Control Your Costs - Do You Know How Much You're Spending?

There are some things serious online business owners do that most who don't treat what they do like a real business fail to do. A big one is knowing and being in control of your costs. This might seem boring to some of you, but in our frantic search for more ways to make money online we often forget that there's the other side of the ledger to consider, too.

A good example: my printer died a few months ago. I did not replace it. I didn't just think "hey, it broke so I need a new one." I really sat and thought it through. I realized I very rarely use a printer. Not enough to bother buying one.

I know that's a small expense these days, but it's just one example.

Here's another: let domains expire. I'm as guilty as anyone over the years of being a packrat about buying up domain names. But when I finally took the time to actually see how many of them I was using vs. how many were sitting there doing nothing, I realized what a money suck they were. So I let most of them expire. If they are really important, you'll use them in that first year. If not, you won't. Let them go.

If you take an hour or two, I guarantee you'll come up with a bunch of things in your business that are money sucks. In your entire life, for that matter. Cut back where it really isn't going to matter.

All told, when I got serious about this, the savings amounted to an increase in my annual income of about $2,200. Hey, nearly $200/month is nothing to sneeze at, right?

John