2010 Is Your Year to Profit Again

The difficulties that big businesses have experienced over the past several months are opening doors for small business owners to achieve renewed success.  It’s important for the entrepreneur to be primed for success, and a good control of business expenses, both fixed expenses and variable expenses, is a great place to start. 

Banks have increase many small business’ debt service expense by amortizing out previously revolving lines of credit.  And the small business owner can only cut other expenses, like staffing and advertising so far without a negative impact on the company’s sales and lead generation.  Because of these challenges, the small business owner should always be on the lookout for creative ways to keep their other expenses low. 

Pool Resources Where You Can

One new idea is that business associates in related but not competing fields are pooling their resources to realize lower expenses overall.  For example, they may choose to share rental space with one another rather than be strangled by expensive lease obligations. 

Another option would be to join forces with a related business associate to send out a joint advertising campaign rather than pay for the entire thing yourself. 

Pooling resources is an ideal way to cut otherwise fixed expenses, which can be an immediate improvement to your bottom line.  Another added bonus is that sales often increase due to referrals that you wouldn’t have otherwise received. 

Replace Expensive Staff Overhead Where You Can

Many small businesses are opting away from traditional sales force and production staff and choosing to use non-traditional strategies for meeting their staffing needs.  Is it possible to outsource, or to use contract or part time labor so that you are only paying for work that actually needs to be done?  A shift from a fixed to a variable expense can many times result in an immediate improvement to your bottom line by decreasing your overhead substantially. 

Many small business owners feel that sales employees are a necessary fixed expense, but there are even some solutions for keeping this expense in check.  Why not consider putting your customers and business associates to work referring you business by offering a referral fee each time a lead they send you becomes a sale?  By using these resources, you will only have to pay when you actually make a sale.  Not bad! 

Rebid Necessary Expenses

Unfortunately, there aren’t creative ways to cut or avoid all expenses, especially things like bankcard processing, telephone, and insurance.  But, as the economy becomes more competitive, so do many of these businesses, and it is important to be always on the lookout for the best deal.  Get new bids on these expenses frequently and your total expenses will decrease.  Even contract labor can be bid and improved, particularly as layoffs and lackluster economy provides more talented resources available. 

The small business owner who is able to adjust and make fast changes could be very successful in the coming year.  Analyzing expenses and making changes where you can is a great way to add to that success. 

To get more small business success strategies, and to claim your free white paper:  “7 Ways Your Stone-Age Accounting System is Stealing Money From You Every Day … And, How to Get it Back This Year”   visit www.WebAccountingOnline.com.