No matter if business is good or bad one thing is for certain… you, and those you work with, should be laser focused on cost reduction.

Now be honest, when you read the words cost reduction was the first thing that popped into your mind reduction in force? You know, laying people off?

Sadly this seems to be the most popular way to reduce costs for a lot of companies. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

There are so many other ways to reduce operating costs. So many one could write a 6 book series on the topic!

But until then, I’d like to propose 3 practical ways you and your organization, no matter the size or number of employees, can reduce costs in the front office.

Let’s get started.

1. Change Default Printing to Black & White

It’s estimated that it costs .08 cents a page to print in color versus .007 cents a page to print in black and white.

So, if we assume a person prints 10 pages a day x 260 workdays… printing in color will cost $208 per year while printing in black and white will cost $18.20 per year for a difference of $189.80.

Take that across a company of 5,000 employees and we’re talking some serious costs savings folks ($949,000).

There are ways to change the “default” print color to black and white on your computer to make this change happen. Your IT department can likely do this remotely, across the board, without employees having to do anything.

2. Text Messaging Plans

Next, if your company pays for associate’s cell phone usage I’d encourage you to check out the text messaging plans.

Some people are text message crazy while others are not. For those who love the text message it makes sense to have them on a plan to accommodate their usage.

But for those who rarely text it may make sense to have them “pay as they go” which can save $10 to $20 per month.

Again, taken across a company of 5,000 employees we’re paying a person’s salary ($100,000).

3. Print on Both Side of Paper

I have worked with clients who “recycled” their paper by printing on both sides.

They had special bins that employees placed their one sided printed documents into. This, printed on one side, paper was then placed in a special printer that everyone was mapped to.

This was their so-called “junk” printer… meaning if you wanted to print out an email or some other document that didn’t warrant a completely clean piece of paper the junk printers were called upon.

Depending on where you buy your paper, 500 sheets can cost up to $10. So, to be sure, this adds up quickly.

What am I missing?

Obviously this is a very short list of 3 things any company can do to save money. There are more posts I have written below in the Related Posts section for some additional ideas.

But I’m curious, what things are you and your organization doing to save administrative money besides, gulp, the lay-off approach?

I recently came across the video below and was intrigued by many aspects of this “rolling tool cart.”

Here are some of the things I liked.

• It was made for around $50 according to this article.
• It’s on wheels
• It can be moved to point of use eliminating motion
• It seems to be relatively safe to use
• It doesn’t take up much space

Here are some things I think could be improved.

• Do we really need that many tools on one cart or should we only focus on the tools we use most?
• If something was missing would we know?
• While labels are not everything… I’d at least like to see the drawers labeled.

What do you think?

What do you think of this?  Thumbs up or thumbs down?