Cost cutting ideas for business's during the recession

niceirishfella

hi,

Thought I'd open a thread with ideas and thought on how to get yours and my operating cost base down to the minimum to keep a float and maybe not have to reduce staff or cut other areas in the business.

I noted from another thread here, re; Electricity bills - one business owner stated he saved 22k by moving to Bord Gais for his electric energy suppy!
There are 3 suppliers in this state,

Bord Gais,
Airtricity,
or Energia.

Other areas to cut and snip are Courier costs, insurance costs, stationary costs, telecom providers, fuel (petrol & diesel costs) just at the top of my head.

Please add more for us all to consider and discuss and it might prompt some of us to move after a solid cost saving recommendation. We are all gladiators in the one ring - lets fight to keep operating and be ready for the up-turn!;)

Rgds,
NIF

MB74

Good thread topic.

I've looked at all my own outgoings and where I can make savings, high on the list is stationery, we don't stick to just one supplier but go with whoever offers the best for whatever product, also look for current deals with different suppliers when available (will refrain from mentioning suppliers names).

Experimented with recycled ink cartridges although didn't find quality as good but acceptable.

Also negotiated a new deal from our mobile supplier.

Slightly on a tangent to this would be who here is not fearing the recession and believes it may in fact help their business? I'm in the insurance business and as suggested by OP more and more businesses are shopping around so enquiry level has not fallen off, I have experienced a good level of success over the second half of this year all thanks to people being more dilligent.

Would love to hear other peoples ideas too.

hilltop

Where I'm working they've recently announced that all travel abroad is to be booked 2 months in advance where possible and for no more than 2 nights. Also alcohol (eg. wine with dinner) can no longer be claimed on expenses,

chillywilly

hilltop wrote: »

Where I'm working they've recently announced that all travel abroad is to be booked 2 months in advance where possible and for no more than 2 nights. Also alcohol (eg. wine with dinner) can no longer be claimed on expenses,

is that in Fas by any chance?:p

Oppenhe1mer

On the Telco side try to get people to prioritise...i.e., I asked people to use Skype, landline, mobile in that order and especially using international calls. If your business is small enough you may be able to manage a business group on Skype and add credit to people for the purposes of calling landlines and mobiles. This makes what you pay for bandwidth go further. Since we introduced Skype the eircom bill tumbled by more than 55%.

niceirishfella

and tidy wee trick is to use 11890 FREE from an eircom landline for directory enquiries.....this offer is on till the end of Dec. I'm doing this a lot at the min.

Culchie

I've increased fuel consumption/bill efficiency by 30% by taking the ladders (20%) and roofrack (further 10%) off the van.

90% of our work can be done by ladders/platforms that can carried inside van.

jerryob

use maxroam for international roaming. this can provide your international suppliers/customers with a local number for you.

niceirishfella

jerryob wrote: »

use maxroam for international roaming. this can provide your international suppliers/customers with a local number for you.

Jerry, Tell us more about Maxroam if you know more?

jerryob

ya, i should have pointed you to their site The deal is that you sign get a 'maxroam' SIM which you insert into your current mobile, and when abroad, routes your mobile number through a local exchange resulting in your international roaming call costing the same as a local call. OK, there is some margin on top, of course. The site is fairly descriptive, so I won't re-describe the workings here again.

One important point - your mobile must not be SIM locked. I'm sure there are plenty tricks around this if it is....

I've only heard 2nd hand stories from those using it, and they seem happy with the service / cost reduction. How much reduction, I don't know. I've been meaning to sign up for the last couple months, but didn't.

It's one of Pat Phelans babies - he of Twitterfone fame. Most things he touches turn to gold. As I will be travelling alot again next year, I will be signing up after Christmas.

ted1

for electricity you also have ESB and ESBie (independat energy) . ESBIE are a far better supplier thna any of the others out there.

most companies who have a bill over 5 grand can easily safe money by simple energy mangement.

O'Fla

The obvious is stationery. We now use a company who supply recycled ink and toners for machines. The quality is just as good as the OEM, the service is better than that of Viking etc and it now saves Me 25%.

Darragh29

If you are providing private health insurance to staff, you can save a fortune by moving from VHI to Hibernian. On a "like for like" cover comparison, the difference is over 300 Euro at the moment...

jerryob

while not a direct cost saving, a decent improvement on bottom line can be made by claiming EU VAT back on expenses, such as travel, hotel, etc. If large amounts of travel to EU occurs within the company, this can mount up.

It's a bit tedious to reclaim, but this EU VAT Refund Guide from Deloitte, while a couple years old, is decent. Each claim needs to be made to each country's tax authority, so you would need to guage whether the reward outweighs the hassle.

You can't claim back from an EU country if you have a presence there.And of course, if you are purchasing products/services, make sure you issue the supplier with your VAT number, so that you can claim them VAT free.

CallieO

Focus on your existing customers and retaining them
It costs alot more to replace them - improve communications

Add ITC to your website
Host your own web presence
Market online
Retain and train existing staff
Maximise efficiencies
Look at your distribution
Assess your stock holding levels

VO

Businesses have to be careful when cutting costs that it does not impact on customer service. One recognised method of cost cutting in both large and small businesses is outsourcing - allowing specialists to handle specific tasks. Areas like Payroll, administration, Warehousing etc are ideal for outsourcing and if ousourced to a professional company can actually improve customer service.

<snip>

niceirishfella

VO wrote: »

<snip>

- Hmmmmmmmm, new poster........Hmmmmmmmm, and this reads like an AD.
If its the case VO, can you give me 3 months free to see if its as good as you say?

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Tony

Just carried out a review of my shipping arrangements and decided to go with DPD . Major advantage is you can ship as many parcels to the one address as you like up to 25KG. In some cases this has cut my shipping charge by half which I think will encourage more sales. If you do decent volume they will give you a computer and printer to run the address labels. Decent online tracking and delivery so far.

postlund

About a year ago, I purchased a US Maxroam number with a really nice ring to it (please excuse the unintended pun) , the number is (area code) 929-0100.


I am based in Sweden but have a significant portion of the business in the U.S. Since it is a great advantage for US customers to call a local number rather than having to dial international to make contact, this number has been put on business cards and has been spread and communicated to many customers and other important business contacts. Having a cellphone with a local US number has been of particular value when I have been on longer business trips in the US.


Since we made such an investment in communicating the number, I even contacted Maxroam and asked them to verify that we would keep this number and got such assurances in writing from the customer services representative Sean Halpin.
But in November this number, without any previous warning, suddenly ceased to work and only after a fairly long time Maxroam got back to me and told me that the “number provider” had decided to take this particular number back and that there was nothing they could do about it. They also pointed to one of the clauses in their user contract with states that they have the right to replace subscriber numbers without any reason. One month after taking the number away from me I was presented with a random list of numbers, none of the with the slightest “ring” to it (see above).


I write this blog entry because I want to warn other users, particularly business users that the Maxroam subscriber numbers are only to be considered as temporary and can be replaced at any time without Maxroam having to give you any warning, reason or compensation for this.
To me, this haphazard approach to phone numbers is totally unacceptable and today I am considering legal action for the damage caused - I would also like to argue that today, the cellphone number is a very important asset and a part of the identity, both for individuals and for businesses.

madmik

cut out the business lunches and or breakfasts

it all adds up

avoid starbucks and subway

make your own coffee and sandwiches

have business meetings with clients and staff in the office

not in nearby pubs/hotels

buy good coffee from wholesalers etc

I save €20 a day which sounds like not much but its €7300 a year

sm.org

madmik wrote: »

cut out the business lunches and or breakfasts

it all adds up

avoid starbucks and subway

make your own coffee and sandwiches

have business meetings with clients and staff in the office

not in nearby pubs/hotels

buy good coffee from wholesalers etc

I save €20 a day which sounds like not much but its €7300 a year

A 365 day working calendar, the wife cant be happy

ScouseMouse

I have a shop.

I have a large 4 wheeled bin which was collected weekly. I got a step ladder and jumped up and down on it. I compacted it by about half. Now I get a bin lift every two weeks and save myself 70 euro per month.

I turn off my mineral coolers at night.

When closing at ten pm, I turn off the shop lights and cash up using a lamp and the light from one of my dairy fridges. This cuts out, perhaps, 40 lights for about half an hour per day.

I have a timer on my immersion heater to heat the water for twenty minutes every hour between, 6am and 9pm. Serious saving there.

madmik

sm.org wrote: »

A 365 day working calendar, the wife cant be happy

i counted the full year becauuse usually 20euro would not cover the daily expenses,

i worked it out like this:

9.00 am bacon sambo +coffee €7
11.30 coffee + muffin €5
2.00 pub lunch €12.50+pint €5.50

total 30.00

thk fck i dont smoke 40 a day anymore,that would be another 15 quid on top

hannahmum

Hi all- great thread. On the subject of saving energy- we are currently spending a fortune on gas bills- are there other suppliers out there apart from Bord Gais????

niceirishfella

hannahmum wrote: »

Hi all- great thread. On the subject of saving energy- we are currently spending a fortune on gas bills- are there other suppliers out there apart from Bord Gais????

I'm not sure if there is currently, but i saw on the news yesterday the Pheonix Gas in NI are going to enter the marketplace for gas here. More competition.

markhoran@eirco

Hi ppl,
just to let you know, we provide massive savings on replacing ware house lighting with our new lights, we also do energy efficient fluorescent tubes less than half the running costs of the standard lights. If you would like more info, post a thread with your number and Il call you

CDfm

VOIP via Blueface

Guinness always start with stationary as it gives va culture of costcutting.

MB74

Wow reading all these I nearly tempted to say long live the recession!!!

kentwo

Hello,
could you recommend me a broker with the cheapest product liability insurance, please ?
Thanks in advance
Ken

Tony

markhoran@eirco wrote: »

. If you would like more info, post a thread with your number and Il call you

Start a thread purely for the purpose of giving out your number? Surely thats what PM's are for?

egan007

CallieO wrote: »

Host your own web presence

That's a bad idea for lots of reasons.

Agree, increase web presence.
Invest in promotion generally.

Cut stationery bills - I recommend googling stationery audit

fabbydabby

Sustainable Energy Ireland do a free advise, mentoring and assesment program for manufacturing where they get an engineer out to your place to do a study, then write a report telling you where you can make savings. Even simple things like putting timers on machines and turning off the heating an hour earlier can save a fortune in the long run.

Don't know if this applies to other types of businesses though.

JJJJNR

paperless office FTW!

Also work the IcT contract, see where you can make some savings. Another area would be turning computers off at night, PSU in a computer left on 365 would cost about 250 euros a year to run. Get your IT person to implement a green IT policy. Start a thread or PM me if you need more info.

ted1

VAYU are an alternative to Board Gais. we deal in large consumption customers, not sure what quantity of gas you'd have to be using to get them to sipply you , but a phonecall isn't going to break you r bank

drunkmonkey

CDfm wrote: »

VOIP via Blueface

how cheap can you get calls to mobile with them through VOIP, I need mobile calls as cheap as possible, even free..

wonkyfish

If you have a baler in your business for compacting cardboard you cn also use it for compacting regular waste and it will reduce the volume to 20% of the original, this means you can dramatically cut how many wheelie bin pick ups you need

patphelan

Hi Per
we have been communicating with you since last year, totally correct
In fact I communicated with you yesterday and today again, we lost your number, you are 100% correct, its the first time it happened in 131,000 numbers, I have offered to replace your business cards, refund you the sim cost or add a substansial sum of credit to your account which you admit you liked.
My emails to you go unanswered and you appear to be disinterested in an offer I make but have no problem spending your time going around forums slating us.
Things must be incredibly slow in Possio or maybe you have an ulterior motive.
Anyways I am always available at pat at maxroam dot com or +353872049121 should you wish to resolve this matter

mynameis..

wonkyfish is right, you have several options for cutting waste costs both recycling and general waste. The baler is the most common equipment for cutting recyclable waste costs and the volume reduction is as much as 90% (which means nice compacted bales of material which will be collected free by your waste handler instead of being left loose outside your premises or taking up multiple bin space) for general waste the bag compactor is best, it compacts both bagged and loose waste such as food, plastic etc.. the compaction rate here is 9 bags to 1. If you would like details on best prices and direct from manufacturer details let me know

Merrion

There is a freeware printer usage monitoring application wot I wrote here...you might be suprised how much rubbish you (and your staff) print out.

And use of this font can (allegedly) save 20% toner or ink.

ScouseMouse

Reduce your own wages but take more from the business. This results in lower tax and less burden on the business.

You could talk your company insurance broker into covering your personal car for free in return for getting the company policy.

If you have a bill payment solution in your business, use that for your personal bills.

Instead of having a personal mobile and using it for business, run it through the business and reclaim the VAT.

If your wife has a car, change it for a diesel car. Fuel receipts = VAT refund. (added to the insurance above, very handy!)

N.B. All ideas above are in theory, and does not condone or imply tax evasion, unless you are in a large bank. LOL

:D:D:D

flash harry

saw a piece on web yesterday that screensavers on monitors cost an average of $50 per annum in energy bills (yes it was a US programme) so you are better having a quiker hibernation mode on your pc instead. Sounds little but multiplied by X staff could be significant....