11 Ways to Cut Overhead

Is your firm thinking of ways to cut costs? Here are eleven creative ideas to reduce your overhead expenses.

1. Require all project-related printing to be done outside the firm so vendor invoices can be passed on to clients as reimbursable expenses.

2. Charge all plots to the client; no free in-house plots.

3. Eliminate company cars. 

4. Charge computer purchases requested by an individual to his department or to the specific job for which it was requested. 

5. Discontinue in-house lunches. 

6. Limit company-paid professional registrations to one per person per year. 

7. Limit company-paid membership in national organizations to one per person per year. 

8. Eliminate your in-house bookkeeper; use outside service vendors for your payroll. 

9. Shift job-cost reporting, billing, and other accounting functions to the secretary who does it as a part-time, collateral duty. 

10. Use students as part-time employees for deliveries, routine filing, posting of invoices, and other clerical tasks. 

11. Assign collateral duties to everybody in the office, virtually eliminating overhead positions. 

None of these items alone is going to make or break your profit, but by focusing attention on areas of cost that are not normally examined, and by adopting a cost conscious attitude throughout the firm, you may improve your bottom line dramatically.

PSMJ has been addressing effective financial management in design firms for more than 34 years. Learn tips like these and many others at our A/E/C Successful Financial Management Seminar. Together, we'll walk through a structured, logical approach to sound and sustainable financial management for your A/E firm. Click here to register now!