Overhead is what the business pays whether or not it works. Every dollar removed lowers break-even permanently, which is why it is worth more than the same dollar saved on a job.
Start where the money actually is
Not with the small obvious things. Order the list by annual cost and work down it — most owners find the top five lines are more than half of everything.
Recurring charges. Software, subscriptions, services. Each was justified once; the total never gets reviewed. Ask three things of each: is it still used, is it the right plan, is it billed at the rate agreed. See recurring payments and software and apps.
Insurance. Rarely re-quoted, frequently over-specified for the business as it is now.
Vehicles and equipment financing. Worth re-examining when rates or usage change.
Premises. The largest line for many businesses and the least examined, because it feels immovable.
Anything annual. Easiest to forget, most likely to renew unnoticed, and the biggest single amounts.
The three questions that do the work
For every line, in this order:
Is it still used? By whom, for what. "Somebody might need it" is not a use.
Is it the right size? Per-seat products drift as the team changes, almost always upward.
Is it the right price? Introductory rates end, and the increase does not announce itself.
An hour applying those three to a full list recovers more for most small businesses than a pricing change, and takes nothing away from the business.
What not to cut
Anything that generates work. Marketing is the easiest line to cut and lengthens the problem.
Anything that prevents rework. Training, tools, and stocking the common parts all cost less than the second visits they prevent.
Insurance cover you actually need. Reducing the premium by increasing exposure is not a saving, it is a bet.
Then stop it coming back
Overhead grows because every individual addition is small and justified. It is not a decision anybody makes; it is a decision nobody makes.
Two habits prevent it. Review the full list quarterly rather than when cash is tight. And judge any new recurring cost against break-even rather than in isolation — a subscription is not "two hundred a month", it is the revenue you now have to find every month to stand still.
Whether it is working is expense trend: costs rising while revenue is flat is the signal, not costs rising.