Why cut costs now?
Efforts are multiplying to cut costs wherever possible in order to achieve or preserve high profits. The resulting benefits for all of a company's employees should be obvious.

It should be obvious, but sometimes it is not. One of the lessons of the Dot-Com debacle is that many of the companies went belly up due to profligate spending by the executives.

Of course, you would like to achieve high profits by having a record-breaking sales year, but that may not be likely to happen this year given all of the uncertainties of the economy and the political situation. Levels of sales success are certainly unpredictable.

The level of sales, however, is only one ingredient in the recipe for success. You must also be interested in keeping your costs as low as you can, because the real number to watch is your profit, the difference between your income and your spending. Remember that this year can be more successful than last year even with lower sales if you can reduce your spending enough.

To increase profits, you can either increase your income, reduce your spending, or both. As your salespeople are aggressively searching for additional customers as well as seeking opportunities for more sales to existing customers, the rest of the employees can work on the other end: reducing costs. If sales are lackluster or even dismal, your cost-reduction efforts can ensure your survival. On the other hand, if sales are great, you can use them to achieve a banner year.

Get everyone involved
Everyone can participate in cost-cutting efforts. Here are a few examples:

Reduced travel