FRUGALITY IS GENERALLY CONSIDERED to be an unalloyed positive. Philosophers like Aristotle and the Stoics considered it a moral virtue, similar to temperance and prudence. In religious traditions, it is held to be a sign of humility, self-control, and gratitude — the opposite of greed or wastefulness.

In economics and business management, it … well, it gets a bit tricky. As the economist Thomas Sowell noted, when it comes to just about any action that involves the allocation of resources, there are only trade-offs. Spend money in one area, and you forgo the opportunity to invest in another. Don’t spend money, and you similarly forgo a possible opportunity to grow or expand. Even just thinking about making a decision involves the use of time, focus and energy that could have been applied to something else.

Over the course of normal economic cycles, the decisions are a little easier to make. When times are good, you can take bigger risks. When times are slow, it’s often best to rein in your outlays. But the current environment is a little weird.

While the economy is essentially sound, consumers are nervous, and according to our most recent INSTORE Big Survey, most jewelers are reporting their sales have flattened over the last 18 months. Metals prices are surging, supply chains have been disrupted and our political class seems locked in a never-ending cultural war. On top of that, new technologies have emerged that threaten to overturn the way large parts of the economy function.

In such environments, the typical human response is to freeze or at least batten down the hatches. Being prudent is rarely a bad strategy, but doing nothing — or cutting costs in overly aggressive fashion — is often less wise. As a rule, you can’t shrink your way to success.

In the following pages, we suggest tips and ideas collected from our readers, our archives, our favorite business writers and industry experts on how to lower your expenses by adopting a mindset of resourcefulness, prioritizing experimentation, and avoiding waste while still laying the foundations to boost productivity and growth in times of uncertainty. And, yes, while also keeping an eye on the trade-offs.

GENERAL RULES

Be Frugal, but Adopt a Growth Mindset

A fundamental question every owner of a mature business must ask is: Are you aiming to be bigger and better, or just cheaper? The central belief of a cost-cutter is that profits rise when costs are lowered, says Roy H. Williams, author of The Wizard Of Ads, adding that this viewpoint is often correct, but in a self-defeating way. “A company that doesn’t invest in growing revenue will shrink, allowing the cost-cutter to say, ‘See how smart I am? If I hadn’t reduced expenses, we’d really be in trouble right now.'” Ultimately, a purely defensive approach will see the business shrivel. It’s better, and usually easier, says Williams, to increase revenues through investments and advertising than to cut costs. “A cost-cutter buys grapes and makes raisins. An entrepreneur buys grapes and makes wine.”

Dig a Moat

Don’t let your focus on reining in costs tempt you to try to compete with lower prices. As a small independent, you don’t have the resources or scale. Instead, aim to create monopoly-like conditions through unique service, product or distribution and technology advantages. Finding specific situations where you can win (by building a geographic advantage or moving into distinct segments like bespoke engagement rings or a service like estate‑jewelry restoration) was one of the core arguments of Peter Thiel’s business bestseller Zero To One. When you have a moat protecting you, you can sleep a little easier.

Exploit Technology

Depending on who’s predicting the future, artificial intelligence will either bring about an age of peace, prosperity, health, and leisure, or it will take all the jobs and destroy humanity. The truth will probably turn out to be in between. Regardless of how you feel about AI, you owe it to your business’s future to get familiar with it. “Give it a try,” says business coach Candace D’Agnolo. “Even small, simple tasks like writing emails, product descriptions or social posts can save time, boost creativity and help you work smarter, not harder.”

Reframe Scarcity

Turn a limited budget into an advantage: Restrict options, prioritize essentials, and force creative problem solving. Not only will you save a few dollars, but you might come up with your next brilliant service idea. There’s a growing understanding in business circles that creativity thrives on constraint. Google sometimes puts fewer engineers on a problem than it needs to force ingenuity. Your budget can do the same. Challenge your team to design a Mother’s Day window using only materials already in-store. Or reimagine your best-selling item if it had to retail for under $299. The pressure won’t limit them — it’ll force inventive workarounds.

Forget Willpower

Willpower is depletable. The next time you find yourself full of vim and self-discipline, don’t spend it trying to behave virtuously; spend it, instead, altering your environment to reduce your future dependence on willpower. So, rather than heading off to a trade show resolving to be disciplined with your spending, assign someone to guard the checkbook, ban impulse buys (use the two-day rule for purchases), and commit to a strict open-to-buy. Away from shows, set up standing orders based on sell-through rates, audit your purchasing annually, and do what you can do add friction to the purchase process.

Lean Into Irrationality

Most financial advice assumes humans are rational beings. But countless studies have shown we aren’t. We use our credit card balances as if they were Monopoly money. The fix starts with awareness — then employ tactics that exploit our biases. The “debt snowball” is an example of such an approach: Regardless of interest rates, start with the smallest balance, then the next, etc. It doesn’t make mathematical sense. But the psychological boost that comes from quickly eliminating a debt, then another, will provide momentum to keep going.

TOP PRIORITIES

Target the Big Leaks

Small savings feel good but don’t move the needle. Start by listing your monthly costs (rent, payroll, COGS, fees, etc.), pick the top two and focus one 90-day initiative on cutting 5–10% there — small percentage cuts there have more impact than slashing minor line items. As a broad rule of thumb, former Wall Street banker Khe Hy recommends this mental trick: The only three digits of your net worth that matter are the left three. If you have $364,855, the $855 is trivial from a big picture view — so you can spend up to $999 without overthinking. “Where your attention goes, your energy goes,” says Hy. Stop sweating the small stuff and focus on what actually impacts your business.

Make Profit Non-Negotiable

Treat your business like your paycheck: Pay profit first, and then operate on what’s left. Behavioral finance shows we spend whatever’s at hand, so force discipline by assigning income into dedicated buckets such as “Profit,” “Owner Pay,” “Taxes,” and “Operating Costs” as soon as the cash comes in. How to start:

• Open separate accounts and automate transfers on payment.
• Start small: Allocate 1–5% to “Profit” and raise it gradually.
• Review targets quarterly and track percentage of revenue going to “Profit” and “Owner Pay.”

The result will be clearer cashflow, fewer impulse spends, guaranteed owner pay, and a business that survives and grows without sacrificing margin.

Get Better at Quitting Stuff

The best poker players have something in common with the most successful business owners: They know when to fold. In her book Quit, former pro player Annie Duke notes that in Texas Hold ‘Em, the pros play fewer than 25 percent of their hands before other cards hit the table. Amateurs play more than 50 percent. Similarly, retailers who are quickest to cut their losses on bad buys and ill-fated new ventures do the best. “Success does not lie in sticking to things,” Duke writes. “It lies in picking the right thing to stick to and quitting the rest.”

When You Do Bet, Play the Dollar Table

Don’t gamble inventory, capital, or staff time on big unproven ideas. Run short, low-cost experiments (weeks, not years) to validate products, services, or promotions. “Launch, measure, pivot or persevere,” says Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup. Use simple tracking. Debrief after every test and record whether to scale. Possible examples for jewelers:

• A pop-up “estate revival” weekend with a limited restoration menu.
• A paid appraisal clinic with booked slots to measure conversion.
• A one-month “clean & polish” subscription pilot to 50 loyal customers.
• Testing a micro-collection or display for two weeks and measuring sales lift.

Splurge Only Where They Touch

Kent Island Jewelry Store used vinyl plank floors and decals to save money during a remodel. But co-owner Mary Jo Duffy refused to skimp on showcases and the checkout counter. “That’s what customers actually touch and feel,” notes designer Leslie McGwire.

Monetize Your Know‑How

Your expertise took years to develop. Stop giving it away for free. Instead, turn it into high‑margin offerings: Charge for appraisals, launch paid cleaning/maintenance subscriptions, and sell workshops or mini‑courses on jewelry care. These products cost little to deliver, boost margins, and create steady, recurring revenue. “Appraisals are a big money maker for me,” one jeweler told the INSTORE Big Survey 2025. “They are relationship builders, and I end up selling jewelry or remaking jewelry for the appraisal clientele.” Added another: “We charge people to analyze their jewelry to potentially sell it for scrap … we charge $90 per 30 minutes to evaluate, test, weigh, and offer.”

Liquidate Dead Stock First

That dusty piece sitting in your case for a year? It’s costing you 20% more than you think in insurance, cleaning and lost opportunities. Reclaim that money by tightening turns: Cut slow‑moving SKUs, focus your assortment on best sellers, set strict reorder triggers, and mark down aging lines on a schedule. Consolidate purchases with a few dependable suppliers to earn volume discounts. Review turns and adjust orders monthly.

Start With the Lighting

Consultant Larry Johnson is partial to a good showcase; after all, he is the author of The Complete Guide To Effective Jewelry Display. But if you have only a few dollars to spend and want to invest in an area that will make an immediate impact, he recommends lighting.
“Showcases are like your best white shirt. You can always accessorize them, but the truth is they haven’t changed much in the past 40 years. Lighting, however, can make a huge impact, and the technology has changed dramatically in the past 25 years,” he says. More light on your merchandise and feature displays, and less everywhere else, will attract customers to browse and boost sales. And not only will a lighting fix directly improve your sales numbers, but it may also pay for itself in energy savings.

One Goal Beats Many

Min Zhao, a marketing professor at the University of Toronto, found that having just one savings goal — like that new laser welder — works better than multiple targets. “A common mistake is emphasizing numerous reasons to save,” Zhao says. “That prompts people to ruminate about saving without actually doing it.” Pick one goal and watch yourself naturally cut unnecessary expenses.

OPERATIONS

Automate the Boring Stuff

Repetitive admin tasks eat into profitable time, while automations pay back quickly. Automate booking confirmations, reminders, invoicing, and inventory reorder alerts using low-cost tools or Zapier-style integrations. This will allow staff spend time on higher-value tasks.

Take the Discount

Taking advantage of vendor discounts for fast payment has always been a good policy. “Some attractive terms for early payment can be well worth the outlay, providing thousands of dollars a year in savings,” says David Brown of Edge Retail Academy. Pay fast, save big, and watch your vendors suddenly become your best friends.

Smooth Operator

There’s nothing quite as sweet as a humming, efficient shop. Get your operations in order in three months.

First 30 days: Run a product/service cost and margin audit, including measuring revenue per labor hour, job cycle time, rework rate, A/R days, no show rate, and cancelled jobs. Map each repair step, time tasks and document standard operating procedures (SOPs).

60 days: Standardize repair workflows, reduce complexity, outsource non‑core tasks. batch similar work, pre-stage parts. If you haven’t yet moved to a modern POS system that allows you to track inventory and repairs and automate reminders and invoices, do so.

90 days: Require deposits for custom work. Model the payback period for tools that boost quality, lower outsourcing spend and cut rework (a laser welder, XRF, in-house casting, etc.). Track reasons for returns/redo jobs and fix root causes with training or small tooling investments.

Game Your Delivery Dates

Track supplier promo windows and consolidate orders to hit discounts and free-shipping thresholds — but buy only fast-moving SKUs to avoid tying up cash. Want an extra month of float without begging? When ordering after the 20th, request delivery on the 1st. “A few days won’t matter if it gets you an extra month’s credit,” notes Brown.

PENNY PINCHERS

End-of-Year Review

The new year is the perfect time to review recurring expenses, especially insurance. “You could have a service contract you don’t need or can be reduced. You might have insured your computer equipment years ago when a PC cost $4,000,” says Wharton lecturer and small business expert Robert Chalfin. He recommends checking your property insurance policies annually to ensure they represent today’s prices. Another area you could be hemorrhaging money includes duplicate services, says Brown. He discovered one jewelry store paying for Microsoft 365, Dropbox, and Google — “all services capable of doing the same job.” Schedule a subscription intervention every January and prepare to be appalled at what you find.

Vendor Training Is Free Education

“Have each of your vendors come in once a year and train your staff on their product,” suggests sales trainer Shane Decker. Vendors want their products sold properly and will gladly provide free expertise. This replaces expensive external training for product knowledge while building stronger vendor relationships that can lead to better terms and exclusive offerings.

Hire Teens for Polishing

Stop paying jewelers $100 an hour to polish repairs — train a high school kid to do 80% of polishing work for $15 hourly instead. David Geller, jewelry pricing expert, says jewelers lose $100 in production time for every hour spent polishing.

Go Jugaad

Read enough management literature and you’ll come across the term “jugaad” — a Hindi word to describe a flexible approach to problem-solving that uses limited resources in an innovative way to speed execution of business plans. While not revolutionary, the approach underscores the truth that you don’t have to throw money at problems. Frugal substitutes such as local sourcing, secondhand or refurbished equipment, and shared assets and services will often do just fine for expensive inputs, note Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu, and Simone Ahuja in their book Frugal Innovation. During a relocation, David Blitt of Troy Shoppe Jewellers in Calgary, AB, saved thousands by keeping the previous tenant’s lighting tracks, cupboards, and fixtures. Paired with a few new showcases, the mix looked intentional, not cobbled together.

Use Fintech

All non-cash forms of payment feel, to some extent, like video game money, but the security and ease of use make them worth exploring. Jordan Dubin of Dubin’s Fine Jewelry in Houston, TX, switched to electronic payments after a small check to a vendor was stolen in the mail. “We now utilize Quickbooks Payments and schedule ACH transfers to all of our vendors,” he says. “It takes three days to process and the fee is $0.50 (less than a stamp).”

Haggle

There are cost savings just about everywhere — if you are prepared to demand them. Don’t have time to negotiate? Services such as Bill-cutterz.com will do it for you. It haggles utility, Internet, card processing, cellphone and trash bills for no starter fee. You and the site split the savings 50-50. Don’t want to share the savings? Put such contracts up for competitive bids every year.

Turn Down Heat? Think Again

Before you drop the temperature to save a few dollars, consider this Cornell University study: When office temperatures were low (68 degrees), employees made 44% more errors and were less than half as productive as when temperatures were warm (77 degrees). “When our body’s temperature drops, we expend energy keeping warm, leaving less for concentration and inspiration,” researchers found.

Ask for That Rate Cut

If you’ve been putting off calling your credit card company for a lower rate, stop procrastinating. A CreditCards.com survey found 78% of customers who asked got what they wanted. “People have way more negotiating power than they think,” says senior analyst Matt Schulz. “The worst that can happen is they say no, but most of the time, they say yes.” One phone call could save you hundreds annually.

The Nibbler Defense

Watch for customers who nibble away profits with “little” requests. “Can you throw in sizing? How about the tax? Gift wrapping?” Shane Decker calculates that these nibbles can eat 20% of your sale. His rule: One nibble maximum — maybe a ring sizing.

Sugar Bag It

Bringing in your lunch is one way to show staff you are serious about the need to control costs. Although if you really want to show you’re serious, pack that lunch in a used Domino Sugar bag, “with its multiple layers of industrial strength, indestructible paper,” says Jeff Yeager, who bills himself as the ultimate cheapskate. One of the readers of his blog reports that the bag has “served him faithfully, day in and day out, for six long years.”

Little Changes Mean Big Savings

According to the National Retail Federation’s online blog, Walmart recently reported it would save $20 million a year just by changing its floor wax to a cheaper and sturdier version, meaning its floors would need to be buffed less often. $20 million is peanuts for Walmart and floor wax is pretty boring, but as the blog noted, simple savings can add up. “It might be time to dig deeply into the ho-hum products you use to see if savings or innovations are available.”

The Limited Authority Tactic

If forced to negotiate, use “limited authority” to minimize discounts. “I don’t have the authority to do that,” or “This item is vendor-restricted.” Decker advises making first concessions tiny – maybe 3% max. “This lowers the client’s aspiration level and puts pressure on their price ideas.” Take time, make concessions seem hard-won. Quick discounts make customers wonder how much more they could’ve saved. Slow, small concessions feel like victories.

Before Discounting, Raise the Commission

Do the math: A 15% discount on a $500 item would cost you $75 in lost revenue. Bumping your — let’s say—- normal 3 percent commission up to 9 percent on a one-off basis would cost you an extra $30 (depending on how you structure commission on discounted items.), says Geller. As with all great ideas, there’s a potential downside: you don’t want your staff aggressively pushing unattractive items on customers. But you do want them to at least show them before you start slashing prices.

But Don’t Take Risks With Your Health

When looking for places to cut costs it can be tempting to take a gamble on your health. The tax law urges you not to. Uncle Sam provides generous incentives for small-business owners to deduct the cost of their health insurance. Self-employed individuals can generally deduct 100 percent of the cost of their health insurance up to the amount of their earned income. “In addition, if they set up a Section 105 Health Reimbursement Arrangement, they can deduct up to 100 percent of their medical bills as well as the cost of health insurance'” says tax expert Jeffrey Esakov.

MORE MONEY-SAVING IDEAS

Tips taken from the INSTORE Big Survey

• Two-day shipping vs. next-day … save $10,000 per year.”
• I save the packing material from all incoming shipments so we don’t have to buy bubble wrap.”
• We changed to mostly LED lighting and put motion lights in rooms not always in use.
• We changed from individually tagging most items to having priced pegs. This is a huge labor savings when receiving orders.
• We trade our scrap for 24K grain (never cash it out). We alloy what we need.”
• We added a 10% processing fee on all refunds.
• We charge for cleaning and polishing! No freebies like mall jewelers.
• We used a grant for facade improvement.