Small business owners know how important it is to save money.  They know that one day that dollar could come in handy, especially during slower times.

Saving money is definitely important, but there are also things small business owners can – and should – spend their money on today.  It might seem counterproductive to spend money when you want to put it in the bank – and make no mistake, saving and investing are also vital – but sometimes spending your money can wind up helping your business immensely, protecting it from slower times.

Here are three things smart business owners spend their money on.

1. Their employees

Your business is nothing without your employees and happy employees are more productive, motivated and loyal.  Smart business owners know that it’s worth spending a little extra money to ensure you have the best employees on your staff and to reward them for their hard work.

When you can, spend money on your employees.  Offer bonuses or gifts for meeting their goals or exceptional service, provide better-than-average benefits plans, give them opportunities for training, or increase their salaries.

Happy employees not only give more to your business they reduce the turnover rate, saving you the cost and headache of finding and training new workers.  Plus, your clients and customers like seeing consistency in your staff, so they’ll appreciate that you keep your workers happy.

2. Their marketing

Many business owners think marketing is about finding clients today, but a good marketing strategy looks to the future.

Just because your business is busy today doesn’t mean it will be tomorrow and if you only focus on your marketing when things are slow, your downturns will last longer than they should.  Unfortunately, too many business owners only gear up their marketing efforts when business slows down.

By then it’s too late.

No matter how busy you are today, marketing should be one of your financial priorities.  You need to market yourself today to ensure customers tomorrow, next week, and next month. Spend your money on a proven marketing strategy that draws customers in and you might be able to avoid future downturns or at least stop them from lasting as long.

3. Their administrative tasks

There’s a lot to running a business that can be outsourced.  Yes, outsourcing costs you money.  But it also saves you valuable time and energy.  It may also prevent needless headaches.

There are many service providers out there that offer valuable assistance, freeing up your time for the things you love to do, and are more skilled at.  You can outsource your payroll, invoicing, bookkeeping, accounting, legal advice and marketing.  You can even hire an administrative assistant to help you with day-to-day business tasks.

These outsourced service providers are specialists in their field and can provide you with the services you need, when you need them.  If you’re not an expert in those fields – especially legal and accounting – outsourcing those tasks can also prevent costly errors.

Your time is valuable.  Spending money so someone else can take care of the mundane tasks you dislike is worth the expense.

Final thoughts

Smart business owners know there’s a time and a place to spend money.  Spending your money in smart ways saves you time and energy.  It can even save you money in the long run by reducing turnover and preventing expensive mistakes.

Consider whether you could help your business, and yourself,  by spending money on your employees, marketing, or administrative tasks.