The Locksmith Journal Mar-Apr 2016 - Issue 43 | Page 26

26 • INDUSTRYNEWS PROUD SPONSORS OF THIS PAGE ‘Cutting costs, not cutting corners’ »»BENJAMIN DYER OF POWERED Now examines how to run your business so that you make more money. It’s feels like a crime when you put in a huge amount of work but don’t make much profit. That can come from bad organisation, paying too much for materials and other things like not investing where you should. The good news is, life should be different and in this article, I try to stimulate some thinking of how it can be. HAVING MATERIALS TO HAND A quick rule of thumb says that it will take an hour if you need to buy any materials after you are on site. That’s driving to the wholesaler, parking, finding the right products, queuing up to pay, loading the goods and taking them back to site. And we haven’t even talked about the disruption to the flow of work. You may also end up paying full retail price with cash required on the nail, rather than 30 days credit. It’s simple. Being disorganised in this way costs real time and real money. GET THE BEST FROM YOUR PEOPLE A friend was telling me that he keeps his team working (outdoors) whatever the weather. Unfortunately the team seemed to have different ideas when it was raining or snowing! I don’t know how much loyalty his staff have. However, running your team so that they are loyal and take pride in their work will save money and lead to more referrals. It also means less rework and even less unnecessary “resting”. Some quick tips to help this to happen are to praise pe