Your Home Business: Turning Pennies into 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.