If you're starting your own company, you have to make tough decisions when it comes to cutting corners and pinching pennies. Fortunately, there are a few smart ways to lower costs without sacrifice. Here are five ways to avoid the typical gluttony that can cost you everything.

Do Your Own Legwork

Consultants, while offering highly valuable services, will cost a new business a small fortune. While you do want to utilize them when needed, such as while building an IT infrastructure, you don't want to be running to them every time you need a question answered or research conducted.

Minimize unnecessary spending as you foster growth by investing in the learning process. For example, take a course and teach your staff. Conduct brain-storming meetings where you and your people figure things out and determine the best sources of information, rather than bringing in an expensive outsider. Your budget and employees will be better off for it.

Buy Used Equipment And Office Furniture

Look for retailers offering free returns and/or guarantees on refurbished technology. That way, if the printer you buy for your company starts smoking, your capital is covered. Since advancements come so rapidly in the tech world, you also put yourself in a good position to upgrade without breaking the bank.

Likewise with your office furnishing, buying second-hand from retailers like G D Liquidators is better for your bottom line. However, so long as you don't have too many employees at your startup, look for their input prior to purchasing any furniture they'll be using directly. For example, your assistant may have back problems and find one type of chair far more comfortable than another. Individuality is important to the creative process, too, so allow your employees to have a direct hand in decor as well. They are likely to perform better in an environment they helped create.

Track Every Dime

Spending is a big problem for new companies, and a major reason for their failure. Budgeting and bookkeeping are essential tools to your success, as is anything that will help you keep a cap on negative cash flow.

Be responsible yourself for making major deposits and purchases, and don't allow anyone else to have access to accounts. While this may be cumbersome in a way, your money is too important to not be paranoid about.

Use Forecasting For More Predictable Finances

Models and metrics help you understand what's going on right now with your business, and what's likely to go down in the coming months. Avail yourself of these tools and use them in planning. Even though you may have a lot of orders at the moment for certain goods or services, the picture may change dramatically by next year.

The more accurately you can predict the ebb and flow of your finances, the greater the overall stability of your business will be, and that means sustainability over the long-term.

Scour Backgrounds Before Hiring

You want to surround yourself with the best team and individuals with whom you can place your unbiased trust. Unfortunately, you probably can't yet afford that caliber of employees! In the meantime, take advantage of affordable background checks, including what you can garner yourself with searching on social media.

If you're like most people at the helm of a startup, you've learned to trust your instincts. Check potential hires out thoroughly and listen to your intuition as you examine their lives via search engines. Theft is on the rise, and although you can't see inside a person's mind to know their true intentions, you can get a really good feel for them. Ask off the wall questions when you interview, that not only catch them unprepared, but allow you an introspective of their personalities you might not otherwise be privileged to. Employing thieves is a leading cause for business failure: Don't let it be yours.

Sure, mahogany desks, gold-plated door knobs and limo rides around town are nice, but when you have a startup to nurture and fight for, excess threatens success! Minimize the costs and surprises that can bankrupt your company, and stay on the straight-and-narrow toward a bright and prosperous future.