The biggest running expense for almost every business is the payroll, and when you are a start-up adding full time staff  can be outright impossible. You need the help, but how are going to stay on a path towards success? Here are 5 alternatives to hiring you need to know:

• Retrain Current Employees- A very simple way to save money is to retrain employees you already have. Many workers enjoy picking up new skills or becoming more efficient at there job and will jump at the opportunity. Whether teaching or paying for courses, retraining will pay off in the long run.

• Outsourcing- Outsourcing is a viable option for even the smallest of businesses. Many services are available from foreign sources for a tenth of the cost, with no payroll taxes or workers comp! It can easy to find bad sources though, so be sure to look close at who you are hiring.

• Do It Yourself- One of the simplest solutions to do it yourself. There are a surprising amount of seemingly difficult skills that can be picked up with a bit of work. This is the cheapest option, by how efficient it is depends on you.

• Overtime And Worker Incentive- Business waxes and wanes, there are busy season and slow season, and sometimes a big order comes in that you aren’t prepared for. Overtime may seem expensive on paper, but if it saves you from hiring a whole new employee it is more than worth it. This same truth applies to work incentives.

• Contracting And Temp Employees- Several services do not need to be in-house. Janitorial work, delivery, security, payroll accounting, and website design are all examples of work that can be done by hiring a service or agency. Services from agencies are vetted easily and are comparably inexpensive.

• Change Who You Are Hiring- Some start-ups may not be right for experienced older hires. If your start-up is new to the field or doing a lot of research, then hiring a fresh graduate can be a great solution for saving money. Graduates are used to doing a lot of research and have a fresh eye for the industry, valuable assets if you start-up is changing the game in its space, and are cheaper than older, more experienced hires. Another option is find current college students who are need of internships, your intern (and you) will be happy they are being paid in experience and knowledge.

       Entrepreneurs (especially start ups) need to be careful where their money is going. By slimming down the number of employees you have, you can increase the size of profit by an incredible amount. There are businesses out there worth $500,000 with only two full time employees, how many will you have when you get there?