First a little background before we get to the main topic of this posting. Did you know the average American gains at least two pounds a year over their lifetime? I thought I remembered this depressing fact and then did a Google search and came up with this article. To add insult to injury, I've noticed as I get older that losing weight is a slow laborious process taking several days to a week to lose a pound or two, but one large meal can add a pound or more. Now to the main topic, there was a recent article that compared losing weight by dieting to controlling overhead in your business to keep it mean, lean, and profitable.
The article describes how overhead expenses are fixed costs that your business has every month regardless of sales, such as rent, leases, and salaries for your employees. It goes on to make the point that a business will get to break-even when the profit you make from sales covers your fixed expenses. Every time a business increases an overhead expense, increased sales are needed to reach the break-even point.
The final point was that many small businesses were forced to cut overhead just to stay in business. As in our dieting example in the first paragraph, it is a lot easier to rigorously control your overhead expenses on an ongoing basis rather than having to cut expenses. Think especially hard about large overhead expense increases just as you would avoid large meals in order to control your weight.
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