It’s no secret that businesses are having a tough time making last year’s sales numbers.

My phone is living proof of this as it rings daily from retailers wanting advice on how to weather the current business cycle.

And while growing sales is key to building a business, in tough times that is often not realistic.

Tough times demand survival and survival often depends on getting your costs low enough that you can stay in the black no matter what happens to your sales.

Unfortunately, too many business owners get locked into fixed costs that can’t be reduced at will.

Building leases, cars, loan payments, some types of advertising, etc are all examples of costs that stay the same regardless of sales.

Salaries often fall into this category too unless you’re willing to make some difficult changes.

Here’s my thought for the day…

How much can you do with how little?  Can you figure out a way to make more of your costs variable?

How can you avoid signing into long term obligations by purchasing services on an ‘as needed’ basis? For example, instead of leasing a larger building for infrequent sales bursts, can you utilize temporary storage whose cost goes away when you’re not using it?

How much can you do with how little?

There is money to be made if you can master that idea in tough times, and stick to it in good times.

Marc