Need a debt reduction program? You are not alone. Here are 5 tips on reducing debt that you can do right now.

1 - Stop Using Credit Cards

The place to start is by locking away the credit cards and figuring out how to cut expenses back to function within your income. Figure out ways to increase your income and instead,use only cash. This is the single most effective action you can take.

2 - Never Commit to Spending More Than Your Company's Income

You commit your company's future production to the credit company when you pay for an item with a credit card. Then you experience economic slavery. Take a hard look at whether the item you are about to buy is really something that will increase your company's income, or whether it is just something you want at the moment. If you really need it to produce more income, figure out how to make the cash to pay for it over a short period of time, rather than buying on credit. Find ways to increase the company's income and use it to pay both current expenses and pay off credit debt.

3 - Pay More Than The Minimum Payment That's Required

To be really effective, your program should include using 10% to 15% of the business' weekly income to pay against the debt. Set a goal to pay at least 3 to 5 times the minimum required payment on each credit card and line of credit. Stash away a portion of the payment money each week before the statements arrive in the mail. It's much easier to set aside a smaller amount over 4 weeks than scramble to come up with the whole amount out of one week's income.

Your debt reduction program should also include the strategy of paying more on the highest interest rate card. An additional tactic is paying off low balance cards as fast as possible. After paying those lower balance cards off, you free up more cash to use on the high interest rate cards.

4 - Never Spend Over The Card Limit Or Pay Late

Getting hit with $25 to $39 late payment or over-the-limit fees on which you'll be charged interest is a sure-fire way to set your debt reduction program back one giant step. Plus, if your payment arrives more than 30 days late, your credit record carries that big black mark against you for 7 years - a whopper of a penalty.

Recently the Vice President of a U.S. bank announced on the news that in excess of 24 Billion dollars was paid in the past year on credit cards for over-limit fees, late payment charges and interest. I hope you don't think the credit company minds too much if you go over your spending limit or mail your payment late. They collected billions because of it.

5 - Cut Back on Expenses

An effective program to reduce debt requires as much extra cash as possible and as fast as possible. Examine where your business' income is going and cut back on any expenses that do not contribute to the production of more income. Before you spend, figure out how much money that particular purchase is going to return to your business.

TIP: Always keep promoting your your business' products and services to everyone - don't cut back on that activity. Just make sure you are getting more money back in sales from your promotional activities than what it costs to promote.

Correctly managing the money in a business to make sure it survives takes more than a program to reduce debt, but this is a really good place to start. There are other strategies that can be worked out to increase the business' income, pay bills on time, have cash reserves for emergencies, increase profitability and pay yourself a higher salary. Who doesn't want that, right?

Sandra Simmons, President of Money Management Solutions, has years of experience helping business owners and families manage their money to become debt free. To learn more about the Money Management Software she created, visit her website and watch the FREE 5-minute demo video at www.MoneyMgmtSolutions.com