You, or your accountant, should already be tracking your operating costs. Tracking your key expenses is vital to finding the minimum cost required to do each task successfully. Once you've quantified each expense separately, it will be easier to identify where you can save money. Sometimes finding one key expense that can be reduced can make the difference between success and failure.

Operating costs generally include personnel, facilities, loan payments, taxes, depreciation, licenses, Internet services, legal and professional services, office supplies, subscriptions, travel and entertainment, and advertising or marketing. When you examine each item carefully, you will see that with some licenses, for example, there is little option for reducing cost because they include fixed rates. Other costs, such as personnel, are almost completely in your power to change. Lowering expenditures in these fields can be as simple as conserving resources.