Sticking to a budget is something every business person thinks about almost every day. Here are some tricks to keep on track, cut costs, and increase your bottom line:

¨  Take a negotiations course. You likely have markets and trade shows penciled in on your calendar and you want to hit the ground running. Are you certain that you are really getting the best price on everything you buy for the store? If you’re not sure, a course on the art of negotiation can help. Take a class at your community college, online, or download podcasts so you can listen and learn new skills on your drive to and from the store.

¨  Follow a non-negotiable budget for every area of the store. When you went through your list of expenditures for 2017, and reviewed how much you spent in each category, you used your good judgment to choose figures that become your 2018 budget. How are you doing so far? Make sure that everyone who buys anything for the store knows that this dollar amount is all the money there is to spend. Period. 

¨  Carefully check incoming invoices and statements to make sure they are correct. Hold everyone accountable for any monies that are reimbursed. Insist on receipts for travel, samples purchased, mileage, entertainment, and other miscellaneous expenses.

¨  Get a scale and weigh the packages that are delivered to your store. Check to see how much it would cost you to return the package to the sender, and then review the invoice to make sure you were charged the correct amount.

Those little overages add up, as do the refunds you are entitled to when a UPS or FedEx shipment is late. We love Refund Retriever, a company that automatically detects issues with your shipments, applies for refunds, and verifies that those refunds are credited back to your account. All you pay is a percentage of what is retrieved.