Controlling costs can only come with a good understanding of what generates the expenses. Small business owners need to pay attention to every little earning and expense to determine the best direction for the future of the company.

Stop staying focused only on how to make the business grow; this new approach can get you to start saving immediately. Using benchmarking systems can help you track the expenses over time and allow you to compare the data with that of other similar businesses.

You need more than performance indicators. These will only show how the expenditure and the budget compare. You need to start determining the real cost of certain operations. Include everything from the raw materials to the salaries paid. Review each aspect periodically until you can view the trends with more accuracy. Keeping detailed records will help in the process. Failing to do so might get you to hire more people and to face tax liability.

It’s also possible to cut the operating costs by involving everyone in the company. This isn’t solely your responsibility. Each employee must get educated on the matter and become aware of the necessity of cutting costs. This needs to become a common responsibility. Employees are often prone to wasting the resources of a company because they don’t give this a proper thought and they’re not the ones to make the calculations.

You should start monitoring the cost of the goods that are sold. The variable costs are essential. These are the expenses of producing and delivering each item to customers. The more you sell, the bigger these costs become. You may calculate these in two ways. You either take it as a percentage of the sales or you simply calculate the cost per item. If royalties are involved, then include that too. Royalties represent the fees paid when using someone else’s intellectual content, for example.

There is more besides production costs. Many stop at this but you must have a look at the entire process a good goes through. Once it’s produced and reached your business place, you may have to wrap it, ship it and deliver it. The expenditures don’t end with the production.

Proceed to checking the contracts you have with suppliers, lenders etc. At times, they may have better deals and it would be good to revise the terms. See if you can change the current deal for a better one. You have to remember to do this periodically.

Let’s have a word about the in-house systems and the materials and energy you use, too. For example the business water – you could be wasting loads of it and it may take special custom solution implementation to fix that. Furthermore, you may want to consider acquiring energy efficient equipment and lighting, using less space for business operations (and therefore spending less on heating, cooling and electricity), purchasing fuel-efficient vehicles and so on.