information for a new business initiative or deal. Collaborating with another coworker or new client? The app makes it simple to share your notes.

Make the most out of any meeting. Entrepreneurs can grab lifetime access to My Notes AI transcribing and summarizing features for just $39.99 while this best-of-web pricing lasts.

My Notes AI Pro Plan: Lifetime Subscription – AI Note Transcriber & Summarizer

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Amazon is retiring Chime, the company’s internal meeting software for video and audio calls, and replacing it with Zoom, an external solution with the same capabilities.

An internal memo to employees viewed by Business Insider on Wednesday said that Zoom would now be the “standard meeting application” for internal Amazon meetings companywide, marking a major win for industry juggernaut Zoom, which reported more revenue than expected in the third quarter of 2024 ($1.18 billion compared to $1.16 billion expected).

The memo also revealed that Amazon has begun rolling out Microsoft 365 productivity tools to employees.

Related: ‘2,000 People, 900 Parking Spaces’: Amazon’s Return-to-Office Mandate Has Hit a Snag

An Amazon spokesperson told BI in an email that the company retiring Chime because it offered “limited” use outside of Amazon, and Zoom was “a good fit” for their employees.

Amazon Chime has been Amazon’s default videoconferencing app since the company introduced it in 2017, publicizing its clear audio and high-definition video. Amazon clients, including recruiting software Jobvite and software consulting firm Kinetech, also used Chime to conduct virtual meetings.

Amazon announced earlier this week that it would stop accepting new Chime customers on Wednesday and end support for the service on February 20, 2026.

The change from Chime to Zoom affects the 350,000 employees Amazon had in its corporate workforce as of early 2023. Amazon employed 1.55 million people overall, including warehouse and operations workers, as of Sept. 30.

Amazon corporate employees are also migrating to Microsoft 365 cloud tools like Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on a “rolling basis,” per the memo. They can use Microsoft Teams for meetings, but Zoom will be the default.

Chime isn’t the only product Amazon has shut down this week. On Tuesday the company ended Inspire, the TikTok duplicate it showcased in its mobile app that allowed users to find new products on Amazon endorsed by influencers and brands.

Related: ‘Most Successful Yet for Amazon’: Walmart Has Topped the S&P 500 for 12 Years. This Month, Another E-Commerce Giant Is Expected to Take Its Crown.

As companies like Amazon, JPMorgan, and Walmart implement return-to-office (RTO) mandates, one business is sweetening the deal by giving its employees a $10,000 annual raise for showing up to the office more often.

Cameo, a startup that allows users to purchase and receive personalized video messages from celebrities, began a new RTO policy this week requiring the 26 employees who work at the company’s headquarters in Chicago to be in the office Monday through Thursday, per CNBC Make It. The policy, which the company first announced to staff last month, enables employees to receive a $10,000 yearly raise in addition to free parking, a free daily catered lunch, and free access to an onsite gym.

“We really felt like we wanted to make HQ a perk, not a punishment,” Cameo CEO Steven Galanis told CNBC Make It. “We know we’re asking more out of you to give up the flexibility, and we wanted to compensate you for it.”

Related: AT&T and Sweetgreen Are Following Amazon’s Lead With Stricter Return-to-Office Mandates — Though Amazon’s Plan Has Hit a Snag

Cameo has two dozen additional employees based elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad, mainly in New York and Los Angeles. They were allowed to keep working remotely but weren’t given a pay raise.

Galanis, 37, chose to set the annual raise at $10,000 because the figure would make a “meaningful” difference in employees’ lives and hoped it would help junior employees find housing nearby instead of taking on long commutes.

The Chicago headquarters opened in the summer of 2024, but Cameo leadership never mandated a strict set of days employees had to report to the office. Workers based in Chicago previously came to the office whenever they needed to, showing up an average of two to three times per week, according to Galanis.

^{Cameo CEO Steven Galanis. Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images}

When Cameo informed its Chicago employees of the four-days-a-week in-office policy last month, it also gave them the option to move out of Chicago to not have to come into the office at all.

Cameo found that none of its employees quit or moved away after the announcement. Instead, the opposite happened. Some of Cameo’s remote workers based in other locations expressed interest in moving to Chicago and taking advantage of the perks offered to in-office employees.

A HealthEquity study released earlier this month surveyed more than 600 full-time employees who shifted from fully remote to hybrid or fully in-person work. Three out of four employees said their RTO experiences were positive, with 74% saying they experienced enhanced collaboration.

The top motivators for office attendance weren’t free lunches or a raise, it was professional development opportunities (50%) and team-building events (47%). The biggest obstacle to in-person work identified by the survey was commuting costs (54%).

Related: Read the Letter Sent to AWS CEO Matt Garman, Signed By 500 Employees, Protesting His RTO Comments

Cameo has experienced a tumultuous few years. The pandemic catapulted the startup to unicorn status, with a valuation of $1 billion by 2021. Sales declined by March 2024, erasing 90% of Cameo’s value.

Galanis told Time in December that he thinks the momentum has shifted in Cameo’s favor.

“I’m really grateful for our investors and our team, that they’ve believed in me and allowed us the second shot to build a company that we don’t think has reached near its potential yet,” he stated.

^{This article originally appeared on Business Insider.}

Riley Willis sits behind his keyboard for 30 hours a week. When he clocks out on Saturday, he’s made it through all his shifts without speaking to a soul.

Willis is an AI contractor, working in data annotation through a company called DataAnnotation.tech. He says his job is fully remote and operates asynchronously — with no set boss, no contact with coworkers, and no daily meetings.

“It’s perfect for an introvert,” he told Business Insider.

Willis said his days consist of “fact-checking” the output of various AI models — but only because that’s what he chooses to take on. He says DataAnnotation.tech offers a variety of projects for contract workers to choose from, including teaching AI to improve its creative writing and coding skills.

“You are literally going through and you’re labeling the information based on a series of criteria that differ between projects,” Willis said. “I personally work on a lot of factual stuff, just because I just find the pay-to-effort ratio is nice. So, there’s a lot of fact-checking responses, making sure the models aren’t lying or hallucinating information.”

As companies continue the push to improve their AI models, there’s been a corresponding spike in demand for data annotators and labelers. Workers in the field spend their time either “generating data for training and labeling data for training,” Willis said, completing tasks in programming, writing, and research.

Willis said he was first drawn to the job when he was looking to move out of his parents’ house and wanted to avoid a role in retail.

“I wanted a job that wasn’t customer service or anything like that,” he said. “I was already doing remote school, so I was kind of already comfortable with the remote environment.”

When he first onboarded, Willis said he was making $20 an hour, but now nets about $25. Hourly rates vary depending on the projects workers take on, and Willis said he’s seen them reach as high as $30.

Despite not undertaking a full-time workload, Willis, who is pursuing a bachelor’s in computer science through the University of Florida’s online program, said he’s able to fully cover his expenses — including tuition and rent in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“I can pay rent, and I can pay my way through college,” Willis said. “It’s not like I have a lot of spending money in the end, especially if I’m not working 40 hours full time kind of stuff, but I have enough where I can live generally.”

Willis said his frugal lifestyle is what allows him to stretch his pay, adding that he “couldn’t support himself” if he were living alone.

“I live poor, honestly,” he said. “If I had some extravagant lifestyle — If I went out to, you know, bars and everything, and spent a lot online — I probably couldn’t do it. But, just getting through my day, it completely covers it.”

The job does have its drawbacks. Willis said the repetitive nature of the tasks can be “mind-numbing.” And unlike a full-time position, Willis only gets paid for the time he’s sitting down at his computer, actively working on assignments.

“Even in a high-paced job, I feel like, you know, there’s paid lunch breaks, stuff like that,” he said. “Or, you know, you spend a second or two talking to someone, but you’re still on the clock getting paid. With this, you’re really not getting paid unless you are doing the work.”

Willis said he sometimes spends “six or seven hours” on research but only gets paid for about “five hours of actual work” because of the need to pause occasionally. Regardless — Willis said the pros of the job outweigh the cons.

“I will personally say work-life balance is nice, in the sense that, obviously, it’s remote and I can work whenever I want,” he said. “I can work at 1 o’clock in the morning if I really feel like it.”

For someone who’s looking for a side hustle to tack onto their full-time role, Willis says working to train AI might be a better overall fit.

“I think this would be really, really good for someone who has an actual job and is doing this, like two hours a day,” he said. “I think this is really what this kind of setup shines in. If you have an actual full time job, and you just add the extra hour, hour-and-a-half, a day, earning an extra $25 to $50 a day, just when you have nothing else to do, is definitely doable.”

Do you have a great business idea but feel stuck on where to start? Are you feeling stretched too thin, struggling to attract the right customers, and constantly worrying about cash flow while trying to scale your business?

Being your own boss is exciting but it’s also full of challenges that most entrepreneurs don’t see coming. In honor of International Women’s Month, award-winning entrepreneur and best selling author Kim Perell takes the stage on March 11th at 2:00PM ET for this exclusive on-demand workshop to reveal the three biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make and how to avoid them so you can build a thriving business with confidence.

In this webinar, you will learn:

• The 3 biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make and how to avoid them

• Why mindset matters more than a business plan and how to shift yours for success

• How to stop playing small, overcome imposter syndrome, and own your success

• The secret to building a powerful network that accelerates your business growth

• The #1 reason entrepreneurs struggle to scale and how to break through

If you’re ready to take control of your future and create a business that works for you, don’t miss this powerful session!

About the Speaker:

Kim Perell is 9X founder, 2X best-selling author, investor in 100+ companies, acclaimed speaker and a proud mom of four. She started her first company from her kitchen table at 23 years old, became a multi-millionaire by the time she was 30, and sold her last company for $235 million. While simultaneously running multimillion dollar companies, Kim has dedicated her life to empowering the next generation of business leaders. She shines as a dynamic TV and media personality on Entrepreneur Magazine’s hit show Elevator Pitch. Kim regularly appears in media, including Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Drew Barrymore Show, CNBC, Fox, MSNBC, CNN Money, The New York Times, Forbes, Inc, and The Huffington Post. In her upcoming book, Mistakes That Made Me A Millionaire, Kim Perell shares the raw, unfiltered truth about the journey to success—proving that every mistake holds the potential for million-dollar lessons.