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Cal Wilson / March 13, 2023

Are you harnessing the full power of the “network effect”?

During times of economic uncertainty, clients depend on strategic business advisors more than ever. Chances are, you’re doing all the right things; you understand your client’s business, you have optimized your suite of products and services, and you have provided excellent strategic advice across your domain of expertise. So, what else can you do to provide even more value and build stickier relationships?

Are you familiar with the power of the “network effect”?

The concept of the “network effect” originated in the tech space, and refers to the phenomenon where the value of a product or service increases as more people use it. Take social media, for example. Platforms like Instagram or TikTok became more valuable as more users joined and contributed content, despite more niche beginnings.

The network effect also creates economies of scale for companies with large user bases, allowing them to leverage their size to reduce costs and increase profits.

Our personal and business networks work the same way.

We all know it’s impossible to be all things to all people. We learned that in our Marketing 101 class!  That’s why growing a diverse and highly curated personal and business network can be so valuable to your success.

The value of your network increases as you connect with more people. During a job search, the more people you know, the more likely you are to be connected to someone hiring or be provided with a good reference.  As a business owner, a diverse network is more likely to help you get new customers or referrals or connect you with the right subject matter expert.

Have you recently made the effort to expand and diversify your networks?

While we all serve as experts in our unique business domain, have you explored tapping into a broader set of experts that can complement your expertise and provide even more value to your clients?  New connections can instantly unlock resources, insights, and revenue opportunities for your clients with just a simple introduction.  I know we all tend to network with the “usual suspects” like accountants, attorneys, and financial advisors. But have you explored some more “under the radar” experts like:

  • Industry associations and trade groups that can help our clients while keeping us up-to-date on industry trends, regulations, and best practices. These organizations can also provide networking opportunities with other businesses in the industry as we build our expertise.
  • Tech-savvy marketing and advertising agencies that help our clients execute creative marketing campaigns, including digital marketing, social media marketing, and advertising. These agencies tend to work with clients on a high growth trajectory.
  • Human resources consultants that help clients with talent management, including recruitment, training, and performance management. These consultants can help navigate an extremely tight labor market for our clients.
  • Cost procurement experts that help our clients with specific pricing knowledge and expertise in a particular industry or cost category. These experts identify new vendor options, unlock new savings opportunities, and track changing market dynamics.

As a Schooley Mitchell franchise owner, I work across almost every industry. Our cost categories apply to virtually every business. As a result, I am constantly engaged in conversations across a broad set of business topics, trends, and challenges.  I am constantly looking to my network of experts and clients to help me address their diverse set of business needs.

How about we set up a call to discuss how we could collaborate and collectively harness the power of our unique personal and business networks?

Cal Wilson / March 1, 2023

Featured in Atascocita/Humble Catholic Magazine

Recently, Schooley Mitchell’s Lori McDowell was featured in Atascocita/Humble Catholic Magazine, in an article by Shannon M Carr:

Saving Business and Nonprofits Thousands:

Schooley Mitchell – Humble

Schooley Mitchell provides cost reduction consulting to businesses ad nonprofits. Schooley Mitchell does not sell any form of product. The magic behind Schooley Mitchell is how they identify an organization’s errors and overcharges with their current vendor invoices, negotiate better contracts with existing and new vendors, manage ongoing vendor relationships, and ensure they are always getting the best deal (risk-free). They have been helping businesses become more profitable, and they have helped nonprofits have more funds for programs for over 20 years.

“The basic philosophy is we can help organizations save money with no risk – if you don’t save money, we don’t get paid!” Lori said.

The philosophy behind Schooley Mitchell is helping organizations that are resource-limited by having Schooley Mitchell’s tea, do the work for them, and in return, both companies share in the savings. Companies become more profitable, and nonprofits have more money available for programs.

“What I enjoy most about my work is when I can help someone else succeed, when I work with a business and save them money, or work with a nonprofit and they see how much less they can pay for services and how they can use this money to help the community. It brings me great joy,” said Lori.

It’s a great time to take Lori up on her no-risk offer if you own or manage a business or work with a nonprofit in the area.

Schooley Mitchell is offering any customer that signs up for services before May 31, 2023, to donate 10% of the Schooley Mitchell profit to a nonprofit of their choice, and this donation will continue quarterly for the length of the service agreement, which is typically three years. Plus, any nonprofit that signs up before May 31 will get a 15% donation back to the nonprofit.

Lori is a kind and giving heart who has lived in the Kingwood and Atascocita area since December of 1999 with her husband, Frank, and son, Hunter. “I am intentional about making my workday inspirational. I start each day with a prayer/meditation/moment of mindfulness, ad when I get anxious or frustrated with the obstacles that risk up, I focus on the food I am doing for the organizations I am working with ad all the amazing people I have met so far.”

To learn more about how Schooley Mitchell can help your organization of business, reach out to Lori McDowell at 281-740-2865 or visit schooleymitchell.com/lmcdowell

For PDF view, please click here.

Cal Wilson / February 21, 2023

Are you ready to offset your increased travel expenses as business travel returns to normal?

It’s conference season! Many businesses have seen a drastic reduction in corporate travel in the past few years due to COVID-19, but 2023 is looking like the year that travel plans can resume as usual.

If your business has grown used to not paying for employee travel in the past few years, you may find yourself squeezing the budget trying to make arrangements. In this article, we’re taking a look at some recommendations to offset expenses and make room in your budget for the cost of business travel.

Travel costs are more expensive than before the pandemic.

When it comes to travel in 2023, there’s good news and bad news. The good news? Prices are finally starting to decrease. The bad news? That’s after hitting record highs.

It’s not surprising 2022 saw record travel prices – the cost of doing anything increased right around the same time that many felt comfortable travelling again. So don’t be surprised if the cost of flying, housing, and feeding your travelling employees is more expensive than pre-pandemic conference seasons.

However, especially if you haven’t booked yet, there may be opportunities to book better deals than if you travelled to any conferences in the previous year.

Where do you find the money to pay for business travel?

If the budget is tight this year, and you’re worried about the cost of travel, there are ways you can streamline and optimize your daily operations, while freeing up extra funds in your budget that can go to additional expenses such as conference travel.

My business, Schooley Mitchell, is North America’s largest independent cost reduction firm. We help businesses free up these kinds of funds every day. Here are some of the areas we find that businesses regularly overspend.

Incorrect card processing rate structures.

Your business could be losing significant revenue to incorrect card processing rate structures.

Processors usually offer seemingly standard contracts, but many contain provisions that allow them to increase your rates. This often comes with the caveat they must notify you first — but those notifications could appear in small print on one of your statements. Be sure to read your statements for notification of rate increases and periodically check your rate to see if it has mysteriously increased. Often, all it takes for them to waive the rate increase is a phone call to object.

Unorganized software licenses.

If you pay for anything like Microsoft Office or Adobe products for your business, unorganized licenses could be costing you.

Forbes calls this the “quintessential Goldilocks problem… Purchase too many licenses and unprovisioned or inactive licenses will never get used, resulting in wasted spend. Purchase too few, and your employees could deal with the constraints of having to share, swap or reassign licenses frequently.”

In either scenario you’re wasting money; either on idle licenses or lost productivity.

Unnecessary analog phone lines.

Nowadays, a lot can be done with a stable internet connection – making your analog phone lines not only redundant, but overpriced. Solutions such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) give you a lot more bang for your buck, without long distance calling fees.

Billing errors.

As cost reduction specialists, we see way too many billing errors on our clients invoices. From incorrect rates and cancelled services to being charged for another customer’s services, billing errors are expensive and tiresome to resolve. However, vigilance is important. Especially for larger accounts – such as telecom services with hundreds of phone lines attached – it’s not uncommon for us to find a billing error worth several thousand dollars.

In conclusion…

While readjusting to regular conference travel costs could be a shock to your budget, it’s doable. In fact, there are lots of easy ways to recover money you might be overspending, in order to fund that travel.

My business is helping businesses just like yours save money on their operational expenses across thirteen common cost categories. I’d love to help your free up space and time in your operations to make this year’s conference travel smooth sailing.

Cal Wilson / January 27, 2023

Featured in Hometown News

Recently, Schooley Mitchell’s Tim McGuire submitted an article to be featured in the Martin County edition of Florida’s Hometown News. You can read the edition, here.

Cal Wilson / January 27, 2023

Can indirect cost procurement help you weather the approaching storm?

Here’s a universal truth – difficult economic times often lead to difficult choices. The choices can be even harder if you’re a business owner or manager. With your company and your staff relying on your leadership, the stress relating to financial decisions can be overwhelming.

Auto dealerships may be among the many businesses to feel the challenges posed by inflation, global supply chain issues, and consumer hesitancy. With demand running low, netting less revenue for dealerships, you may feel the pressure to reduce service offerings or even cut staff.

Rather than making a decision that could potentially hurt your business in the long run, consider another, more strategic method of reducing your costs.

How do you cut costs without hurting your business?

The answer is simpler than you think. Instead of cutting staff or services, focus on your indirect operational expenses. Indirect expenses are costs not associated with your cost of goods sold or labor; this includes cost categories like telephone and internet, utilities, waste disposal, facility supplies, uniforms, and more.

Indirect cost procurement is the process of finding sustainable reductions to these costs; meaning they increase your bottom line without impacting your business’ operations.

Altogether, indirect costs can represent around 15% of your dealership’s annual budget. In my experience, many business owners either don’t have the time to assess these expenses or don’t have the knowledge or tools to look for ways to reduce them.

Your dealership might be overpaying.

My business, Schooley Mitchell, has been working with businesses and organizations across North America for over twenty years, reducing their operational expenses across thirteen different cost categories. We’ve found that many businesses don’t even know they’re overpaying vendors. Our indirect cost procurement process helps reduce these expenses by an average of 28% – which can amount to some significant savings.

For auto dealerships, one of the expenses we find needs optimizing quite frequently is their telecom and waste disposal spend. Recently, we helped deliver roughly 39% in savings for one business’ waste fees, and for another, achieved annual savings of $10,000 in waste disposal and telecom fees.

Best practices in indirect cost procurement.

So you want to begin cutting indirect costs, but where do you start? Here is my five-step recommendation for indirect cost procurement that any dealership can follow:

  1. Identify and track indirect costs: It is important for your dealership to have a clear understanding of what your indirect costs are and how they are incurred. This may involve setting up systems to track and allocate indirect costs to specific projects or activities.
  2. Set budget and cost control measures: Businesses can set budget and cost control measures in place to help manage indirect costs. This may involve setting limits on spending or implementing processes to review and approve indirect cost expenditures.
  3. Negotiate with suppliers: Dealerships can negotiate with suppliers to get the best possible prices on indirect costs. This may involve seeking out new suppliers, negotiating contracts, and leveraging the business’ purchasing power.
  4. Implement cost-saving initiatives: Businesses can implement cost-saving initiatives to reduce indirect costs. This may involve streamlining processes, using technology to automate tasks, or consolidating vendors.
  5. Monitor and review indirect costs: It is important for you to regularly review and monitor indirect costs to ensure that they are being managed effectively. This may involve conducting cost-benefit analyses, comparing costs to industry benchmarks, and identifying opportunities for cost reduction.

In conclusion…

Admittedly, these five steps can be time consuming and feel a bit daunting. However, 15% or more of your dealership’s annual budget is no small thing, and with an ever-changing economic environment, that piece of the pie could go from important to critical in the blink of an eye.

Your time is valuable, and so is your budget. If you don’t want to choose between cutting costs and doing the work you love, I’d be happy to arrange a time to talk about how Schooley Mitchell can do a risk-free analysis of your indirect costs. The best part? Our fees are self-funded from a portion of the savings we find – meaning, if we don’t find savings, our work comes at no cost.

Please a time to talk at: https://www.schooleymitchell.com/asmith/#Contact

Cal Wilson / January 18, 2023

Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Basketball Tournament

Michael recently helped support the Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Basketball Tournament held at The Ark of St. Sabina Church where Rev. Michael Pfleger is the Pastor. This event offers a safe & fun environment for inner-city youth to compete and promote sportsmanship and health, while honoring the legacy of MLK.

Cal Wilson / December 7, 2022

Volunteering with Bread of Life

Schooley Mitchell’s Lori McDowell and other volunteers with Bread of Life helping feed the homeless in Downtown Houston. Bread of Life is an amazing organization that does so much good for the city of Houston and surrounding areas!