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. 

One expense that has increased for many small businesses is debt service, as the bank panic of 2009 caused many revolving debt facilities to be amortized.  And it is only possible to cut some expenses, like marketing and staffing so far without seeing a negative impact on sales.  With these things in mind, it is critical for the small business owner to always be on the lookout for creative ways to control other expenses. 

Pool Resources Where You Can

Many business owners are working with non-competitive business associates in a collaborative method in order to cut expenses.  For instance, two or three business owners may agree to share office space and other overhead such as equipment rather than each be responsible for the entire expense. 

Others have created co-op marketing campaigns and shared the expense. 

Strategically combining resources is a great way to immediately improve what could otherwise be costly fixed expenses, an almost instant improvement to the small business owner’s bottom line.  And who knows, this collaborative strategy may result in added referrals you might not have received otherwise. 

Replace Expensive Staff Overhead Where You Can

A number of small business owners have decided to forgo costly employee overhead and are instead using non-traditional staffing techniques to meet their 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?  By shifting these costs from a fixed to a variable expense, you can often reduce your overhead substantially, a direct impact on your bottom line. 

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.  What do you think about using your customers and business connections as your sales staff by offering finder’s fees that will be paid at any time a lead becomes a sale?  This technique allows you to only pay out when you actually get a sale.  Cool! 

Rebid Necessary Expenses

Reality is that there will always be expenses you just can’t avoid, such as telephone, insurance, and bankcard processing.  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 previously challenging expense categories, such as contract labor can now be renegotiated, because layoffs and dull economic conditions are creating a pool of more capable resources to choose from. 

This year can provide amazing advantages for the small business owner who is more flexible and can make changes quickly.  Studying your expenses and adjusting where it is possible is a terrific way to further improve 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.