As a solopreneur running my own marketing agency, I juggle many roles —  administrative assistant, accountant, hiring manager, project manager, salesperson, website designer and more. Any of these roles can rob a solopreneur of time, and time is money when you’re the only person running your business and bringing in cash flow. Not to mention it takes some time as a solopreneur to build a steady income after leaving the safety of a regular paycheck.

Not only is it necessary to safeguard your cash flow when you start out as a solopreneur, but it’s important to maximize the time you have to make money. After my first year in business, I learned a ton about how to save time and money, so I could increase the profits of my solopreneur business.

Here’s a list of tips you can use as a solopreneur to streamline your daily tasks, save cash and grow your solopreneur business this year:

  1. Cut Those Extra Expenses

There are many options nowadays to find alternatives to things you enjoy… For example, when I first launched my business and went out on my own, I cut my $120-a-month gym membership and signed up for at-home fitness training from people like CSatt Fitness, Jillian Michaels and Kayla Itsines. The latter two both have apps, so you can build your own at-home training program and save a lot of money on a gym membership.

Here’s another easy way to cut extra expenses — cancel your overly expensive cable subscription! Who needs cable when you can watch Netflix or Hulu for a fraction of the cost? You can also watch free movies on Amazon Prime if you’re a Prime member.

In addition, do yourself a favor and download the apps, Billy and Truebill on your smartphone. Billy provides an easy way to track your fixed costs, like subscriptions or bills. Billy allows you to know how much you’re spending on each account every month (scary!). Truebill helps you save money on all of your subscriptions. The app automatically scans your online statements and identifies your active subscriptions. You’ll receive a monthly report that flags any changes to your subscription fees.

  1. Re-evaluate Your Living Situation

Part of the reason I wanted to be a solopreneur was to do things on my own time and travel when and where I wanted. To bootstrap my business and cut-out the cost of living in an expensive city, I moved to Belize and halved my monthly rent. I went from a rent-controlled apartment at $1,700 a month to a space in Belize that was three times the size, with access to the beach, for only $800 USD a month. Cost of living, in general, was less expensive than San Francisco, from groceries to my cell phone bill and utilities.

I now run a remote business from my home office in Belize. This has been a popular option for other solopreneurs too. There’s even a term for it now: being a digital nomad. This means you travel and live abroad while working remotely. NomadList is a great resource that will allow you to evaluate the cost of living in other cities across the world.

  1. Restructure Your Technology

There are plenty of options in the tech world to upgrade, maximize and multitask with one or several different devices. Your smartphone, for example. I realized that at the end of each month, I had leftover data, text and minutes. Why was I paying $200 for a plan I didn’t fully use? Instead, I ditched that and purchased a pay-as-you-go plan instead.

To save additional costs, you can use Skype to conduct work calls by purchasing inexpensive Skype credits. Or, you can look at tools like Join.me or Slack for free conference lines and screensharing. If you do decide to relocate abroad, this is the perfect plan to avoid high-cost U.S. cell phone bills.

  1. Utilize Your Tax Write-Offs

Remember, you own your own business now, so you can write off business-related expenses (of course, always remember to consult your tax professional before doing your taxes).

  • Your cell phone. You can write off a percentage based on how often you use your cell phone.
  • Education. This can mean a lot of different things, such as webinars or online courses, books, references materials, etc.
  • Gifts. No, not for you…for your clients! As a thank you for referrals, or a special occasion, etc. It’s a $25 write-off per person per year in gifts.
  • Home office. If you regularly work from a desk in your home, you can write off a portion of your rent/mortgage and bills associated with your home, such as electricity.
  • Local travel. Think Lyft or taxi to a business meeting or function.
  • Meals and entertainment. Taking your client to lunch or movie. Only 50% is deductible.
  • Software. It’s no longer limited to your computer. Cloud-based software (like Dropbox and iCloud) and apps are both deductible.

And if you do decide to form your solopreneur business into an LLC, this can be even better for taxes if you choose to have your LLC taxes as an S Corp.

  1. Find Smart and Savvy Business Tools

Online tools are the secret to your solopreneur success. There are endless companies who have made running a business a lot easier, saving you time and money. It’s important to set up your business technology suite to take advantage of these time and cost savings, so you maximize your business revenue. Carefully choose tools for your business that don’t come with a high price tag, or are even free. Some of my favorites are:

  • Google Docs and Google Drive are efficient for storing and sharing documents.
  • Trello is a fantastic project management tool.
  • Xero is the best accounting tool (after I tried both QuickBooks and FreshBooks)
  • Calendly is a free way to easily schedule meetings with people outside your company
  • GatherContent is an awesome, inexpensive content production platform
  • Pexels is a great site for free stock photography
  • Join.me is perfect for client calls and screen shares.
  • Slack is great for real-time messaging and file sharing.

  1. Utilize Automation and Outsourcing

As a solopreneur, you MUST automate processes and outsource tasks. In absence of others helping you do your work, look to platforms or other avenues to streamline critical business tasks to accomplish your needs. Yes, outsourcing tasks can get pricey, but there are plenty of avenues to find talent and it does not have to cost you your rent money.

Try CloudPeeps, a community, marketplace and platform for freelancers and businesses. You can even reach out to local colleges and universities for students looking to build their portfolios or gain experience.

From an automation standpoint, if you’re looking to build your social media presence but don’t have the time to post every few hours, try a platform like Buffer or Hootsuite to help schedule and manage your social accounts. And of course, if you want to automate your email marketing and CRM efforts, try an awesome tool like Hatchbuck that allows you automate your email marketing while you work on other business tasks.

Being a solopreneur allows you much more freedom than the classic 9-to-5 job, but you need to make sure you’re starting on the right foot. By crossing these six tips off your list, you’ll be saving time and money and improving your bottom line quickly.