Week of April 4th-Cost cutting

[andream]

It’s been a few months of cost cutting, layoff/redundancy and general belt tightening in the world of office support. Everyone from the Office Professional on down, is asked to save money, cut costs, do it cheaper and better for less… so today let’s hear from you on saving money in your office.

Have you either changed a process or directly cut costs in your office during the last 12 months? If so, how much did you save and how did you manage it?

And  in the same vein… if you saved your company money do they know it and were you recognized for your thrift?

Andrea

Edited by andream on 04/04/04 06:04 PM.

[debby]

Since the economy took a down turn last year all salaried staff was ask to look for ways to conserve.

For me personally, I quit using the travel agency and started to book my travel directly with the airlines.  By booking my own travel for my staff, I was able to save the $40.00 ticket fee charged by travel agency.

I also saved money buy using "store branded" office supplies for such things as file folders,  post it notes, rubberbands, etc.  

I also started reviewing every invoice to make sure that items were being billed at the correct rate, etc.

Over the past year I was able to save over $500 just by these simple steps and yes I made sure that my immediate supervisor knew what I was doing and even wrote it into my yearly appraisal.

[ozbound]

One idea I came up with for cost-saving was very small, very simple, but if everyone did it it could add up. That is re-using the plastic silverware. It's perfectly washable and you can keep your "own" set and reuse it indefinitely. Use "your" plastic spoon to stir your coffe instead of the stir-sticks (who doesn't hate those flimsy things anyway!)

I'm too new here to feel comfortable bringing this idea up yet...although the HR dept might be interested.
However, I noticed the company has one good idea going: nobody uses paper coffee cups here because there is a good supply of company mugs or you can bring your own (one "downside" of the company mugs is they have metallic logos so you can't stick 'em in the microwave!)

[sobriquetnic]

I have been in my current position at my company for the last 2 years.  One of the first things was to increase the use of email rather than printing out and sending letters to people left, right and centre.  Hence a reduction in paper, printer ink and postage.  

I have also asked people to use the 2nd class post where they can.  We were sending absolutely everything First Class and considering the difference of 7p per letter, this can really add up.

Our Deputy MD, my boss, is very keen on cost-cutting (I guess we all have to be nowadays!) so always welcomes new ideas.  However, there is no real incentive for these but I like to think things up for the good of the company - like most businesses, we are struggling in our marketplace at the moment and it's good to think up ways of economising.

I shall watch this thread with interest and hopefully pick up some more ideas!

All the best,
Nicola.