Tue Jan 5 2010

10 easy ways to lose less money

With general operating costs continuing to creep upwards and with a start to the new financial year upon us, it is an ideal time to have a hard look at each line item on your expense report.

10 easy ways to lose less money-

1) Operating hours- Review your opening/closing times at least once each season (3 months) The reduction of one staff hour per day will save you approximately $7,300 per year (includes wage and on costs) Also double check hours worked versus the hours that a staff member is scheduled, you'd be surprised at how quickly this can get out of control with a few minutes added to the timesheet that usually goes unnoticed.

2) Food costs- Have a discussion with your chef on where they source their products. You should have a few suppliers to compare against. What would a 1% reduction in Cost of Goods equal for the year?

3) Product hire- plants and/or other items you hire for your clubhouse or event areas. If you hire items like chairs and tables regularly, it may be worth outright purchasing them for the long-term.

4) Uniform policy- Dependent on your course service standard, you may be able to get away with non club logo uniform shirts. You can then ask staff to furnish their own shirt that would be of a specific colour that everyone would wear. On minimum ask staff to furnish their own pant and shoes, or negotiatied a deal with your preferred vendor to supply at a highly discounted rate.

5) Discounting- Hopefully your tracking, review what type of discounts are being given out to players or at food service. The discounts add up very quickly.

6) Credit card charges- Its becoming common in other industries to "tack" on a 1-3% service charge for credit card usage.

7) Keep your suppliers honest by having annual or bi- annual reviews of product pricing from the variety of items that you would purchase each year throughout your facility. Ask for a deal or value add on. Make sure it is a WIN-WIN arrangement.

8) Public green fee- increase $1-2 during your highest peak period. This small amount typically doesn't have much impact on player numbers and will push the price sensitive player into timeslots that are not busy.

9) Rubbish pick up- review how often picked up, size of bins, recycling, etc. Are your staff condensing rubbish to get full capacity of bin?

10) Telephone usage - do a full review of telephone usage throughout your facility. Phone by phone- you can see where the unapproved phone calls are coming from. Are all your lines working that you are paying for?

11) (This is an added bonus-! ;)) Contact Mike at Golf Industry Central if you need some advice or if you would like to find out about our end-of-year "non budget breaker" Operational Assessment.

The key in running a golf facility is to micromanage all areas of your facility. This goes for every little line item that you sign off on. Hopefully you do have an approval system in place to keep everyone accountable. We specialise in this area of operations.

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