As most entrepreneurs soon find out, the cost of starting or expanding your small business can quickly escalate as you seek to equip your workforce, office, or other place of business with the tools needed to operate and grow. While you may seek to roll these costs into a business loan and/or recover them at tax time through depreciation, neither of these actually reduces the upfront cost of procuring business assets or equipment in the first place. An alternative, frequently used by non-profits but often overlooked by for-profit small business owners, is to buy surplus goods directly from the government. Read more...