You focus on revenues.  You watch the cost of revenues.  You know when your margins slip a little bit.  You are right on it.  You make adjustments to get margins right back on track.
You might not be paying enough attention, however, to operating costs.  They do not feel as core to the business.  You would rather work in your business: driving revenues and serving customers.
That is true - to a degree.  But you still have to work on the business too.  It may not need as much of your time, but it still needs some attention. 
Part of working on the business is working on your operating costs.  If you end up spending too much money in operating costs, then:
•    You work hard to squeeze a couple percentage points more into your margins and then throw it right away and more with your operating costs.
•    Work is slow or incomplete in your other operating areas.
•    The costs can circle back and affect revenues and margins. 

You may have heard that if you know you have a problem, you have 50% of the solution. 
To know if you have a problem with operating costs, you have to be aware of those costs. 
•    Make a commitment to look at the operating costs in your monthly financials. 
•    Follow the suggestions later on how to group and report these costs to make it easy for your review.
•    Keep on top during the month, by adding key operating costs and groups into your dashboard.
•    Take action on what you see.
•    Plan ahead with the ideas later in budgeting.
•    Get your key people aware as well and follow the advice in the ownership section.
•    Tap into outside views too.

Commit to paying attention to operating costs below the gross margin line.  Get your people and outside advisors aware too. Through them you will become more aware.  What you become aware of, you can take care of.