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Do you like to save money?
Duh… Of course
you do! When you own your
own business, you really appreciate the value of a dollar and want
to squeeze everything you can out of each and every one.
Right? RIGHT!
But at what cost?
I remember shopping for a laser printer about 10
years ago. Living in a rural
area, mail order is the way to go for me and I combed the ads in the back
of PC Magazine. Many of them
didn’t even show a price; it just said “Call” and I did. When I got the price I wrote it down, then discovered that
terms varied. Considerations
such as shipping costs, credit card surcharges, sales tax if purchased
within California, etc. all affected my bottom line cost, and whenever I
discovered a new consideration, I had to re-dial the companies I already
spoke to in order to get their policy on the matter.
I figure I spent at least 10 hours doing research.
I also figure that I saved about $50.
Pretty good, huh? NOPE! I
probably could have made a heckava lot more than that had I invested those
10 hours in my business!
I’m not saying that it is a waste of time to shop
for a good price. Far from
it. But there is a line,
however, that you should be careful not to cross because that’s when you
enter the never-never land of diminishing returns.
In the first hour, I could have determined that the price of my
printer wouldn’t vary by much. At
that point I should have just made a decision, ordered it, and moved on.
I would have saved 9 hours of my time and probably only spent $20
or $25 more than I did. What I’m saying is that you have to remember to consider
your time as part of the price
There are other considerations besides price and your
time. Availability, for example.
If I needed that printer for a project that had a deadline, there
would have been a cost associated with getting it too late to do that
project. That situation may
have made it worthwhile to pay more in order to get it sooner.
How about the out-of-pocket costs to purchase the item?
If I had to drive 100 miles round-trip to save $30 on the printer,
is that a good thing to do? No, because it will cost $34 in auto expenses (at the current
IRS rate of $ .34 per mile). Not
to mention the time it would take. Unless
I really need that printer right now, it doesn’t make sense, does
it?
The point I’m trying to make is that, no matter
what you purchase there are tradeoffs.
Time versus money. Convenience versus money.
Opportunity versus money. Be
sure that you consider all of the factors, not just the ‘sticker
price’. Whether you like it
or not, the true cost is a combination of all of those factors.
Saving money is great. But
it’s gonna cost you!
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