2.    Eliminate sales of your least profitable and unprofitable services.

3.    Increase sales of your most profitable products.

4.    Reduce general and administrative expenses.

• Can you move into a less expensive office? 
• Do you use outside service for capital items, rather than buy them? 
• Can you reorganize to consolidate functions and eliminate management positions. 
• Can you reduce the number of staff personnel? 
• Can you reduce telephone and advertising costs? 

• Can you provide more and better training? 
• Do you have work teams to increase motivation and efficiency? 

Do you provide incentives, such as bonuses and profit sharing, to increase productivity and reduce labor costs? 

• Do you have a safety program in place?
• If not, are you preparing one now?
• Do you have an employee safety incentive program?

• Do you offer discounts for early payment?
• Do you charge late payment penalties for past-due amounts?
• Do you bill early enough for your customers to make payments in their billing cycle for on-time payments?
• Do you service only customers who pay their bills on time?
• Do you discontinue service to chronically late paying customers that provide marginal profit?
• Are you aggressive in collecting amounts owed?

• Are you paying the lowest possible prices? 
• Are you taking advantage of trade discounts? 
• Do you have a portion control dispensing system? 
• Do employees use partially filled containers? 
• Do you buy only supplies you will need during the next sixty days? 
• Do you use the same brand products in all accounts, whenever possible? 
• Do you purchase in large quantities rather than frequent smaller orders to take advantage of lower prices per unit? 
• Do you have a control system to prevent pilferage? 
• Do employees know how to prevent product spoilage? 
• Do you hold employees accountable for their individual supply inventories? 

• Can you reduce taxes? 
• Can you reduce insurance premiums? 
• Can you generate cash by selling unused fixed assets? 
• Can you lease new equipment rather than buy? 
• Can you rent equipment used occasionally rather than buy? 

• Are you estimating bids by using two or three methods to be sure your prices are reasonable and profitable? 
• Are you bidding for profit rather than low balling prices just to get the accounts? 
• Are you establishing burdened labor rates for all employee positions? 
• Are you preparing profit and loss statements at least once a month? 

Are you preparing balance sheets at least quarterly? 

For more information on how to build an organized, profitable, and productive business, go to:  www.cpibusiness.com

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