Posted on: Monday, November 12, 2001

60 Seconds on Business
Just look around for ways to save

By Dr. Drake Beil
President, Solutions Inc.

Have you investigated all the savings opportunities around you? Here's a few ideas you might want to consider:

• Consider moving your offices to a better location. With businesses struggling, landlords and management companies are desperately looking for stable companies to occupy their space. If you are willing to commit to a multi-year lease, you can get free rent for months, improvements, custom-buildouts and more if you ask around and make your intentions known.

• Ask for discounts in printing and copying services in exchange for guaranteeing all your business. You can make your purchases prepaid or set up a credit line to streamline the process and save the vendor time and effort in collections.

• Organize purchasing so that everything costing more than, say, $500 or $1,000 is bought only with competitive bidding.

• Stop replacing departed employees. Wait 90 to 180 days and see what happens. Your remaining people might prefer to keep the work themselves, if you can design fair bonuses for improved performance.

• Deal with debt effectively. The greater the level of debt in your business, the more vulnerable you are, and your business is, to marketplace pressures.

Author and debt-management consultant Gary Sutton offers these tips:

• Don't borrow money when you're in trouble.

• If you do borrow money, use it carefully. Cash can make you careless. Call in a consultant for help.

Reach Dr. Drake Beil at drake@60secondsonbusiness.