Author: Cal Wilson - Page 7 - Schooley Mitchell

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Up to date, high-level business information that is relevant to our clients and contacts, helping keep up to date on the ver-changing business world of today.

Cal Wilson / February 21, 2023

Are you ready to offset your increased travel expenses as business travel returns to normal?

It’s conference season! Many businesses have seen a drastic reduction in corporate travel in the past few years due to COVID-19, but 2023 is looking like the year that travel plans can resume as usual.

If your business has grown used to not paying for employee travel in the past few years, you may find yourself squeezing the budget trying to make arrangements. In this article, we’re taking a look at some recommendations to offset expenses and make room in your budget for the cost of business travel.

Travel costs are more expensive than before the pandemic.

When it comes to travel in 2023, there’s good news and bad news. The good news? Prices are finally starting to decrease. The bad news? That’s after hitting record highs.

It’s not surprising 2022 saw record travel prices – the cost of doing anything increased right around the same time that many felt comfortable travelling again. So don’t be surprised if the cost of flying, housing, and feeding your travelling employees is more expensive than pre-pandemic conference seasons.

However, especially if you haven’t booked yet, there may be opportunities to book better deals than if you travelled to any conferences in the previous year.

Where do you find the money to pay for business travel?

If the budget is tight this year, and you’re worried about the cost of travel, there are ways you can streamline and optimize your daily operations, while freeing up extra funds in your budget that can go to additional expenses such as conference travel.

My business, Schooley Mitchell, is North America’s largest independent cost reduction firm. We help businesses free up these kinds of funds every day. Here are some of the areas we find that businesses regularly overspend.

Incorrect card processing rate structures.

Your business could be losing significant revenue to incorrect card processing rate structures.

Processors usually offer seemingly standard contracts, but many contain provisions that allow them to increase your rates. This often comes with the caveat they must notify you first — but those notifications could appear in small print on one of your statements. Be sure to read your statements for notification of rate increases and periodically check your rate to see if it has mysteriously increased. Often, all it takes for them to waive the rate increase is a phone call to object.

Unorganized software licenses.

If you pay for anything like Microsoft Office or Adobe products for your business, unorganized licenses could be costing you.

Forbes calls this the “quintessential Goldilocks problem… Purchase too many licenses and unprovisioned or inactive licenses will never get used, resulting in wasted spend. Purchase too few, and your employees could deal with the constraints of having to share, swap or reassign licenses frequently.”

In either scenario you’re wasting money; either on idle licenses or lost productivity.

Unnecessary analog phone lines.

Nowadays, a lot can be done with a stable internet connection – making your analog phone lines not only redundant, but overpriced. Solutions such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) give you a lot more bang for your buck, without long distance calling fees.

Billing errors.

As cost reduction specialists, we see way too many billing errors on our clients invoices. From incorrect rates and cancelled services to being charged for another customer’s services, billing errors are expensive and tiresome to resolve. However, vigilance is important. Especially for larger accounts – such as telecom services with hundreds of phone lines attached – it’s not uncommon for us to find a billing error worth several thousand dollars.

In conclusion…

While readjusting to regular conference travel costs could be a shock to your budget, it’s doable. In fact, there are lots of easy ways to recover money you might be overspending, in order to fund that travel.

My business is helping businesses just like yours save money on their operational expenses across thirteen common cost categories. I’d love to help your free up space and time in your operations to make this year’s conference travel smooth sailing.

Cal Wilson / February 14, 2023

Featured in ‘Feed Your L.I.O.N Podcast’

Schooley Mitchell’s Lee Balaklaw was recent featured in an episode of Feed Your L.I.O.N, entitled “Physician to Businessman.” To hear Lee’s story and check out this awesome podcast, you can listen, here.

Cal Wilson / January 27, 2023

Featured in Hometown News

Recently, Schooley Mitchell’s Tim McGuire submitted an article to be featured in the Martin County edition of Florida’s Hometown News. You can read the edition, here.

Cal Wilson / January 27, 2023

Can indirect cost procurement help you weather the approaching storm?

Here’s a universal truth – difficult economic times often lead to difficult choices. The choices can be even harder if you’re a business owner or manager. With your company and your staff relying on your leadership, the stress relating to financial decisions can be overwhelming.

Auto dealerships may be among the many businesses to feel the challenges posed by inflation, global supply chain issues, and consumer hesitancy. With demand running low, netting less revenue for dealerships, you may feel the pressure to reduce service offerings or even cut staff.

Rather than making a decision that could potentially hurt your business in the long run, consider another, more strategic method of reducing your costs.

How do you cut costs without hurting your business?

The answer is simpler than you think. Instead of cutting staff or services, focus on your indirect operational expenses. Indirect expenses are costs not associated with your cost of goods sold or labor; this includes cost categories like telephone and internet, utilities, waste disposal, facility supplies, uniforms, and more.

Indirect cost procurement is the process of finding sustainable reductions to these costs; meaning they increase your bottom line without impacting your business’ operations.

Altogether, indirect costs can represent around 15% of your dealership’s annual budget. In my experience, many business owners either don’t have the time to assess these expenses or don’t have the knowledge or tools to look for ways to reduce them.

Your dealership might be overpaying.

My business, Schooley Mitchell, has been working with businesses and organizations across North America for over twenty years, reducing their operational expenses across thirteen different cost categories. We’ve found that many businesses don’t even know they’re overpaying vendors. Our indirect cost procurement process helps reduce these expenses by an average of 28% – which can amount to some significant savings.

For auto dealerships, one of the expenses we find needs optimizing quite frequently is their telecom and waste disposal spend. Recently, we helped deliver roughly 39% in savings for one business’ waste fees, and for another, achieved annual savings of $10,000 in waste disposal and telecom fees.

Best practices in indirect cost procurement.

So you want to begin cutting indirect costs, but where do you start? Here is my five-step recommendation for indirect cost procurement that any dealership can follow:

Identify and track indirect costs: It is important for your dealership to have a clear understanding of what your indirect costs are and how they are incurred. This may involve setting up systems to track and allocate indirect costs to specific projects or activities.
Set budget and cost control measures: Businesses can set budget and cost control measures in place to help manage indirect costs. This may involve setting limits on spending or implementing processes to review and approve indirect cost expenditures.
Negotiate with suppliers: Dealerships can negotiate with suppliers to get the best possible prices on indirect costs. This may involve seeking out new suppliers, negotiating contracts, and leveraging the business’ purchasing power.
Implement cost-saving initiatives: Businesses can implement cost-saving initiatives to reduce indirect costs. This may involve streamlining processes, using technology to automate tasks, or consolidating vendors.
Monitor and review indirect costs: It is important for you to regularly review and monitor indirect costs to ensure that they are being managed effectively. This may involve conducting cost-benefit analyses, comparing costs to industry benchmarks, and identifying opportunities for cost reduction.

In conclusion…

Admittedly, these five steps can be time consuming and feel a bit daunting. However, 15% or more of your dealership’s annual budget is no small thing, and with an ever-changing economic environment, that piece of the pie could go from important to critical in the blink of an eye.

Your time is valuable, and so is your budget. If you don’t want to choose between cutting costs and doing the work you love, I’d be happy to arrange a time to talk about how Schooley Mitchell can do a risk-free analysis of your indirect costs. The best part? Our fees are self-funded from a portion of the savings we find – meaning, if we don’t find savings, our work comes at no cost.

Please a time to talk at: https://www.schooleymitchell.com/asmith/#Contact

Cal Wilson / January 18, 2023

Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Basketball Tournament

Michael recently helped support the Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Basketball Tournament held at The Ark of St. Sabina Church where Rev. Michael Pfleger is the Pastor. This event offers a safe & fun environment for inner-city youth to compete and promote sportsmanship and health, while honoring the legacy of MLK.