Welcome again to the Building Better Business Series.

Managing your business operating costs is one way to improve your bottom line without the need to increase sales or margins.

Expenses fall into two broad categories:

• Fixed costs are defined as expenses that do not change in proportion to the activity of a business e.g. rent.
• Variable costs are expenses that change in proportion to the activity of a business e.g.wages.
  

In this issue of the Building Better Business series we will look at a number of key strategies that can be used to monitor and manage your variable costs (expenses).