Plan Your Work & Work Your Plan
1. Re-align your budget with your expenses and cut low priority items. 
2. Evaluate internal business processes. Streamline procedures and eliminate paper procedures..
3. When an employee leaves, evaluate whether the position is really needed. Determine if it can be filled by a part-time person or outsourced at a lower cost. (Factor benefit costs in the evaluation.)
4. Outsource all non-core functions. Each business is different. Core functions to one firm may be peripheral areas with low value to other firms. Consider things like accounting, human resources, sales, marketing, information technology support, printing/mailing.
5. Work to eliminate duplication of processes with your customers to eliminate waste and duplication
Re-Think Fixed Costs
6. Implement aggressive sourcing for purchasing and renewals
7. Require multiple bids on all products and services above a certain threshold.
8. Evaluate contracts on high ticket expenses to determine if contracts can be renegotiated before the contract end. (Many long term contracts have clauses that allow buyers to evaluate and renegotiate pricing based on competitive market conditions. Start adding this to contracts going forward.)
9. Ask existing suppliers and new suppliers for ways to cut costs.
10. Optimize inventory through consolidation and elimination of duplicate items.
11. Evaluate your top expenses to determine if bills are accurate and the items are necessary.
Budgets & Cost Allocations
12. Require all program managers and department heads to justify every line annually through zero based budgets.
13. Revisit budget assumptions quarterly to determine if upcoming projects are still necessary, if they can be postponed, or cut.
14. Eliminate non-performing programs.
15. Use expense allocation charge-backs to business units and individuals for better accountability and visibility to control spending.
Communications
16. Analyze all telecom costs (local, long distance, internet & conference calling).
17. Eliminate unused lines and circuits.
18. Evaluate opportunities to save money by grooming lower capacity lines and circuits to consolidated, less costly, high capacity lines.
19. Consider less costly new technologies like Voice over Internet Protocol, (VoIP) MPLS etc.
20. Look for sourcing coverage and identify services that are not covered under a contract (conferencing, directory assistance, calling plans etc.). Negotiate contracts to cover these services. (Often the best opportunities are newer areas like conferencing and mobility.
21. Determine if services are billed under the right contracts and if you are receiving optimal pricing. Most services are added over a period of time. It is common for organizations to pay 2-4 different prices for the same services.
22. Look for PBXs and other situations where lines are not PIC'd properly. Sometimes calls and other activity is not being directed to the right service provider.
23. Pool your mobile plans to shift from individual "buckets" of minutes to pooled plans to avoid forfeiting unused lines and exceeding monthly allotments of minutes.
King Cash
24. Develop cash flow budgets and invest unused cash.
25. Consider leasing versus buying your office equipment.
26. Avoid large outlays of cash by using Software as a Service (SaaS) instead of buying and installing software on site.
27. Interest rates are at all time lows. If you have the credit, refinance outstanding loans at lower rates.
28. Adjust investment strategy to allow for more interest income in the short term.
29. Renegotiate credit card discount fees and rebates as corporate credit card and debt card volume increases.
30. Look to other associations and corporate credit cards for discounts on office supplies, equipment, delivery services, etc.
31. Delay capital purchases and refresh rates for computers and other hardware that is working.
32. Meet with your banker and finance team to review your monthly account activity and banking expenses to identify savings opportunities.
Payables and Receivables
33. Don't undermine relationships with suppliers or customers, but utilize contract terms to ensure you are not remitting payments too early.
34. Change payment cycle to twice per month or every two weeks.
35. Negotiate cash discounts or use payment discounts if you have free cash flow..
36. Calculate the average age of outstanding receivables and work to reduce the time your customers take to pay.
37. Change your policy to require prepayment for all product purchases and meeting registrations.
Make Use of Solutions Integrators, Aggregators, & Brokers
38. Get a better deal on telecom services, health, disability, life, property and casualty and D&O through a solutions integrator, aggregator or broker.
39. Ensure that the broker's commission is paid by the provider and not you.
Use the Web
40. Learn and use social networking to drive business
41. Cut mailing costs by sending things including billing, marketing, and sales messages electronically vs. snail mail.
42. Use the web for buying supplies, airline tickets, and other items where there is an on line discount.
43. Move printed materials to your website (e.g. Annual Report, newsletters, member communications, meeting brochures).
44. Utilize e-learning or CD-ROM based learning for staff.
45. Use audio/web conferencing versus in-person meeting. Archive for later use
Administration
46. Ensure that someone in the office is monitoring supplies.
47. Prepare inventory sheets of essential items. Charge programs/departments for supplies used as a direct expense for their area.
48. Buy supplies in bulk to get discounts.
49. Buy last year's models.
50. Choose quality and replace items less frequently.
51. Use "store brands" and "generic" items where the quality is good.
52. Closely track FedEx, UPS, Airborne and local courier usage.
53. Consolidate carriers for volume discounts or use Priority Mail for non-essential items.
54. Consider using telecommuting to offset the need for additional office space and to help employees reduce their commuting expenses.
55. Utilize office/cubicle sharing to save space.
Get Employees involved
56. Make cost savings everyone's business! Convince them why they should care!
57. At least annually, review the association's financials with the entire staff.
58. Develop a program where staff receives a percentage of the cost savings or celebrates its cost savings wins.
Find "Low-Cost" Experts
59. Leverage memberships in associations and networking contacts to improve your knowledge.
60. Rely on existing vendors for training and retraining.
Let me know what you think and give me your ideas for additional tips to economize.
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