Employment is the largest overhead cost for small businesses, as it includes wages and salaries, bonuses, annual leave, sick pay, pensions etc. A rule of thumb measure is that a small business is performing well if total overhead costs do not exceed 35% of total revenue. This is trickier for new startup businesses which are growing and not yet stable and/or profitable. To reduce overheads, SME owners often bring costs such as bookkeeping, company secretarial and even taxation in-house, but this comes with the obvious off-set in less time running their business. This can be successful but needs to be micro-managed, whether a business is more focused on the top line or bottom line.