Starting a business is a great way to build wealth over time, but to get the best return on your investment, you’ve got to keep spending lean. Every dollar that gets wasted in your business reduces any profits you earn or can share with your team.

Fortunately, there are many ways to keep your budget in check. Here are some frugal financial tips you can put to work for you today.

Staff up slowly.

The biggest cost for most businesses is payroll. Not only do you have to pay your employees’ salary but also any payroll taxes and benefits. Before you hire team members for full-time, W-2 positions, make sure you can keep them fully occupied. It could be that you are better off bringing in employees from a temp agency during a busy period, like just before the December holidays, than adding permanent team members who will have little to do come January.

If you need professional services help in an area such as public relations or accounting, try working with an outside provider before you add a permanent member of your team in these areas. Unless you need this help constantly, it will usually be more cost-effective to outsource.

Opt for the minimum-viable office space.

Having great office space is nice, but if you’re paying a bundle for it, it can limit the money you have left over to invest in new opportunities. Most business owners are better off opting for decent, but not fancy digs for their business and sprucing it up with inexpensive amenities that fit the vibe of your company, whether that means banker’s lamps or bean bag chairs.

One way to keep office space costs down is to consider giving employees the chance to work from home several days a week. Not every team member will be self-directed enough to work productively this way, but many people now have experience in doing so successfully. If you set clear goals as to what employees are expected to accomplish and keep in touch frequently, there’s no reason your work-from-home team cannot accomplish just as much as your in-office workers.

Practice open-book management.

Many employees don’t understand how the different pieces of a business fit together. Helping them to see beyond their individual roles to understand how their daily decisions impact the bottom line can inspire them to help you find new business and cut waste. For best results, make sure they share in the benefits of being frugal. Create a profit-sharing plan where they can see exactly how much it helps them if they aid you in keeping revenues up and costs down.

You don’t have to share every aspect of your financial decisions—like how much you pay individual team members—to practice open-book management. Entrepreneur Jack Stack’s classic book The Great Game of Business is a helpful guide to how to pull it off.

Get good tax advice.

If you achieve high profitability in your business, one challenge you will face is a potentially large tax bill. While we all want to contribute our fair share, paying more than necessary to the government will not leave much extra to reinvest in your business. That’s especially true in states where taxes are on the higher end of the spectrum.

One of the best investments you can make in running a lean business is finding a great accountant—someone who will help you spot tax deductions you can take that you might not know about and help you do tax planning throughout the year. There are many positive investments you can make in your business—such as setting up a 401(k) plan—that can help you and your employees and also reduce your tax bill. Ask around among colleagues in your industry for a referral to an accountant who has been helpful to them.

Also look for automated ways to keep track of deductions. Low-cost apps such as Everlance, which tracks your auto mileage from your smartphone, for instance, can help you keep better records of driving that you might not have thought to write down in your log, like trips to the bank to make a deposit for your business are a quick run to the office supply store to stock up on paper.

As the saying goes, it’s not what you make—it’s what you keep—so make sure you do all you can to reap the rewards of your hard work and share it with your team.

If business is humming along splendidly, and customers are flocking to your services or products like crazy, then chances are (congratulations), you’ve nailed your unique value proposition. But if you’re having trouble creating interest for your brand, then it may be time to take a closer look at what you have to offer and how you’re offering it. There is plenty of advice around the web on how to do just that; here are a few points that may be especially helpful.

A value proposition answers the question: What is it about what your company that makes it special and essential—and to whom and at what price? As Michael Porter, director of the Institute for Strategy & Competitiveness at Harvard Business School, notes about strategy, it’s useful to think of the value proposition as a triangle with points asking three specific questions: “What customers,” “Which needs,” and “What relative price.”

In business as in life, you can’t make all people happy all of the time, so a value proposition needs to zero in on exactly whose lives you’ll have the unique ability to improve (while, of course, also making sure that this segment of customers is large enough to sustain your business). Spreading the word about your company offerings should take into account not just people who will be directly using your product but those involved in deciding to purchase this product.

As for needs, this is often the most compelling reason for building your company—and, in turn, the most compelling reason why consumers will flock to it. As Ann Miura Ko, partner of the venture capitalist firm Floodgate and a Stanford University lecturer put it, to build a strong value proposition, you need to ask yourself: “What insight do I have that is not yet conventional wisdom?” Know how and why your service or product is a better option than that of your competitors (if there are any) for the customers you’re targeting.

Michael Skok, a venture capitalist and founder of Startup Secrets, which runs workshops to help entrepreneurs, writes in Forbes.com that the best business opportunity arises when this need stems from a problem that is “unworkable, unavoidable, urgent, and undeserved” if it weren’t for the existence of your company.  He also adds that if yours is a B2B shop, it’s smart to zero in on problems that are “blatant and critical.” That’s because a business’s survival (and a person’s reputation and job) depends on your service or product.

Some problems are “latent”—which means customers don’t know they exist yet—as well as “aspirational,” which Skok describes as  “optional.” While they certainly can be a great business opportunity (see Apple’s tablet or even Instagram), these ventures may be a tough bet, especially from a B-to-B standpoint.

Anthony Tjan, founder of the venture capital firm Cue Ball, writes in Harvard Business Review that “there are only four types of consumer benefits that matter—and by extension—only four categories of value propositions that work. This includes “best quality, best bang for your buck, luxury and aspiration, and must-have”—each of which is more nuanced than you’d think. A best-quality product isn’t necessarily the most expensive, but they tend to be among the most respected; think of L.L. Bean backpacks or Crayola crayons. “Best bang for your buck” isn’t necessarily cheap, but a good price for what you get—like IKEA or Jet Blue. “Luxury and aspiration” refer to the Hermes and Mercedes Benzes of the world. And “must-have” includes the things certain segments of the population can’t live without (for instance, the Bloomberg Terminal for those in the financial services sector). If none of these sound familiar, then Tjian advises, “figure out how to reposition your offering.”

Whatever your angle, test it. Ask potential customers, what would it take to make this compelling for them? What price would be appealing? (Then ask yourself, would the fixes be doable on your end? Would you still be able to turn a profit?) A unique value proposition requires considerable thought, but once you have it just right, your company is much likelier to thrive.

Quick: Can you remember the last amazing PowerPoint presentation you watched?

If the answer is no, that’s not surprising. Many slide-deck presentations fizzle, with the presenter droning on as he or she reads through page after page of boring data.

Dull PowerPoints have reached such epic proportions that Dave Paradi–author of 102 Tips to Communicate More Effectively Through PowerPoint, as well as eight books and three other Kindle eBooks on PowerPoints—now conducts the “Annoying PowerPoint Survey” to help people avoid common mistakes.

So how do you avoid “Death by PowerPoint” and dazzle your audience? Fortunately, it’s not hard. Here’s how to wow the people sitting across the table from you.

Be ready to toss your slide deck.  

PowerPoints can be a great prop but be ready to ditch yours if it’s not helping you achieve your goal for a meeting, such as winning new business or securing capital. If your audience is showing signs of getting bored or, in a smaller meeting, asks to skip the slide deck and have a conversation instead, you’ll be much more likely to win them over if you communicate in the style they like.

That doesn’t mean you’ve wasted your efforts by creating your slide deck. Save it as a follow-up item to send when you thank them for the meeting.

Use your presentation to highlight key points—not the whole story.

If it looks like your audience is receptive to your PowerPoint, don’t use your presentation like a teleprompter and simply read your slides. That was the number one source of complaint in the 2017 Annoying PowerPoint Survey, cited by 67.8% of respondents.

Another related gripe that showed up in the survey was using “full sentences for text,” mentioned by 51.6% of respondents. A top-notch PowerPoint will share important headlines only—and limit the bullets to five or six, maximum. If you need to share additional information, provide a longer handout, such as a white paper, report or memo—or send one in a follow-up email as an additional touchpoint with your audience.

Keep it easy on the eyes.

Make sure the font is big enough to be viewed from a distance. The number three complaint in the Annoying PowerPoint Survey was “text too small to read,” mentioned by 49.3% of respondents.

Black type shows up most clearly, so it’s usually the best bet. If you want to add some color, limit yourself to a handful of hues, so you don’t overwhelm your audience with a Crayon-box approach.

Also be careful in choosing your font. Sans serif fonts are easier to read than serif fonts. A simple font like Arial is always a safe bet.

Avoid a data dump.

Using facts and figures to make your case can be helpful, but don’t overload your audience. There are only so many statistics they can absorb.

Limit data to findings from the most respected sources you can find and only include those that are truly important for the audience to remember. To draw attention to a key statistic, try putting single number on one slide with no written explanation other than what you offer verbally in your presentation. It’s a good way to arouse viewers’ curiosity and keep them focused.

Use simple visuals.

“Visuals too complex” was the fourth-biggest complaint in the Annoying PowerPoint Survey, mentioned by 33.65% of respondents. As Paradi put it in his survey announcement, “Unless the visuals are clear and easy to understand, they don’t help the audience, but further confuse them.”

Don’t use more than one photo or chart per page, so the audience knows where to look. A “busy” PowerPoint they have to decipher can distract them from what you’re saying.

Limit your charts to those that can be easily understood from a distance. Although it’s gotten easier than ever to create complicated graphics, sometimes they are best reserved for ancillary materials where they can be more easily digested.

In almost every aspect of creating a great PowerPoint, less is more. Take the minimalist approach and you’ll have an edge in keeping everyone’s interest.

We don’t need to stress the importance of finishing 2017 with a bang. The last months of the year are critical for businesses, often representing the biggest sales quarter of the year. Salespeople are rushing to meet quotas, bandying about discounts and pitches; leftover budgets are spent in a hurry; customers are more active than during any other time of year.

It goes without saying: it’s a pretty busy time.

Having survived a lot of frantic end of the year pushes, I can tell you from experience that one of the most important aspects of making it across the finish line is getting organized and staying laser-focused. Keeping things together also helps you avoid a massive proverbial holiday-season hangover. So here are a few organization tips to help you finish well as you head into the holiday season.

Craft a To-Do (and Don’t) List.

So much of driving results is being focused on the right things. Let’s face it, you and your team only have so many hours in the day. So create your list of things you need to execute on before the end of the year. This will be your master list for the season, a front-and-center document that lays out everything your business needs to keep on top of this season. It could be a Google shared file or on a whiteboard in the office, so long as you refer to it as a guide through the final stretch of the year.

This isn’t where you put individual teams’ projects or daily chores, but rather major KPIs, company goals or even encouraging reminders. (A good example: “Remember that the customer is probably more stressed than you are right now.”) This helps keep everyone in your company on the same page.

Also, it’s extremely helpful to make a “don’t list.” That’s right…make a list of things you will not do. There is nothing more freeing than addressing time-sucking activities that hamper your ability to finish strong at year-end. It also keeps you focused on the prize and will enable you and your team to just say no once those random initiates pop up.

Keep Teams Small and Empowered.

Now is not the time to burden employees with cumbersome bureaucracy. Empowering your company’s leaders to make decisions smartly and quickly is always important when running an agile company, but it’s particularly crucial when things get frantic at the end of the year.

Be sure to inform team leaders of their roles and responsibilities ahead of time, so you can check in periodically and not worry about having to micromanage them through tough times. This also helps employees feel independent and engaged with your business.

Clean Your Email Inbox Early.

If you haven’t answered that email you’ve been putting off since the summer before Q4, there’s a very slim chance you’ll respond to it now. So set aside some time to organize your inbox and more importantly, to purge it. Establish a consistent process for checking and responding to your email inbox. For me, I touch emails in my box only once and bucket blocks of time throughout the day to check email. No matter what your process, do yourself a favor—don’t leave people hanging.

If you find yourself swamped during this final stretch, consider replying to emails honestly or using an auto-responder: “This is our busiest time of year, so it might take me a bit longer to reply to your email. But I’ll certainly respond as soon as I can!” But remember, there is nothing worse than telling someone you will get back to them and dropping the ball, so make sure you actually follow up.

Clarify and Re-evaluate Your End-of-Year Goals.

No matter the KPI, you should have a clear idea of what your year-end numbers will look like. There’s nothing wrong with optimistic goals, so long as you also write out a roadmap of how to reach them. Simply demanding your sales team end the season with 150% more sales over last year will only put undue pressure on them without any substantial guidance or support.

The most important thing is to start with year-end numbers and to figure out how to reach them. If you realize you’re only 30% of the way to your target goal of new app downloads, for example, this would be a good time to reevaluate those goals and push ahead with a new strategy for the remainder of 2017 and beyond.

Leverage Your Sales and Marketing Tools.

If you’re ever feeling overwhelmed about hitting your year-end numbers, don’t be. The key to success is being relentless at following up with sales leads. Studies show that 44% of salespeople give up after one follow-up. Keeping notes from every phone call and meeting and working your task list in your CRM is a great way to prevent precious sales opportunities from slipping through the cracks  Keep your pipeline updated and use automated reminders to ensure you are following up at just the right time.

That means working on your hot prospects and letting email marketing automation within your CRM continue to nurture those buyers who aren’t quite ready. The truth is nurtured leads typically result in 20% more sales opportunities than non-nurtured leads so put your sales and marketing automation tools to work for you.

Keep Rewards in Sight.

Nothing gets us through the end of year and holiday season like an actual holiday. If you ever need a carrot to dangle in front of your employees’ —or even your own—dangle the prospect of getting through the next few weeks so you can relax on a company-sponsored trip after the New Year—think a Caribbean beach with a straw hat and a Mai Tai in hand. Or perhaps by offering team incentives such as a healthy bonus or special commission plans to keep them energized and motivated to sprint past the finish line. Whatever it is, align everyone to your goals and keep the prize in sight. After all, if you’re going to finish the home stretch successfully, everyone needs to stay focused, running in the same direction.