Benay Informer 05/18/2022

What success strategy "R" you using?

The four R’s of business profits: Reduce. Reuse. Recycle… Re-invest!

Measuring business success is simple; the number on the bottom line of your P&L (profit + loss statement) says it all. You can use this report as a simple way to check in on the health of your business at any time. Even if the final number has grown, you still might want to review your office activities to increase the percentage of profit you are bringing in.

It’s funny how even the most minor changes in operations, procedures, and material usage can work, almost like magic, to improve your bottom line. Using a handful of mighty “Rs,” here are a handful of ideas to consider implementing.

Reduce. Lowering the costs of doing business is the first of these ideas simply because it is simple and logical.

Reducing your costs and waste makes sense, right? If you lower the costs to make your product or provide your service while maintaining the sale price, you will naturally see more profit for your company. Similarly, if you reduce the amount of waste created, perhaps by using supplies more efficiently, you will also see profits increase.

Talk to your printer about reducing the size of your hand-held materials to get more on a sheet, sourcing alternate vendors of supplies, ordering larger batches for lowered unit costs, or bringing in 3rd party providers for parts of your business that can fill in gaps you are feeling at a lower hourly rate than your full-time team. Or just go digital with everything you can!

A few of our clients at Benay have begun implementing a hybrid approach to in-person work time, utilizing the idea of shared working spaces instead of single-use ones. Sharing desks and other work areas will allow your company to rent smaller office spaces and lower their daily rent amount.

Reuse. This one is generally spoken about by having reusable cups and cutlery on hand instead of disposable and sharing magazines before recycling them. In terms of lowering your carbon footprint and also reducing your recurring costs of these supplies, these are great ideas. I’d like to stake this one step further and apply it to your operations.

I’ve read about and assisted businesses to invest in increasing the robustness of equipment so it can be used a good number of times more, purchase whiteboards for use as sign-up sheets or scheduling boards instead of paper, reuse file folders by turning them around or re-labeling. You can also lower your operations and efforts by reusing ideas.

Recycle. Hear me out here, as I am not suggesting you keep a recycle bin in the lunchroom and take it into a center near you for a refund that you can then use toward your bottom line. (I should note here that recycling is a nice thing to do for the environment, and doing this could be a great way to grow a “fun fund” for the office… that’s a whole other email topic!). I would like to suggest recycling your content and ideas, thus reducing time and effort made by your teams instead of continuously reinventing the proverbial wheel.

The recycle tactic—using one bit of input in various ways—is most likely already being used to draft more obvious repeatable documents like proposals, contracts, and other form letters. It is also a step further than the similar idea discussed in Reuse. Consider also using “Recycle” for more creative projects such as your social media, presentations, advertisements, and one-off communications.

For example, you can use one single inspirational video as a part of an online ad/commercial, trim a short piece of it for use as a motivational Monday post (or posts) on your social media platforms, and then also use the main sentences as callout art in a blog post too. Using one piece of creative in multiple ways will save time and money.

Re-Invest. This is the magic R. The one where business gets exciting. You get to spend the funds you have been diligently working on setting aside or saving! Yep. You read that right. You save some, then you spend some. The trick to making this the “Magic R” is to spend it on the company and its’ team.

Re-investing funds saved elsewhere into research and development, incentives for staff, and also in long-term “oh sh**” moments (AKA insurance) provides the oomph you need to stay engaged and a safety net you hope you’ll never have to touch.

As always, the team at Benay is happy to help you create magic with the R’s and clarity with the P+L’s in your business to create optimal situations with less stress and effort on your part. Reply here or give us a call to get started in a way that is uniquely yours. We’ll have you saying, “TaDa!” in no time.

Wishing you success,

Dawn

PS. Have you seen our commercial yet? Huge thanks to the RISE team at Comcast!

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Tips to make your week better!

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