Stock options and warrants can be useful, though if done poorly they can muddy up your prospects for later rounds of financing in case you change your mind abou

Stock options and warrants can be useful, though if done poorly they can muddy up your prospects for later rounds of financing in case you change your mind about investors. Not ideal, but cheap. Perks like telecommuting, flexible schedules, and PTO are often very underused by companies, and they have no direct costs to your bottom line (indirect costs can be massive if done wrong). Offering better-than-industry perks like these go a long way to decrease turnover, and can be as or more effective as pay increases. Sometimes you can defer salaries, but outright bonuses give you some wiggle room in case of a future downturn. Depending on the nature of your startup (is most of it software?) you'll also get far more motivated and loyal employees per dollar spent by locating your offices outside of the startup capitals.