Some management issues get more attention than others in any business, especially in small business retail like a newsagency.
I guess it is the low hanging fruit philosophy – complain about and deal with the issues that are easier to reach an deal with rather than those out of easy reach.
The thing is, sometimes the pay-off is better for the more challenging issues to resolve.
Take eftpos fees. Newsagents love to bash their eftpos provider and will change in a heartbeat for what appears to be a cheaper fee. They see the move as an easy win.
Comments on this blog reflect the level of interest in eftpos fees. It is considerable.
Now think about the employee roster and the labour costs in your business. Again, comments here reflect the interest in this topic. It is minimal.
Trimming the roster can provide many times more savings to the business than switching eftpos provider yet many newsagents are reluctant to make any such move.
You either want to manage the business for lower overheads or not. The roster accounts for between 9% and 11% of operating costs yet it is usually only reluctantly considered.
Why is that? Why switch eftpos providers to save less than you could save by overhauling the roster?
I think the challenges with roster trimming are that it is personal – you are friends with employees and, it can affect your lifestyle as you might have to work more hours.
The question has to come down to the motivation for any business decision. If it is about achieving a lower overhead for the business, then pursue that through the whole business and not just one part that makes you angry, such as eftpos fees. Be serious about your goal and reach for further away fruit that may provide you a better financial return.
I know of several retailers who have recently focused on eftpos fees to save around $100 a month while running a bloated roster that could be trimmed by between $6,000 and $25,000 a year.
Why pay $100 more for the same service I don’t understand the argument . Eftpos is eftpos who cares where it come from as long as it works and money goes into my account I am ok with that . As far as staff goes well sometimes you have to pay that little extra to have a life .
One example with eftpos is phone credit just about every phone credit transaction is done through eftpos (for us it is) does anyone want to work out how many sales I need to do to make $100 profit ?
Seems to be a contradiction here…. didn’t I previously read that before you pay any utility, telecommunications or service account that you should price check the market? Seems that has been done by some businesses and they switched… paying Tyro over the odds seems acceptable?
This post is not about Tyro and not about the $100. It is about the bigger saving ignored. I see this happen often – retailers get worked up about one issue where there is a more valuable issue they ignore.