Keeping Costs Down

Since I'm averaging about one sale a week right now - which is more sales this time of year then I anticipated - I've been looking at ways to cut costs and save a little more cash in the business. Since the last posting, I've found out that if I don't attend the second trade show as planned I actually won't lose my entire deposit - just 25% of it. The rest will be held and can be applied to a show in 2010. Not sure if I don't go to the show this that I'd be headed there next year but you never know. At the very least it's great to know that all the deposit money wouldn't necessarily be lost.

Another way I'm working on keeping costs down is by comparison shopping the local printing shops to find out who will give me the best break on 200 or so double-sided color copies. Turns out, of all places, my local UPS store will let me do color copies for .25cents per side as long as I come in on a Saturday or Sunday to do it. This means a few more trips for me as I have to head over to FedEx to get it printed out on their fancy color printer (which UPS doesn't have) and then stop at Office Max to pick up the right kind of paper. Then this weekend I'll head over to the UPS Store to print out my 200 newsletters that will go out to my customers at the beginning of April. What I don't yet know is if the UPS Store will give me even more of a discount since I'm using my own paper but I'm certainly going to ask. At the end of the day though, when you add in printing costs, paper costs, and mailing costs, it looks like this newsletter will cost me $1.05 for each copy versus the $1.87 it cost me last time around. That's a nice little $.82 savings I'm more than happy to pocket.

Course I'm trying to convert everyone over to the enewsletter (which costs me just $.15) but haven't quite gotten my archaic industry to jump on board. This time I'm trying to incentive folks by playing up the "Earth Month" angle and saying that I'll donate $.25 to the American Forest Foundation if they'll make the switch.

And my last little way of keeping costs down as of late? My own home-brewing fancy cappucinno/latte machine: http://tinyurl.com/cuf4to



I'm actually not a big coffee drinker and never touch the caffinated stuff because it throws me into a fit of tremors and makes me act like a jackrabbit on crack. But I'm learning to love coffee more and more. Or to be honest, I'm learning to love fancy coffee drinks like cappucinnos and lattes more and more. And those suckers don't come cheap! I got the little Bialetti machine during the holidays and at $99 the price is just right. I figured out that anytime I make a cappucinno or latte now it's costing me $.47 in milk and ground expresso (I didn't count in the energy cost of making it - just figured that was the cost of doing business) versus the $3+ I would pay at my local big-chain coffee shop. Maybe if I were enough of a coffee snob I'd realize it wasn't as absolutely perfect as the big-chain coffee store but I'm just not that concerned. I'm hoping to get really busy again like I was last Fall and be using the Bialetti daily so I can really get my $99 worth!