There are two ways to make or save money. One is to increase the amount that comes in and the other is to decrease the amount that goes out. And even though most of us know that, too many of us overlook or don’t give enough due diligence to the latter.

Yes we often obsess on more, more, and more but we fail to realize how we can cut costs or be more proficient with our operating expenses. Some even fool themselves by being as they say ‘penny wise and dollar foolish’, which is just as damaging as not paying any attention at all to our costs of doing business.

Part of reducing overhead involves the evolution of technology. Yes we need to embrace the improvements that progress affords us. Even if we consider ourselves as part of the computer crowd, we need to recognize the advancement within the computer world just as well.

Now it should be noted that this does not mean using the latest and greatest approach or spending at a drop of a hat. It does mean keeping abreast of what is available and knowing when to pull the trigger on a new product or philosophy. The more you understand the role of overhead the more you will be able to decide what is a cost saving investment or what is a waste of money.

Now while this applies to business overall it also is a variable in on line business. So something as simple as purchasing a domain name and choosing a host should involve considering the initial outlay of money and weighing the potential of earnings.

You need to carry this mindset to areas where computer and physical business cross hairs. For example if you use the Internet or computer applications in your physical store you need to consider who is going to be manning the desktop. It may be as simple as a point of sale program or as much as running a marketing department. You need to consider, is my staff made up of computer knowledgeable people? If not, it is going to cost you in bringing them up to speed by way of training. (Which does not automatically mean that it isn’t worth training them) Or perhaps you could install a user friendly or a more simplistic operating system. Again you need to project these costs before you make a decision as to what you will do.

If you are strictly an online business, then you need to balance many of the same components. Whether you will hire employees or hire a service, you need to calculate the cost verses the gains. For example maybe it will cost more to hire an outside service but the gain will exceed an in house team 5 fold. Then spending more is more than worth it. But if you can run your own team at half the expense and yield say 80% of what a service yields, than by all means the lower costs plus the gains exceed the dividends of a professional contracted service.

This obviously will include decisions like how much to spend on computers and what level of quality your equipment will bring. Should you fork out the big bucks for blue tooth or high end hand touch machines? Or is the low end practical machine up to the task? Will you have a computer tech, aka “geek”, on hand to cover your maintenance needs?

The long and the short of all of this is whether you are just running your own little blog or staffing a computer based marketing team, you need to take the time and compare the accounts receivable with the accounts payable on a regular basis.

Keep your overhead under control and working for you and not against you.

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