If You Run A 10% Margin, Cutting Expenses By 11% Doubles Your Profit

The headline is not clickbait. It is arithmetic.

The Maths

At £1,000,000 revenue and 10% net margin, profit is £100,000. Keeping the same margin and doubling profit via sales requires an extra £1,000,000 in revenue.

Cutting £900,000 of expenses by 11% yields roughly £199,900 profit. Same revenue. Nearly double profit.

That is usually two to five disciplined cost decisions, not a heroic turnaround.

Why Owners Chase The Harder One

Revenue work feels exciting and visible. Expense work feels small and boring, even when it is far more profitable.

The Expense Audit

1. Pull 12 months of line-by-line expenses.
2. Sort into: essential good, essential bloated, used to be useful, never useful.
3. Add the bottom two buckets.

In £200K-£5M businesses, that number is often far larger than expected.

What To Do This Week

Block two hours. Run the audit. Cut three items by Friday.

Then repeat quarterly. The compounding effect is the edge.

A Note On What We Do

Profit & Cash Flow is one of the ten BOSS Diagnostic areas. Many owners think they have a revenue problem when they really have a margin problem.

11% is usually closer than it looks.