It’s a common phrase these days, do more with less, whether you’re applying it to your business or home life. The phrase has been tracked back and credited to founding father, Benjamin Franklin, and been used countless times through other recessions. But what does it really mean?
Boiled down, I believe it’s supposed to emphasize renewed focus on priorities. For home life, it might be applied as:
1. Time with family is key.
2. Going to a movie is not essential.
3. You can spend time together at home shooting hoops, playing a game, etc.
4. Quality family time was prioritized (unless you played Monopoly and are still fighting about it), and you saved the money of going to a movie.
How can you apply doing more with less on the truck?
I don’t think it makes sense to try and increase sales while decreasing inventory, but what about increasing inventory and spending less by shopping for better buys and deals? Targeting rebate offers, buying in quantity for discounts and other options are available to save money on what you do carry. Have you considered entering into a buying agreement with another distributor to take advantage of quantity discounts?
Another area you can streamline is customers. If you take a step back and analyze each customer you spend time with, there are some where you’ll see you could spend a bit more time and probably several who haven’t been buying who you can shoo off the truck quicker.
Is there one tool category that has been outselling others lately? Maybe now is the time to keep more of that category in stock and reduce what you carry in another area.
There are ways to do it. In this recession, people keep talking about it. Just make sure when you’re trying to make something less, the more outweighs it in a smart way.
