Stick to Your Budget to Help You Build Business Momentum

If a company's goal is to increase profits, the answer isn't always “increase revenue." Instead, maybe your expenses are the real barrier between you and greater profitability. Often, business owners think, “If I could just make more money, then I could cover all the costs and finally increase my profit margin." In reality, you might be able to reach that goal more quickly simply by managing a budget and reducing expenses.

This year, move past resolutions and goals. Instead, commit to a business budget that's framed by financial discipline. Here are some strategies to help you reach your profit goals through better expense management.

1. Leverage business credit card tools to help improve expense tracking.

Business credit cards provide an end-of-year summary that is segmented by categories similar to those in your business budget. For example, categories may include travel, meals, equipment, transportation, supplies, and services. Credit cards may also offer monthly statement summary reports. If you use a particular business credit card for the majority of your expenses, you can break down exactly what's spent and check it against your budget.

In managing a budget, the available expense reports are often an underutilized…