I say, "Gals, there is no crying in baseball and there are no cutting corners in business!" If you hear someone say that they gained revenues by cutting corners, (s)he isn't telling you the whole story." Cutting corners in business eventually catches up with you and can irrevocably damage a business. Women entrepreneurs too often learn the hard way, just like the boys, that cutting corners in business leads to disaster. Let me tell you why? 
The first reason a business owner considers cutting corners is to boost the bottom line. As a business coach, I've heard time and time again about why a strategy to cut something is the only way to increase revenues. When I counter with questions on why (s)he doesn't consider a new product, a new channel for distribution, more social media to encourage inbound marketing, or a more focused sales strategy, I am often rebuked with the fear of taking risk. The truth is the biggest risk any business owner can take is to cut corners believing it will expand revenues.
An efficient business leader is operating in a cost effective manner. The idea that one can cut costs and therefore save money without sacrificing quality is a sham.
The most dangerous and risky idea is to cut corners with customers with the notion that 'what the customer doesn't know won't hurt them'. This is the same mentality that believes that employees are not watching every move to determine how to behave in the workplace and what demeanor will be accept or rejected. In business, everything you do matters to your staff, your customers, your vendors, the workplace, the community, the company culture and, therefore it should matter to YOU. A business will eventually fail if it doesn't believe that its customers don't deserve the very best product, service, experience and value. It only takes one customer to smell a change and a tsunami of discontent will follow.
When I think of all the businesses I have worked with over the years I would say the most bottom line business of them all is health care. The reason I say this is because it is very clear that everything in health care must be of the highest standard from the facility to the equipment, to the provider, to the billing system and more. It is a business that requires precision in every aspect of the business. Ask yourself what type of cutting corners you would put up with at a health care facility or provider that you do business with. NONE - exactly. Yet, health care is a business just like any other business that relies on staff, vendors and most importantly customers to keep a bottom line stable. Some of the big guys are in the health care business and clearly cutting corners is not how they succeed in business.
How about those big guys in the food staple industry? In my opinion, this is exactly where my point plays out very nicely. In the past twenty years or so this industry has decided to cut corners on quality and worked hard to lower the cost of their production while raising the cost of their marketing to encourage us all to believe that overly processed foods and genetically modified foods are all in (our) the consumer's best interest. Well, I'm not buying it (a little pun there) or their products. The fact is more and more consumers aren't buying it and these companies are feeling the heat and their stock prices have been affected.
But if you are reading this blog, you are not likely a big guy or even wishing to be one, so back to the point. When times are tough and the going gets rough take a risk and take action in ways that can lower your costs and raise your revenues without disrespecting yourself, your customers, your staff or your vendors.
Sometimes it is necessary to raise your prices - yes I said it - raise your prices. If your operating expenses are going up so must your prices in order to stay in business. If I had a dollar for every time I have suggested to a client that she raise her prices and she looked at me with horror and said, "But I'll lose customers if I raise my prices." No you won't! Most customers won't even notice the change and those that do only want to know that they are being treated fairly. Depending on your business, your customer may need to pass along your increase to their customers. Yes, exactly this is why prices go up all around because everyone needs to pay expenses and still make a profit or go out of business. When you fight to keep your prices the same you only hurt yourself and that hurt eventually hurts all those who depend on you.
One more way to cut costs without cutting corners is to systemize your business. I will write another blog soon on the importance of systemizing in every business. But the most important thing you need to know here is that if everyone that works in your business were to perform exactly the same each time in order to get the work done you would benefit with cost savings. This has been proven by many great business minds and I proved it for myself in my own business. Take time to put a manual together on how you do what you do and make sure everyone in your company does it the same way. I promise money will appear that you didn't know was there.
So, no more thoughts of cutting corners. It is time to take action and take risk to be better and grow in a healthy way. Even in a down economy I've worked with clients who although don't make more money are producing higher margins. When the economy improved the higher margins produce higher revenues and higher profits.
Women entrepreneurs are the engine driving small business - keep your motors running!
