Profitable Home Based Businesses Page

Profitable Home Based Businesses and Managing Your Costs

The common understanding among many entrepreneurs and also among people who work in offices is that the cost of running a home business is actually quite low. While your costs are much lower in some areas, there is still a need to manage these costs to ensure that your business remains profitable. We will explore a few of these areas in this short article.

The expense of running a business, whether it is a home based business or otherwise can be divided into fixed overhead costs, variable costs that are linked to production of whatever service or product you provide to your customers and the cost of sales. These three main areas are the fundamental areas that everyone needs to focus on to ensure they are adequately managing this part of the business and ensure they have a profitable home based business.

Fixed overhead costs are expenses that occur every month regardless of whether you make a single sale. They include such things as utilities, rent, taxes, lease payments and any other costs that are going to occur regardless of the amount of revenue you take in. of course if you are expanding to meet increasing demand for your services or your products, your overhead costs may also increase if you need to add more space or utilize more utilities. These costs need to be managed closely since once you commit to an increased level they are often in place for some time.

Variable costs are directly linked to your production of goods and services. As production goes up so do your costs for labor, raw materials, packaging, shipping and support. The per unit cost should be monitored closely to make sure that as your volume increases, you gain efficiencies which drives your per unit cost down and profit up. Analysis of this key area is important. Based on this analysis you may decide to purchase a more efficient device to increase productivity etc. that drives your unit costs down and makes your home based business more profitable.

Finally the last area is cost of sales. Cost of sales are costs that are directly related to the activity of selling to your customers. Management of these costs are very important and should be directly related to securing additional business for your home based business. Pay close attention to this area to ensure that your business remains profitable as you are adding new markets or new products to your overall business.