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Monday, 13 October 2014

[www.keralites.net] How to Reduce Business Costs

Business costs are sub-classified into two categories; Fixed Costs and Variable Costs.

Fixed costs are defined as the expenses which do not change as a function of business such as salaries of employees, rents of the office, facilities and equipment costs. However, please don't get confused that Fixed Costs cannot be changed. Indeed they can be changed but their prime definition remains the same that these costs are stable for longer duration of time and do not usually get impacted due to on-going business volume. On the contrary, the Variable Costs are the ones which keep changing due to multiple factors.

Below is the list of several domains and recommendations (minor tweak for SMEs and major ones for large scale companies) in the form of questions in order to give you a personalized experience and to invoke the thought process for the business cost reduction:

1- Marketing, Advertising and Business Development:

i- How much budget was utilized for marketing in last 6 months? How much the marketing has been effective? Is there any need to re-evaluate the marketing strategy?

ii- How much investment is done on customer's entertainment?

iii- Do you do a monthly expense analysis audit? Do you know specific techniques to optimize your marketing budget such as AdSense, affiliate marketing etc?

iv- Do you consider B2B marketing, email marketing, banner advertisement, pay per click, video marketing or SEO optimization?

2- Leasing and Rental Management:

i- Does the company's office and warehouse at different locations? Why not having both at same location to reduce renting and transportation costs?

ii- Any recent audit done to determine if the current rented space for office or warehouse is worth its expenses? Is the size and cost in sync with the requirements of business? Can this be moved to a less costly area?

iii- Is there any tools, machinery or other resources which can be leased to earn some extra cash? Any marketing plans to do this?

3- Staff Management and Optimization

i- Are there any underutilized employees? Can some extra tasks given to these employees to make them more productive or 'earning' resources?

ii- Can some of the permanent staff be converted to contract based? This will save extra benefit and reduce your long term liabilities.

iii- Can some of the tasks/ resources be outsourced? (HR services, Visa, documentation, maintenance etc.)

iv- Did any re-evaluation of resource responsibilities happened in last one years? Are there any employees with duplicate roles?

v- Company sponsored mobile phone packages are fairly used? The packages are carefully selected based on the role of each employee? Any audit happened for the utilization of mobile and other resources given to employees?

vi- Are the employees trained enough to perform their duties so that they make less errors and mistakes?

vii- Right policies are in place so as to reduce the reworks? What is the accountability mechanism?

viii- Mature and error free databases are in place for efficient and accurate reports generation and to avoid errors in data entry?

ix- Is there any scheme available through which employees are given suggestions for the improvement of organizations and get rewarded if their suggestions are implemented?

x- Any specialised use of tracking employee online activities such as Manic Time?

xi- Employee lay off should be last thing to do as it impacts your organization in many ways such as loss of sincerity, productivity and efficiency of the rest of the employees.

4- Vehicle Utilization and Fuel Management:

i) How vehicles are utilized in a day to day work? How much company is flexible for the utilization for personal use?

ii) How vehicles are maintained? Is this task given to any agency to avoid corruption and in order to enjoy free benefits such as car replacements ,free wash, oil, and tuning services?

iii) How vehicles are tracked for the daily utilization (how many kilo meters travelled, how could multiple visits or same kind of visits be reduced?

iv) Pick and drop of employee is happening on bulk basis or at individual level?

v) Restriction of some of the travel (local and abroad) possible?

5- Energy Conservation

i) Motion detection Sensors installed for turning lights off during off hours?

ii) Sleep mode enabled on laptop computers?

iii) Older bulbs/fans/computers are still being utilized which are poor when it comes to energy efficient devices selection?

6- Hard Resources Utilization and Audit

i- How many printers Scanners are in place? Can we reduce some of them?

ii- How many pages are printed per day? Any mechanism to control it?

iii- Is there any over utilization of pantry products? Employees are encouraged to use non-recyclable things?

iv- Which of the policies and processes can be converted to paperless by avoiding photocopying/ printing/ reproducing ? Can you run a paperless company altogether?

v- Is there any strong mechanism of inventory management? Any products lost because of poor control on hardware resources ?

With these recommendations, I believe any company can optimize their business costs consequently improve their profit margins.

How to you optimize the costs in your organization?

Junaid Tahir
www.DailyTenMinutes.com

www.keralites.net

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Posted by: Junaid Tahir <mjunaidtahir@gmail.com>

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[www.keralites.net] Ebola in West Africa

Ebola in West Africa

The World Health Organization estimates that the Ebola virus has killed more than 3,400 people in West African countries and infected twice as many since the recent outbreak began. The World Bank estimates the economic impact of Ebola will exceed $32 billion by the end of next year. This collection of images shows the effects of the epidemic over the the last month in Africa.--By Lloyd Young

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A Doctors Without Borders (MSF), health worker in protective clothing carries a child suspected of having Ebola in the MSF treatment center on Oct. 5 in Paynesville, Liberia. The girl and her mother, showing symptoms of the deadly disease, were awaiting test results for the virus. The Ebola epidemic has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa, according to the World Health Organization.

A woman prays for victims of the Ebola virus, on Oct. 4 in Saint Anthony's Catholic church in the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown. The Ebola epidemic has infected more than 6,200 people in West Africa since late last year and killed nearly half of them, according to the World Health Organization.

The shoes of a suspected Ebola patient are seen after being cordoned off with stones by local residents in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Sept. 24. U.S. health officials Tuesday laid out worst-case and best-case scenarios for the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, warning that the number of infected people could explode to at least 1.4 million by mid-January or peak well below that, if efforts to control the outbreak are ramped up.

A grave digger prepares a new grave outside an Ebola treatment center on Oct. 7 near Gbarnga, in Bong County in central Liberia. The 70-bed facility is run by the U.S. based International Medical Corps and supported by USAID. The Ebola epidemic has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa, with nearly 2,000 of them in Liberia.

A MSF nurse is prepared with personal protection equipment before entering a high risk zone of MSF's Ebola isolation and treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia. Six months into the worlds worst-ever Ebola outbreak, and the first to happen in an unprepared West Africa, the gap between what has been sent by other countries and private groups and what is desperately needed is huge. Even as countries try to marshal more resources to close the gap, those needs threaten to become much greater, and possibly even insurmountable.

People wait to enter the ELWA 3 Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center on Oct. 3 in Paynesville, Liberia. Filled to capacity, the center can only take in as many new Ebola patients as the number of people who die overnight.

A young girl suspected to be infected by Ebola has been moved to quarantine in a hospital, on Oct. 6 in Foredugu. Ebola may only be present in a few African nations, but fears over the crippling outbreak are infecting economies across the continent and may put its envy-inducing growth prospects at risk.

A Doctors Without Borders (MSF), staffer washes his hands in chlorinated water as sanitized boots dry at the MSF treatment center on Oct. 5 in Paynesville, Liberia. The epidemic has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa, according to the World Health Organization.

U.S. Navy microbiologist Lt. Jimmy Regeimbal prepares to test blood samples for Ebola at the U.S. Navy mobile laboratory of on Oct. 7 near Gbarnga in Bong County of central Liberia. The U.S. now operates 4 mobile laboratories in Liberia as part of the American response to the Ebola epidemic.

People wash their hands with soap and bleach on Sept. 3 to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus on the usually busy main market road in the northern Senegalese city of Diaobe, one of the most important trading cities in West Africa. The busy market street is near empty since the Aug. 21 closure of the border with Guinea since a Guinean student brought the deadly Ebola epidemic raging across west Africa into Senegal. The Ebola virus, passed on through contact with infected bodily fluids, has killed more than 2,000 in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Nigeria became the fourth country caught up in the epidemic, reporting seven deaths before Senegal registered its first case.

A health worker, center, loads a suspected Ebola patient into the back of a ambulance in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Sept. 24. U.S. health officials Tuesday laid out worst-case and best-case scenarios for the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, warning that the number of infected people could explode to at least 1.4 million by mid-January or peak well below that, if efforts to control the outbreak are ramped up.

A health worker puts on protective gloves at an Ebola treatment center on Oct. 7 near Gbarnga in Bong County of central Liberia. The 70-bed facility is run by the U.S. based International Medical Corps and supported by USAID. (John Moore/Getty Images)

A Liberian Ministry of Health worker, dressed in an anti-contamination suit, speaks to Banu, 4, in a holding center for suspected Ebola patients at Redemption Hospital on Oct. 3 in Monrovia, Liberia. He had arrived there with his sick mother and two siblings to be tested for Ebola. His father died of the disease a week before. Patients there are tested for Ebola and if the results are positive, are sent to an Ebola treatment unit (ETU).

A member of a specialized Ebola inhumation team cleans a house on Oct. 6 in Magbonkoh. Ebola may only be present in a few African nations, but fears over the crippling outbreak are infecting economies across the continent and may put its envy-inducing growth prospects at risk.

A man sits in an empty street in downtown Freetown as a nationwide three-day curfew begins in order to conduct a governmental, UN-supported house-to-house campaign sensitizing individuals on the Ebola virus, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Sept. 19. Residents in the country of 6 million will stay in their homes from Friday to Monday as over 28,000 health workers distribute soap, raise awareness on Ebola and identify those who may have already contracted the virus. The three-day shutdown is the latest in the government's effort to stop the spread of the deadly disease.

Health workers enter the high-risk zone as they make the morning rounds at the Bong County Ebola Treatment Unit in Sgt. Kollie Town near Gbarnga, Liberia, on Oct. 6. In the newly opened treatment center, operated by an American charity, the International Medical Corps. Western volunteers and Liberian workers identify who is infected, save those they can and try to halt the virus's spread.

Workers of a cleaning company collect garbage in central Monrovia on Sept. 30. Liberia has been hit the hardest by the worst ever outbreak of Ebola, which has killed more than 3,400 people in west Africa.

Prince, 10, lies with his family in an Ebola holding center, formerly the maternity ward of Redemption Hospital on Oct. 3 in Monrovia, Liberia. His father died of Ebola a week before. People at the center are tested for Ebola and if the results are positive, are sent to an Ebola treatment unit (ETU).

Bystanders listen to a street preacher on Sept. 27 calling on people to raise their hands and "Wave Ebola Bye Bye" in Monrovia, Liberia.

A Liberian Ministry of Health worker is sprayed with disinfectant after removing his anti-contamination suit at a holding center for suspected Ebola patients at Redemption Hospital on Oct. 3 in Monrovia, Liberia. Patients there are tested for Ebola and if the results are positive, are sent to an Ebola treatment unit (ETU).

A burial team buries the body of Robert Yini, who died from Ebola, at a graveyard adjacent to the Bong County Ebola Treatment Unit near Gbarnga in rural Bong County, Liberia, on Oct. 6. The center, which includes a triage area, a restricted unit for patients suspected of Ebola infections and another for those in the grip of the disease is not teeming like some clinics in Monrovia, more than four hours away.

Dennis Khakie, who initially tested positive for Ebola, celebrates as he walked out of the confirmed ward after receiving a negative laboratory testing for the virus at the Bong County Ebola Treatment Unit near Gbarnga in rural Bong County, Liberia, on Oct. 4.

A woman enters the Ebola treatment center at the Island Hospital on Oct. 6 on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia. She said she was bleeding heavily from a miscarriage and was unable to get treatment at other clinics, many of which now refuse to treat bleeding patients due to fears of contracting Ebola. The Island Hospital, with it's 120 beds, has remained at full capacity since it's opening by the Liberian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO), in September. The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa, according to the WHO.

A soiled surgical mask lies outside the Ebola treatment center at the Island Hospital on Oct. 6, on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia.

Relatives pray over a weak Siata Johnson, 23, outside the Ebola treatment center at the Island Hospital on Oct. 6 on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia. The hospital, with it's 120 beds, has remained at capacity since it's opening by the Liberian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO), in September. The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa, according to the WHO.