There are many common mistakes when business owners try and increase profits and without increasing sales. Usually this occurs in the area of customer service and quality. When I was growing up we had a local home improvement store that was one of the first big box stores. It was called Home Base. It was very similar to the modern day Home Depot. Home Base when it was first new was awesome. I remember going in there and seeing everything any home remodeler or contractor would like or need. Finding help was a breeze too. For one stop shopping this was it. Home Base was a success from what I could tell until one day thongs changed. I remember a succession of visits to the store that became increasingly frustrating. I could walk aisle after aisle and could never find any help. I also started noticing that the store started getting messier and messier. I could not find what I was looking for so I started to tire of Home Base. One day a Home Depot opened up and I started going there instead. Now, I do not know exactly why this happened but I have a pretty good guess as many Big box stores have followed the same pattern. They compromised quality, standards and customer service to increase profit. Generally, the store managers can determine the amount of labor on in the store and in order to make a bigger bonus they generally cut customer service labor. How short sided is this? If I had gotten more help, I would have spent more money! I hate a dirty store so why not clean it up as I know I am not alone. Today other stores follow the same protocol. If sales are down they cut important corners.

If you are looking for more profit you can do it responsible. If you make your customers suffer they will leave you quickly. I used to work for a man who owned several McDonald's locations. Hey had them run very efficient and he could find ways to put profit back in to the companies pocket on a daily basis. He would make his employees ask customers if they wanted ketchup and how many? They would only put in 2-3 napkins unless you asked for more. Salt and pepper was the same thing. He sold his left over grease. His managers were given bonuses for store performance ratings and he had the best landscaping and lighting around. He would talk with the customer's and make sure they had everything they needed. He spared nothing as he was interested in one thing. Gaining more profit without letting service or quality suffer.

I know in my own businesses that I constantly have to watch cutting important things. This both applies to the customers and the employees. However, I find all the time we are either being overcharged for something, or we are wasting money. Those are the areas I always look at to put more profit back into this business. I watch paying late fees on bills. I constantly try and work backwards on projects we are doing to see how we can do them more efficiently. I reorganize the office constantly to gain a better working environment so my people are more productive. I believe in every business there are always 50 items that can be trimmed down or made more efficient. Do not be afraid to tear things apart and see what is going on in your systems and procedures as you may be surprised that money is just sitting there. Sometimes you may have to spend More money upfront to save more on the back end but that is OK. It is long term dollars we are looking for and we need to keep our customers to do it.

Lastly, train your people better. Increase their understandings on profit and customer service. If they are more engaged in driving profit in, they will help take part in increasing profits without increasing sales.

Learn more about this author, Robert Kintigh.
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