Turning Pennies To Dollars

Henry Ford taught us that to simplify the manufacture of
automobiles, that the best way to do so was to install the
assembly line. That one change revolutionized the auto
manufacturing industry permitting the industry to build cars at
a cost whereas the average person could afford to buy one.

The lesson we should take from this is that having the ability
to improve the process of getting the job quicker and cheaper,
without compromising the quality of the job being done, will
help catapult the person who simplified the process to the top
of his/her field.

Pennies saved in your home business can turn into dollars at the
end of the day, and dollars can quickly multiply into hundreds
or thousands of dollars over time.

Doubt me if you will, but let me ask you a question. Do you
think a saving of two fifths of a penny could make any real
difference in the profit margin of a home business? Of course
the right answer is "it depends on how many transactions are
done in a year, utilizing the savings of the two fifths of one
penny."

You only have to think back a couple of decades to really
appreciate this question. Do you remember the nut that lived and
died in a Las Vegas hotel room? You know the one who was a
billionaire, and was so worried about germs that he died of
starvation? If you guessed Howard Hughes (1905-76), pat yourself
on the back.

Now Howard did not make all of his money on his two fifths of
one penny. He did however make a ton of money from his two
fifths of one penny. It seems Howard owned a can manufacturing
company. And one day, Howard`s team figured out how they could
make one minor change in the design of their food can to reduce
the amount of tin necessary to make a single can.

As the story goes --- if my memory serves me correctly --- the
reduction in tin usage equaled a saving of two fifths of one
penny per can. Howard --- being the really smart businessman
that he was --- decided that he would not be so greedy as to
keep all of the savings for himself. What Mr. Hughes did do was
to keep half of the savings for himself, and give the other half
to his customers. The incredible thing about Mr. Hughes decision
is that by saving his customers an extra one fifths of one cent
per can, he managed to take more market share away from his
competition --- netting his company an additional and
substantial portion of the total market share in the canning
industry.

Let us return our thoughts to your home business. Have you ever
gotten the feeling of excitement --- when you read something or
thought of something --- that you could not wait to implement
this new idea? This could be one of those moments...

In every home business, there are certain processes that we do
over and again. Sometimes it may be possible to trim the time or
expense of a process which in turn will add pennies or dollars
to your bottom line. If it is a process that you do hundreds or
thousands of times per month, then your savings will multiply
into hundreds or thousands of dollars in monthly savings.

Imagine what running a home business was like BEFORE the
computer...

Before the personal computer, we had to hand type all letters
and invoices. Now, we can setup a letter or invoice that we send
out quite often, and we can save it in our word processor so
that when we need to use it again, we can print it quickly and
efficiently. There is no longer a need to type the document
again from scratch.

The computer has simplified our business communications and has
provided us the opportunity to reduce our costs of doing
business.

Think about all of the other processes that the computer has
enabled us to do for far less expense than what we could in the
past.

In this case, the computer is a tool that permits us to save
time and money.

So, my challenge to you is to begin examining the processes in
your own home business and look for ways in which you can save
yourself time and money. It is far better for you to contemplate
on this matter than it is for me to do so for you. Simply put,
you know your business better than anyone on the planet does.
Therefore, you are in a better position than anyone to find
those extra dollars that will decrease your costs and increase
your profits.

The extra pennies and dollars you could extract from your
business could spell the difference between success and failure
for your home business enterprise.