Ten Penny-Pinching Ideas for 2008

(page 3 of 3)

An intranet is a Web site that's only for certain eyes: usually this means internal employees, but it can be opened up to customers and vendors, too. Here you can have one place for documents, contacts, and messages. You can create custom views of financial and other data from different systems to display on your intranet so that users can get quick access to their data. You can open it up for customers to check on their orders or vendors to check on their payment status. A big player is Microsoft Sharepoint, but others are also gaining ground. Benefit for 2008: more productivity and less duplication of effort. Big drawback: no porn. Damn.

9. Create a few alerts.

Sam, a client of mine, gets an e-mail every time a customer's invoice goes over 30 days. It always puts him in a bad mood. Why? Because late payers drive him nuts. But these alerts are a necessary evil. The minute one of these e-mails lands in Sam's in-box he's on it—calling, yelling, screaming, until he gets paid. You can go nuts like Sam, too. Most systems nowadays come with built-in alerts. You can get reminded when a quote is overdue, an order is shipped, an employee has taken too many vacation days, a salesperson is behind quota. Ask the guy who sold you the software about creating alerts and start getting information in advance before it becomes a bigger problem. True, he may charge you $500 per hour to set up a simple alert. So watch how he does it over his scrawny shoulder and do it yourself afterward. The new year should be the year of alerts.

10. Bring in main vendors for a show.

Forget reality TV. The best entertainment can be had right in your own conference room. It's called the Dog and Pony Show. You should start doing this in 2008. Here's how it works: Technology's constantly changing. You and your employees need to stay up to date. You're also kind of bored. So you bring in your technology vendor for a dog-and-pony once a year. Tell them you're considering a system change. That'll scare the crap out of them. Then they'll come marching in, for free, and tell you all the great things you could be doing with your existing systems that you're probably not doing. Come up with a bunch of nit-picking complaints about your system. This shouldn't be too tough to do. Now watch them squirm. They may offer you some new goodies to try, like new modules or tools, just to keep you happy. At the very least, they'll keep you current on all the good stuff out there that works with your systems so that you can identify any potentially useful tools to help you do things quicker and better.

Like this list? There's 500 more just like it from over 300 experts in Gene Marks' Streetwise Small Business Book of Lists. It's available at bookstores, amazon.com, and www.smallbizlists.net.

Gene Marks, CPA, is the owner of the Marks Group, which sells customer relationship, service, and financial management tools to small and midsize businesses. Marks is the author of four best-selling small business books and writes the popular "Penny Pincher's Almanac" syndicated column. He frequently speaks to business groups on penny-pinching topics. More penny-pinching advice from Marks can be found at www.quickerbetterwiser.com.