Whit's World: WANTED: Cost-saving ideas
1 Aug, 2008 By: Marty Whitford Landscape ManagementGas prices got ya down, pardner? Need your posse to come out shooting with an arsenal of cost-saving solutions? Go Wild West: Pay your people a big bounty for each cost-saving idea successfully executed.
 MARTY WHITFORD |
This month's One-Armed Bandits Part 2 details just a few of the treks some landscape companies are trudging to help offset record gas price hikes — the average retail price for diesel is up 64% and unleaded regular is up 37% from last summer.
As mentioned in the prequel (my July One-Armed Bandits Part I cover story), fuel surcharges and general price increases are warranted in many cases and can help fend off this economy's barrage of profit-piercing arrows. But many landscape professionals say these moves cover less than half of the total fuel-tab increase for their vehicles, equipment and almost everything else transported to and from their storage yards (from fertilizer and PVC tubing for irrigation, to aggregate, plants, flowers and trees, to waste removal services).
How do we quickly find and unearth these buried treasures called corporate cost savings? Easy: Offer your posse 20 cents of every dollar saved the first year of idea implementation and when the dust settles you'll have more viable cost-saving strategies to consider than you can crack a whip at.
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What's that you say? Twenty percent is too high? Too bad. You want a wagon-full of sound, novel cost-saving ideas and you want them executed yesterday, correct? Besides, the frosted mug in the saloon is 80% full — that is full of money you don't have today. Equally important, these cost savings drop right to your bottom line — and you only have to share these treasures for one year, and only with those who help find and recover them.
And remember: When you're digging for gold, it doesn't always pan out.
When I was a kid, I borrowed a $20 bill from my mom (without her knowledge) and planted it in our backyard. I planned on paying back the initial investment and then some. I had seen a "money tree" commercial on TV promoting a local savings and loan, and got to thinking ... By the time Mom found out, it was too late. She handed me a shovel and made me turn over soil all day searching in vain for the treasure I buried. The moral to this Whit's World story: Our corporate parents need the opportunity to sift through our cost-saving ideas before we pursue them.
Contact Marty at 216/706-3766 or e-mail at
mwhitford@questex.com
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