{"id":1886,"date":"2013-06-17T09:13:23","date_gmt":"2013-06-17T13:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/?p=1886"},"modified":"2015-10-01T05:32:25","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T09:32:25","slug":"cost-saving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/2013\/06\/17\/cost-saving\/","title":{"rendered":"Cost Saving?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Traveling this weekend for family fun allowed me to try many different restrooms and rest stops along my adventures.\u00a0 Two places, one a rest stop and the other a restaurant, had the super hand dryers that dry your hands in seconds.\u00a0 Other rest stops had only paper, some only slow-blow driers and some had both. In the ladies restroom, the slow-blower often leads to lots of toilet tissue around as many women don’t take the time to wait for the dryer and just grab tissue to dry often enhancing the mess.<\/p>\n

When getting back into the car, I mentioned that every place should have the super dryers and my travel companion reminded me that “they cost money” and I thought how could the added cost of fast dryers be a cost saving? \u00a0\u00a0 Of course my LEAN thinking kicked in and wondered if cleaning up after paper messes is less costly than the super dryer investment and I’ll let someone else do the study.\u00a0 I know that the super dryers and towels get you out faster and for me time outside a highway rest stop is far more fun.\u00a0Let’s agree, paper towels, toilet tissue, fast dryers, slow dryers and the back of your trousers all get the the job done, but which ones cause the user to actually smile?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As a business owner, what items are worth the extra money.\u00a0 Here are a few that will pay for themselves over time:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Comfortable Office Chairs<\/strong>.\u00a0 If you or a staff member will be sitting for more than 20 minutes a day, a comfortable, well designed chair is a must.<\/li>\n
  2. Computer Security<\/strong>.\u00a0 Security is a two pronged situation, keeping hackers out and recovering form crashes as I can guarantee you that all hard drives will crash, we just don’t know when.\u00a0 Having a backup system is as important as the software you purchase and use.\u00a0 Good software will be secure software.<\/li>\n
  3. The Company’s Online Presence<\/strong>.\u00a0 This is 2013 – you need to have a website.\u00a0 Often I hear people say “but I have a facebook page”.\u00a0 That isn’t the same.\u00a0 Being in business without a website is akin to not having a business card.\u00a0 Understand what SEO or search engine optimization is and what you need to do to have it.<\/li>\n
  4. A Break Area<\/strong>.\u00a0 Since happiness is contagious, having a place where employees can grab a cup of coffee, sit and relax away from their desk keeps them on-site and positive.\u00a0 There is a reason Google hires chefs at all their locations and provides free meals anytime of day.\u00a0 They want happy, feed employees dreaming of the next billion dollar idea at their location.<\/li>\n
  5. Energy Efficient Appliances<\/strong>.\u00a0 If all the savings on light bulbs, equipment, appliances were added up, very shortly, the extra cost savings would be seen.\u00a0 The\u00a0 price tag of the light bulb that I put in a closet in my home 20 years ago was $15.\u00a0 If it had been an incandescent bulb, I would have been through multiples of bulbs and that doesn’t include the electricity.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    We always want to be careful with our business’s balance sheet, but picking where we will splurge can in the long term save us money, increase productivity, ensure employee satisfaction and maybe keep a customer in the shop longer instead of in the restroom drying their hands.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Traveling this weekend for family fun allowed me to try many different restrooms and rest stops along my adventures.\u00a0 Two places, one a rest stop and the other a restaurant, had the super hand dryers that dry your hands in seconds.\u00a0 Other rest stops had only paper, some only slow-blow driers and some had both. In the ladies restroom, the slow-blower often leads to lots of toilet tissue around as many women don’t take the time to wait for the dryer and just grab tissue to dry often enhancing the mess.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    When getting back into the car, I mentioned that every place should have the super dryers and my travel companion reminded me that “they cost money” and I thought how could the added cost of fast dryers be a cost saving? \u00a0\u00a0 Of course my LEAN thinking kicked in and wondered if cleaning up after paper messes is less costly than the super dryer investment and I’ll let someone else do the study.\u00a0 I know that the super dryers and towels get you out faster and for me time outside a highway rest stop is far more fun.\u00a0Let’s agree, paper towels, toilet tissue, fast dryers, slow dryers and the back of your trousers all get the the job done, but which ones cause the user to actually smile?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    As a business owner, what items are worth the extra money.\u00a0 Here are a few that will pay for themselves over time:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Comfortable Office Chairs<\/li>\n
    2. Computer Security<\/li>\n
    3. The Company’s Online Presence<\/li>\n
    4. A Break Area<\/li>\n
    5. Energy Efficient Appliances<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      You always want to be careful with your business’s balance sheet, but picking where you will splurge can in the long term save you money, increase productivity, ensure employee satisfaction and maybe keep a customer in the shop longer instead of drying their hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1886"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3139,"href":"http:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886\/revisions\/3139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.changinglanes.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}