April 24, 2025 • 28 mins
Is your business silently bleeding time, money, or talent? It's time to find out.
In this episode we are discussing the concept of the DOGE Audit and how it can help your organization. If the government can do it, surely you can too. Learn to apply those same principles to help you cut the clutter and boost your bottom line.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brandon Matthews (00:03):
What if I told you that today your company with
a little intentionality couldboost its revenue and you didn't
have to produce a new product,you didn't have to sell a new
product, you didn't have toservice a new product. What if
you didn't even need a viralmarketing campaign, fresh
branding, more employees, oreven new technology in order to
(00:26):
do it? What if the blueprint toachieve this is happening right
in front of us today? Andbelieve it or not, it's
happening in front of us fromour federal government.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
See, president Trump and Elon Musk created this very
controversial department ofgovernment efficiency, DOGE. And
its goal was to do simply onething. It was to go throughout
the government, through everydepartment, line by line, and
eliminate waste and save thetaxpayer dollars. Now I know
(01:00):
there are many differentfeelings about this, and there
are lots of discussions aboutthis. This is a hot topic today,
and I know that you have yourown opinions as well.
But it's hard to argue withresults. See, they have already
saved the government, taxpayerdollars, 50 5 billion dollars.
(01:21):
That is billion dollars with aB. And they just got started.
And here's the encouraging part,is that it wasn't hard to do.
They just simply cut unnecessaryprograms. They renegotiated
contracts and they trimmed thefat on government spending. They
(01:41):
went through line by line andsimply found waste. Now before
you disconnect today, before youturn off the podcast, before you
start watching, let me put youat ease. I'm not talking about
politics here.
Because regardless if you agreewith their methods, if you voted
for a certain party or youdidn't, that's not our topic
today. The core idea from ourconversation today is
(02:05):
streamlining and cutting waste.That this is something that
every organization can learnfrom. As we watch what they're
doing trimming line by line andsaving money, every organization
can learn from what's happeningbecause it's smart. It's just
common sense.
It is good business management.And I wanna ask you this. If you
(02:29):
were to run a doge style auditin your company or your
organization or even in yourpersonal finances, how much
waste would you find? So here'swhat I wanna challenge you in
today. I want you to hang withme because throughout this
episode, we're gonna talk abouthow you can go doge in your
organization or in your life inorder to cut waste, in order to
(02:51):
save money, and in order tooperate at max capacity.
So welcome to the Mind YourBusiness podcast, the podcast
for whatever business is on yourmind. Let's get started. Well,
that's excellent. Well, thankyou for joining me for another
(03:16):
episode of the Mind YourBusiness podcast. If this brings
value to your life, will you dome a favor?
Will you like, subscribe, andshare this with others? It would
also be amazing if you wouldleave a review wherever you
listen because this helps me addas much value to as many people
as possible. Did you know onaverage that US businesses waste
(03:38):
up to 30% of their operatingbudget on inefficiencies? That
simply means that 30% of yourhard earned money that you have
worked for, that you haveplanned for, that you have
strategized over all the workthat you've put into it. 30% of
that income is just slippingthrough the cracks and you
(04:00):
probably don't even realize it'shappening.
And if you do realize it, youprobably don't even know why. So
the question is, how do wereduce the waste that's in our
organization? So if I've piquedyour interest, I want to help
you identify just some key areasof your organization where you
need to be looking for waste.There are four of the biggest
(04:22):
areas that most businesses losemoney without even realizing it.
So let's talk about these four.
The first one is just financialwaste. AKA where did all of my
money go? See financial waste isnot uncommon in any of our
lives. Most of us personally andprofessionally, we have
financial waste even if youdon't recognize that it's there.
(04:45):
For example, have you everlooked at your credit card
statement and you just thoughtto yourself, wait a second, I
don't remember signing up forthis subscription.
Most of us have experienced thatat some point in time. This
happens not only in our personallives, but it happens in our
organizations too. Except forwhen it happens in our
organization, it happens on amuch larger scale. Some of the
(05:07):
most common financial leaks thatwe have is things just that
simple. Unused softwaresubscriptions.
Think about it. If you look atyour statements, are you still
paying for that free trial thatyou signed up for seven days or
thirty days? Someone on yourteam, they had access to the
card. They'd signed up for thatsubscription. It was gonna
change the workflow of theentire department, but it's
(05:31):
being paid for and it's goingunused.
And there's chances that that'shappening on multiple different
levels. Even overpriced vendorcontracts. All of the vendors
that you pay for. Do they do allthe things that service your
organization, that service yourteam or service your facilities?
When was the last time that youtried to negotiate the rate that
(05:51):
you have with all of thosedifferent vendors?
See, every time that you sign upfor something and you never
touch it again, you have anopportunity for money just to be
leaking without renegotiatingeven the vendor contracts that
are ongoing. Another one in ouroffice spaces are unnecessary
supplies. We have a lot ofthings that are just on order,
auto order. They're showing up.They're going on a shelf.
(06:14):
They're in a backroom somewhere.We have an overstock of things
that we really don't need. Andit may seem simple, but every
one of those orders, every oneof those supplies that are
sitting are just simply wastingus money. We have financial
waste or financial leaks in ourorganization. Another big leak
or a waste that we have is time.
(06:36):
We have time waste. That's themeeting that should have been an
email. Everyone knows what I'mtalking about. You've had those
meetings. You've sat there forhours on end, and you're
thinking to yourself andeveryone else in the room knows
it.
This could have been an email.You know the saying. You've
heard this. That time is money.And the reason that that saying
(06:58):
has stood the test of time issimply because it's true.
Did you know that the averageemployee spends thirty one hours
per month in an unproductivemeeting? That's nearly a full
work week wasted. Time simplywashed down the drain. And most
(07:18):
of us knows that this happens,but we just continue to do it
anyway. We have lots of timewasters in our day to day, in
our organizations.
We have slow decision makingprocesses. You ever tried to
make a decision and it felt likeyou had to get 20 layers deep
just to get an approval for a$20 purchase? You have to go
(07:39):
through all of these layers andall of these people. You have to
send an email. You have toschedule a meeting.
You have to do a check-in justfor a decision making process.
And it holds up progress. You'renot making any time up because
you're losing it because youdon't have a good organizational
structure. There's just too manylayers and you're just wasting
(08:00):
time. Or something likerepetitive administrative tasks.
Things that could be doneautomatically. Things that could
have been put on a system. Thatthey could have been done a
better way, but we just haven'ttightened up the way that we run
our organization. It causes timeto be wasted. And I think we
need to learn how to organize insuch a way that we maximize the
(08:23):
time that we have.
Shopify did this a few yearsback. Back in 2023, they were in
the news for canceling all ofthe reoccurring meetings with
anything that had more thanthree people involved. They just
said, we're giving everyone backtheir time. They literally had a
bot go into all the calendarsfor the company and delete all
(08:44):
of the appointments for all ofthe meetings. People who had
scheduled their appointmentscould not even keep them because
they had AI go in and completelyerase them.
See, they restricted the wholeprocess for meetings. They
restructured what they weregoing to do with their time.
Now, like most reactions tochange, opinions were divided on
it. But the goal is so that theycould stop wasting time. It was
(09:08):
simply an attempt to say, we'renot going to waste time in this
organization by sitting aroundin meetings that could have been
an email.
We're going to structure ourfacilities. We're going to
structure our work order. We'regoing to structure the way that
we perform our task in such away that we're going to maximize
our time. So the question foryou is, how much time do you
(09:31):
think that your organization iswasting? Number three, I would
say is personnel waste.
We have too many cooks in thekitchen. We have too many
people, too many hands are onthings. One study found that
wasted time and inefficiencycost businesses up to 40% of
their payroll. In other words,we have so many people that we
(09:54):
are overspending on tasks thatcould have been done maybe by
fewer people. This happens whenemployees are underutilized.
So that's too many hands and notenough work. In other words, we
have hired multiple people to dothings that if we maximize the
work and the effort of theemployees that we have, we would
(10:14):
not need so many people workingon this project. Or some
employees would say, our rolesare just unclear. We've got
everyone doing a little bit ofeverything, but no one is
particularly owning any onespecific thing that needs to be
done. Or this is a big one inour organizations today, high
(10:34):
turnover.
The hiring and the trainingprocess is expensive. So I think
you should invest in retention.I say this a lot during our
podcast conversations that byinvesting in your people and by
equipping them and training themand resourcing them, this is the
most important investment thatyou can make. I would love to be
(10:56):
a resource to invest in yourteam. This is what I do and it's
worth it.
Listen to this. I want to proveit. Companies who invest in
their team have a 218% higherincome rate per employee than
companies without any trainings.92% of employees think that
workplace training impacts theirjob engagement in a positive
(11:19):
way. So if I can throw acommercial to you, I'm just one
email away from investing inyour team.
Number four, I would say a bigarea of waste is property waste.
I call it the land of forgottenoffice equipment. Think about
it. If you have outdated officeequipment in a storage room
somewhere collecting dust,that's waste. I know many
(11:42):
organizations that has equipmentpiled up.
If you're paying to rent storagespace for all of these things
that you don't need, that againis waste. Now, this has become
much more apparent and much morecommon after COVID. There are so
many properties that are sittingvacant. There's offices that are
unused and that's all waste.Money going down the drain.
(12:07):
See, one consulting firmspecifically, they offloaded
some of their unused officespace. They said, We're not
going to use this. We're notbringing everyone back to the
office and we don't need all ofthis space. And by simply
offloading some of the unusedoffice space, they save
$2,000,000 annually. And thismay be something that you need
(12:27):
to consider right now in yourorganization to trim the waste.
Property waste is apparentespecially today as we have this
work from home culture, as wehave this flex work schedules.
It may just be that you don'tneed all of the properties that
you're holding on to. Thereality is it does not matter if
(12:48):
the waste is finances, if it'stime, if it's personnel, or if
it's property. Waste is wasteand money is money. So I wanna
move this from, well, I thinkwe're wasting money to wow.
We just save thousands ormillions of dollars. So I wanna
go over what I would call a dogegame plan. A few things that you
(13:11):
can apply into yourorganization. A process of which
you can put a plan in place tospot and eliminate waste that
you have either professionallyor even personally. So number
one, here's what you need to dois you need to identify areas of
waste.
You have to be able to see itand to clarify the areas of
(13:31):
waste that you have in yourorganization or in your life.
Start by looking at the four keyareas that we just talked about.
Your finances. See what you'remissing. See what's leaking
there.
Your time, personnel and theproperty. You may find even
other areas as you start diggingin and you may go this needs
attention too. But generally,these are the four best places
(13:53):
that you can start in order tospot the waste that you have.
Number two, I would say is youneed to create an efficiency
task force. Get yourself anefficiency task force.
There are two approaches here.You could bring in a third party
like find your own Elon, and youcan have them help you sort
through all of your departments.They can help you go in
(14:14):
professionally, dig in. Theyknow what they're looking for.
They do this all the time.
They're experts in this area andjust help you uncover all of the
waste. Or you can work throughit internally with those who are
on the inside of yourorganization. And I think this
works as well too. If you chooseto work with a team inside of
your organization, I just thinkthat you need to make sure that
(14:37):
they are neutral in their costcutting. So here's something to
be aware of.
If they're invested in a projector a property, they may not be
ready to achieve your goal. Theymay not be so excited to cut the
waste. So, you just need to makesure that those that are
involved in cutting waste willactually get in there and help
you trim the fat. Just be awarebecause most people, they're not
(14:59):
excited about cutting waste.They're just not.
Most employees especially, whenit's not specifically their
money coming out of theirpocket, well they enjoy the
ability to spend withoutworrying so much about the
impact. And that's why this isreally important for you as the
leader, the manager, or even theowner that you oversee something
like this because they're notgoing to take as much ownership
(15:21):
in this area as you are. So inorder to, I guess, encourage
this process, you need to makeit more enjoyable or even make
it fun. So for example, youcould create an efficiency
challenge where you just giveteams maybe an opportunity to
compete to find the most savingsmaybe in their department. And
then you could reward them fortheir help in saving money and
(15:45):
cutting the waste.
Now by reward, listen, I don'tmean a pizza party. They don't
want another pizza party. Takethe savings that you have and
pay it forward with cash. Rewardthem. Take the savings.
Put it back into what matters,and that is people. People
matter more than anything. Thenumber three, would say, you
(16:07):
need to audit like Elon. We canlearn a lot here. This is where
things actually start to getreal.
Because as as you dig in andyou're looking for all the
waste, you've got your teaminvested, then you begin the
audit process. You have tonarrow your focus in on these
areas that you want to audit.You get your team prepared and
(16:27):
then you begin the work. Thefirst thing to do when you begin
is to get all of your datatogether. You can check expense
reports or time tracking,project logs, just any piece of
information that could lead youto potential waste.
Now, as we talk about this, Iknow what you're thinking. This
is time consuming and it can bepainful. But I promise you that
(16:50):
the more data that you cancollect, taking the time to sort
through all of this informationis going to help you because it
makes it even more clear. Themore data you have, the clearer
the picture becomes. And there'sa high probability that the more
you begin to uncover and theclearer that picture becomes,
the more trends that you'regoing to see that are running
(17:12):
through every department you'regoing to find waste.
And then just look for any keyareas where spending maybe is
higher than expected. So asyou're digging through all of
this information and as you'relooking through all the data
that you've collected, you mayfind there are some specific
areas where you're justexceeding the budget or even
(17:33):
that time is being wasted, thatdeadlines are being missed. And
you can take all of thisinformation that you collect,
the data, and then make use oftechnology. See, because of the
technology we have today, it'seasier than ever to make all of
the data collected just work foryou. There's tons of AI tools
that can sift through all of thedata to compare the trends that
(17:55):
you find.
It'll help you spot waste eventhat may not be obvious at first
glance. See, the goal here is totake the data and turn it into a
clear plan of action. So you'vegot everyone on board. You've
got a zero focus on the areas inwhich you want to audit, and
then you start collecting yourdata. And then number four, you
(18:16):
begin making cuts that matter.
Make the cuts that matter. Youneed to prioritize. We're not
cutting just to cut, but we'rebeing intentional here. When you
start making cuts, just rememberthat not all spending is bad. We
can get caught up in saving themoney that we begin slashing the
budget.
We begin taking funds orresources away that are actually
(18:39):
needed and actually matter.Prioritize where you reduce
spending without sacrificingquality and value. Focus your
cuts on the expenses that aren'tadding value or enough value to
justify the cost. Be careful andintentional about where you make
these cuts. And you can startwith quick wins.
(19:01):
This is a good one. See, thiscould be small things like those
unnecessary subscriptions orrenegotiating those vendor
contracts we talked about. See,these small wins actually give
you the momentum that you needto tackle the larger or more
complicated results. And gettingthose cuts in there. This is the
snowball effect.
Start small and then eventuallyas you become more lean in
(19:26):
cutting the fat, the easier itgets as you go through every
single department. You also needto make sure that you're
prepared to track the impactthat these cuts have on your
organization. So as you'retrimming the the fat, you need
to know what impact it's having.You're gonna wanna evaluate if
the result of that cut ispositive or if it's negative,
(19:46):
and then you can respondaccordingly. Now I understand
that as we had thisconversation, many of you right
now are going, this sounds likeso much work, and I'm not even
sure if it's worth the hassle.
But the statistics don't lie.Remember we said on average,
businesses waste how much? Up to30% of their operating budget on
(20:06):
waste. 30% just going down thedrain. But just a 3% reduction
in waste, it can actuallyincrease profits to 40% because
every $1 invested in wastereduction can save $14 in
operating cost.
It is worth it. And if you're onthe fence, ask Ford if it was
(20:29):
worth it to them. Back in theearly two thousands, you can
probably remember this that Fordrealized it had way too many car
models. They were spendingunnecessarily millions of
dollars on parts to support, tobuild low selling vehicles. They
were making a big investment invehicles that did not have the
(20:50):
return.
So in order to cut the fat, inorder to streamline the process,
they eliminated some of thosemodels. They trimmed the fat,
got rid of some of theunderperforming models, and then
they began to make more money.Even though they had to go in,
they had to reevaluate, they hadto take all the data, they had
to go in and reorganize andrestructure and work with all
(21:13):
their vendors and all thedifferent things that it took.
Come on. It was a lot of work,but it was worth it because they
saved a lot of money.
So here's what I want us to do.I want us to get started. I want
us to get your business lean andmean. And I wanna give you a
quick start guide so that youcan apply all of this this week.
We've talked about why we needto do it.
(21:34):
We've talked about areas that weneed to focus on. And so now, I
want to just equip you with agame plan. And don't forget,
this can be done in yourorganization and it can also be
done in your personal life. Andnumber one, here's where you
start. Just do a mini audit.
Start small. Just a mini auditjust to get the ball rolling. I
(21:55):
would say you could set asidetwo hours. Take two hours, put
it on the calendar on this day,at this time, and then gather
your team to just take a closelook at all of your expenses.
You can do this in yourorganization.
You can do this with your spouseif it's in a family setting.
Then begin to dig into all ofthat data. All this stuff that
(22:16):
we're collecting so that we canget the information. This could
be bank statements for you. Youcan take a look at those
software subscriptions we talkedabout.
Those vendor contracts,operational costs. You can look
for any and all unnecessaryspending. Just look for the fat.
What are we spending money onthat is unnecessary? And then by
(22:38):
including those key leaders, Ibelieve that they will help you
find spending that you probablydid not even know existed.
Because they're working inareas, spending money, they're
seeing the day to day at acloser angle. They're closer to
the work every single day thanpotentially you may be so they
can help you uncover some of thewaste that you may have not
(23:00):
noticed on your own. Number two,after you've taken a look at you
need to cut the fat. Just cutthe fat. If you find an expense
that falls into the wastecategory, don't wait.
Cut it today. Some expenses maythey may they may seem minor.
They may not seem like that bigof a deal. But together, all of
(23:21):
these add up to significantsavings. And the faster you cut
the fat, the quicker you can seethe results.
We talked about one of thosetime wasters was making
decisions and it getting throughall of the different layers. But
as soon as you see it, as soonas you notice it, go ahead, trim
the fat. Number three is set anefficiency goal. Challenge
(23:42):
yourself and challenge yourteam. I think you should give a
measurable target.
Something that we are allshooting for. Because when you
say something like, oh, we'rejust gonna trim the waste. We
have to define the waste. Yougotta take that data. You gotta
bring it together.
You gotta serve it to your team.And then give them a goal.
Something like maybe reduceexpenses by 5% over the next
(24:04):
quarter. You see a clear goalkeeps everyone focused and
motivated while making sure thatthese cuts are made
strategically. And if youencourage creativity, this will
help you too.
You can encourage creativeproblem solving because savings
don't just come from cuttingcost, but they can come from
improving processes and findingmore cost effective solutions.
(24:28):
So when you set an efficiencygoal and you actually equip and
empower your team, well it maynot be subscription. It may not
be a vendor. It may just simplybe a process in which something
is done that could be donebetter. Time saving.
It could be personnel saving. Sohere's what happens. When you
equip them and you encouragethem to get creative, They can
(24:51):
bring solutions to you that youdidn't even have to think of on
your own. And if you want yourteam to buy into this, if you
want them to be a part of thisDoge process, I want you to
number four, reward youremployees for finding savings.
You need them to buy in.
And listen, your team will behappy to trim the fat if they
(25:13):
know they're going to get apiece of the pie. You have to
offer them incentives like abonus, money, or even extra time
off. See, when people have apersonal stake in reducing
waste, they'll be more likely toparticipate and then offer the
solutions. And plus, when youshare the benefits of the cost
and all the savings that youjust have with your team, it
(25:34):
helps build morale and astronger culture and of course,
financial responsibility.Because as they spend, as they
purchase, as they produce, theyknow that the lack of waste is
going to increase their bottomline because the entire
organization is sharing in thistogether.
And then number five, commit toongoing reviews. Look. At this
(25:59):
point, you've already done thehard work. You've already
invested the time. You'vecollected all of the
information.
Brandon Matthews (26:04):
You've already begun to cut the fat. By this
point, you're seeing thebenefit. So just understand that
this isn't just a one and done.It's not just a one time thing.
This should be an ongoingprocess.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
So you could set up a quarterly review. Just make sure
that things are staying lean andwaste hasn't happened again.
Because the reality is this,that as your company continues
to grow, well your expenses aregoing to grow. As your company
operations become morecomplicated, well so do all the
expenses that come along withit. But regular check ins just
(26:40):
help you to catch anyunnecessary cost before they
become a burden on yourorganization.
So set a schedule, set a processin which just like any other
important thing that happens inyour organization, that this is
a quarterly review where youjust take a time, you take a
moment to go in and look for thewaste, start the audit all over
(27:02):
again so that you can ensurethat you're operating lean and
mean. Now, Doge may be focusedon government waste, but you can
take that same mindset, apply itto your business, your
department, or even yourpersonal budget. You can take
all of this information and youcan begin working this and
experiencing the benefits today.So this is my challenge for you.
(27:26):
I want you to pick at least onearea in your organization to
audit this week.
That may be your budget. It maybe your team's workflow. It
could be your meeting schedules.Maybe you need to cut some
meetings out. But just find atleast one way this week that you
can begin to cut waste in yourlife or in your organization.
(27:46):
And then I want you to let meknow what you found. I would
love to hear some successstories from your very own Doge
audit. And I wanna say thank youfor joining me for the Mind Your
Business podcast. As always, ifyou found this helpful, just
like, subscribe, share this witha friend, leave a review because
this helps us add value to asmany people as possible. Until
(28:09):
next time, go and mind yourbusiness.
What if I told you that today your company with
a little intentionality couldboost its revenue and you didn't
have to produce a new product,you didn't have to sell a new
product, you didn't have toservice a new product. What if
you didn't even need a viralmarketing campaign, fresh
branding, more employees, oreven new technology in order to
(00:26):
do it? What if the blueprint toachieve this is happening right
in front of us today? Andbelieve it or not, it's
happening in front of us fromour federal government.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
See, president Trump and Elon Musk created this very
controversial department ofgovernment efficiency, DOGE. And
its goal was to do simply onething. It was to go throughout
the government, through everydepartment, line by line, and
eliminate waste and save thetaxpayer dollars. Now I know
(01:00):
there are many differentfeelings about this, and there
are lots of discussions aboutthis. This is a hot topic today,
and I know that you have yourown opinions as well.
But it's hard to argue withresults. See, they have already
saved the government, taxpayerdollars, 50 5 billion dollars.
(01:21):
That is billion dollars with aB. And they just got started.
And here's the encouraging part,is that it wasn't hard to do.
They just simply cut unnecessaryprograms. They renegotiated
contracts and they trimmed thefat on government spending. They
(01:41):
went through line by line andsimply found waste. Now before
you disconnect today, before youturn off the podcast, before you
start watching, let me put youat ease. I'm not talking about
politics here.
Because regardless if you agreewith their methods, if you voted
for a certain party or youdidn't, that's not our topic
today. The core idea from ourconversation today is
(02:05):
streamlining and cutting waste.That this is something that
every organization can learnfrom. As we watch what they're
doing trimming line by line andsaving money, every organization
can learn from what's happeningbecause it's smart. It's just
common sense.
It is good business management.And I wanna ask you this. If you
(02:29):
were to run a doge style auditin your company or your
organization or even in yourpersonal finances, how much
waste would you find? So here'swhat I wanna challenge you in
today. I want you to hang withme because throughout this
episode, we're gonna talk abouthow you can go doge in your
organization or in your life inorder to cut waste, in order to
(02:51):
save money, and in order tooperate at max capacity.
So welcome to the Mind YourBusiness podcast, the podcast
for whatever business is on yourmind. Let's get started. Well,
that's excellent. Well, thankyou for joining me for another
(03:16):
episode of the Mind YourBusiness podcast. If this brings
value to your life, will you dome a favor?
Will you like, subscribe, andshare this with others? It would
also be amazing if you wouldleave a review wherever you
listen because this helps me addas much value to as many people
as possible. Did you know onaverage that US businesses waste
(03:38):
up to 30% of their operatingbudget on inefficiencies? That
simply means that 30% of yourhard earned money that you have
worked for, that you haveplanned for, that you have
strategized over all the workthat you've put into it. 30% of
that income is just slippingthrough the cracks and you
(04:00):
probably don't even realize it'shappening.
And if you do realize it, youprobably don't even know why. So
the question is, how do wereduce the waste that's in our
organization? So if I've piquedyour interest, I want to help
you identify just some key areasof your organization where you
need to be looking for waste.There are four of the biggest
(04:22):
areas that most businesses losemoney without even realizing it.
So let's talk about these four.
The first one is just financialwaste. AKA where did all of my
money go? See financial waste isnot uncommon in any of our
lives. Most of us personally andprofessionally, we have
financial waste even if youdon't recognize that it's there.
(04:45):
For example, have you everlooked at your credit card
statement and you just thoughtto yourself, wait a second, I
don't remember signing up forthis subscription.
Most of us have experienced thatat some point in time. This
happens not only in our personallives, but it happens in our
organizations too. Except forwhen it happens in our
organization, it happens on amuch larger scale. Some of the
(05:07):
most common financial leaks thatwe have is things just that
simple. Unused softwaresubscriptions.
Think about it. If you look atyour statements, are you still
paying for that free trial thatyou signed up for seven days or
thirty days? Someone on yourteam, they had access to the
card. They'd signed up for thatsubscription. It was gonna
change the workflow of theentire department, but it's
(05:31):
being paid for and it's goingunused.
And there's chances that that'shappening on multiple different
levels. Even overpriced vendorcontracts. All of the vendors
that you pay for. Do they do allthe things that service your
organization, that service yourteam or service your facilities?
When was the last time that youtried to negotiate the rate that
(05:51):
you have with all of thosedifferent vendors?
See, every time that you sign upfor something and you never
touch it again, you have anopportunity for money just to be
leaking without renegotiatingeven the vendor contracts that
are ongoing. Another one in ouroffice spaces are unnecessary
supplies. We have a lot ofthings that are just on order,
auto order. They're showing up.They're going on a shelf.
(06:14):
They're in a backroom somewhere.We have an overstock of things
that we really don't need. Andit may seem simple, but every
one of those orders, every oneof those supplies that are
sitting are just simply wastingus money. We have financial
waste or financial leaks in ourorganization. Another big leak
or a waste that we have is time.
(06:36):
We have time waste. That's themeeting that should have been an
email. Everyone knows what I'mtalking about. You've had those
meetings. You've sat there forhours on end, and you're
thinking to yourself andeveryone else in the room knows
it.
This could have been an email.You know the saying. You've
heard this. That time is money.And the reason that that saying
(06:58):
has stood the test of time issimply because it's true.
Did you know that the averageemployee spends thirty one hours
per month in an unproductivemeeting? That's nearly a full
work week wasted. Time simplywashed down the drain. And most
(07:18):
of us knows that this happens,but we just continue to do it
anyway. We have lots of timewasters in our day to day, in
our organizations.
We have slow decision makingprocesses. You ever tried to
make a decision and it felt likeyou had to get 20 layers deep
just to get an approval for a$20 purchase? You have to go
(07:39):
through all of these layers andall of these people. You have to
send an email. You have toschedule a meeting.
You have to do a check-in justfor a decision making process.
And it holds up progress. You'renot making any time up because
you're losing it because youdon't have a good organizational
structure. There's just too manylayers and you're just wasting
(08:00):
time. Or something likerepetitive administrative tasks.
Things that could be doneautomatically. Things that could
have been put on a system. Thatthey could have been done a
better way, but we just haven'ttightened up the way that we run
our organization. It causes timeto be wasted. And I think we
need to learn how to organize insuch a way that we maximize the
(08:23):
time that we have.
Shopify did this a few yearsback. Back in 2023, they were in
the news for canceling all ofthe reoccurring meetings with
anything that had more thanthree people involved. They just
said, we're giving everyone backtheir time. They literally had a
bot go into all the calendarsfor the company and delete all
(08:44):
of the appointments for all ofthe meetings. People who had
scheduled their appointmentscould not even keep them because
they had AI go in and completelyerase them.
See, they restricted the wholeprocess for meetings. They
restructured what they weregoing to do with their time.
Now, like most reactions tochange, opinions were divided on
it. But the goal is so that theycould stop wasting time. It was
(09:08):
simply an attempt to say, we'renot going to waste time in this
organization by sitting aroundin meetings that could have been
an email.
We're going to structure ourfacilities. We're going to
structure our work order. We'regoing to structure the way that
we perform our task in such away that we're going to maximize
our time. So the question foryou is, how much time do you
(09:31):
think that your organization iswasting? Number three, I would
say is personnel waste.
We have too many cooks in thekitchen. We have too many
people, too many hands are onthings. One study found that
wasted time and inefficiencycost businesses up to 40% of
their payroll. In other words,we have so many people that we
(09:54):
are overspending on tasks thatcould have been done maybe by
fewer people. This happens whenemployees are underutilized.
So that's too many hands and notenough work. In other words, we
have hired multiple people to dothings that if we maximize the
work and the effort of theemployees that we have, we would
(10:14):
not need so many people workingon this project. Or some
employees would say, our rolesare just unclear. We've got
everyone doing a little bit ofeverything, but no one is
particularly owning any onespecific thing that needs to be
done. Or this is a big one inour organizations today, high
(10:34):
turnover.
The hiring and the trainingprocess is expensive. So I think
you should invest in retention.I say this a lot during our
podcast conversations that byinvesting in your people and by
equipping them and training themand resourcing them, this is the
most important investment thatyou can make. I would love to be
(10:56):
a resource to invest in yourteam. This is what I do and it's
worth it.
Listen to this. I want to proveit. Companies who invest in
their team have a 218% higherincome rate per employee than
companies without any trainings.92% of employees think that
workplace training impacts theirjob engagement in a positive
(11:19):
way. So if I can throw acommercial to you, I'm just one
email away from investing inyour team.
Number four, I would say a bigarea of waste is property waste.
I call it the land of forgottenoffice equipment. Think about
it. If you have outdated officeequipment in a storage room
somewhere collecting dust,that's waste. I know many
(11:42):
organizations that has equipmentpiled up.
If you're paying to rent storagespace for all of these things
that you don't need, that againis waste. Now, this has become
much more apparent and much morecommon after COVID. There are so
many properties that are sittingvacant. There's offices that are
unused and that's all waste.Money going down the drain.
(12:07):
See, one consulting firmspecifically, they offloaded
some of their unused officespace. They said, We're not
going to use this. We're notbringing everyone back to the
office and we don't need all ofthis space. And by simply
offloading some of the unusedoffice space, they save
$2,000,000 annually. And thismay be something that you need
(12:27):
to consider right now in yourorganization to trim the waste.
Property waste is apparentespecially today as we have this
work from home culture, as wehave this flex work schedules.
It may just be that you don'tneed all of the properties that
you're holding on to. Thereality is it does not matter if
(12:48):
the waste is finances, if it'stime, if it's personnel, or if
it's property. Waste is wasteand money is money. So I wanna
move this from, well, I thinkwe're wasting money to wow.
We just save thousands ormillions of dollars. So I wanna
go over what I would call a dogegame plan. A few things that you
(13:11):
can apply into yourorganization. A process of which
you can put a plan in place tospot and eliminate waste that
you have either professionallyor even personally. So number
one, here's what you need to dois you need to identify areas of
waste.
You have to be able to see itand to clarify the areas of
(13:31):
waste that you have in yourorganization or in your life.
Start by looking at the four keyareas that we just talked about.
Your finances. See what you'remissing. See what's leaking
there.
Your time, personnel and theproperty. You may find even
other areas as you start diggingin and you may go this needs
attention too. But generally,these are the four best places
(13:53):
that you can start in order tospot the waste that you have.
Number two, I would say is youneed to create an efficiency
task force. Get yourself anefficiency task force.
There are two approaches here.You could bring in a third party
like find your own Elon, and youcan have them help you sort
through all of your departments.They can help you go in
(14:14):
professionally, dig in. Theyknow what they're looking for.
They do this all the time.
They're experts in this area andjust help you uncover all of the
waste. Or you can work throughit internally with those who are
on the inside of yourorganization. And I think this
works as well too. If you chooseto work with a team inside of
your organization, I just thinkthat you need to make sure that
(14:37):
they are neutral in their costcutting. So here's something to
be aware of.
If they're invested in a projector a property, they may not be
ready to achieve your goal. Theymay not be so excited to cut the
waste. So, you just need to makesure that those that are
involved in cutting waste willactually get in there and help
you trim the fat. Just be awarebecause most people, they're not
(14:59):
excited about cutting waste.They're just not.
Most employees especially, whenit's not specifically their
money coming out of theirpocket, well they enjoy the
ability to spend withoutworrying so much about the
impact. And that's why this isreally important for you as the
leader, the manager, or even theowner that you oversee something
like this because they're notgoing to take as much ownership
(15:21):
in this area as you are. So inorder to, I guess, encourage
this process, you need to makeit more enjoyable or even make
it fun. So for example, youcould create an efficiency
challenge where you just giveteams maybe an opportunity to
compete to find the most savingsmaybe in their department. And
then you could reward them fortheir help in saving money and
(15:45):
cutting the waste.
Now by reward, listen, I don'tmean a pizza party. They don't
want another pizza party. Takethe savings that you have and
pay it forward with cash. Rewardthem. Take the savings.
Put it back into what matters,and that is people. People
matter more than anything. Thenumber three, would say, you
(16:07):
need to audit like Elon. We canlearn a lot here. This is where
things actually start to getreal.
Because as as you dig in andyou're looking for all the
waste, you've got your teaminvested, then you begin the
audit process. You have tonarrow your focus in on these
areas that you want to audit.You get your team prepared and
(16:27):
then you begin the work. Thefirst thing to do when you begin
is to get all of your datatogether. You can check expense
reports or time tracking,project logs, just any piece of
information that could lead youto potential waste.
Now, as we talk about this, Iknow what you're thinking. This
is time consuming and it can bepainful. But I promise you that
(16:50):
the more data that you cancollect, taking the time to sort
through all of this informationis going to help you because it
makes it even more clear. Themore data you have, the clearer
the picture becomes. And there'sa high probability that the more
you begin to uncover and theclearer that picture becomes,
the more trends that you'regoing to see that are running
(17:12):
through every department you'regoing to find waste.
And then just look for any keyareas where spending maybe is
higher than expected. So asyou're digging through all of
this information and as you'relooking through all the data
that you've collected, you mayfind there are some specific
areas where you're justexceeding the budget or even
(17:33):
that time is being wasted, thatdeadlines are being missed. And
you can take all of thisinformation that you collect,
the data, and then make use oftechnology. See, because of the
technology we have today, it'seasier than ever to make all of
the data collected just work foryou. There's tons of AI tools
that can sift through all of thedata to compare the trends that
(17:55):
you find.
It'll help you spot waste eventhat may not be obvious at first
glance. See, the goal here is totake the data and turn it into a
clear plan of action. So you'vegot everyone on board. You've
got a zero focus on the areas inwhich you want to audit, and
then you start collecting yourdata. And then number four, you
(18:16):
begin making cuts that matter.
Make the cuts that matter. Youneed to prioritize. We're not
cutting just to cut, but we'rebeing intentional here. When you
start making cuts, just rememberthat not all spending is bad. We
can get caught up in saving themoney that we begin slashing the
budget.
We begin taking funds orresources away that are actually
(18:39):
needed and actually matter.Prioritize where you reduce
spending without sacrificingquality and value. Focus your
cuts on the expenses that aren'tadding value or enough value to
justify the cost. Be careful andintentional about where you make
these cuts. And you can startwith quick wins.
(19:01):
This is a good one. See, thiscould be small things like those
unnecessary subscriptions orrenegotiating those vendor
contracts we talked about. See,these small wins actually give
you the momentum that you needto tackle the larger or more
complicated results. And gettingthose cuts in there. This is the
snowball effect.
Start small and then eventuallyas you become more lean in
(19:26):
cutting the fat, the easier itgets as you go through every
single department. You also needto make sure that you're
prepared to track the impactthat these cuts have on your
organization. So as you'retrimming the the fat, you need
to know what impact it's having.You're gonna wanna evaluate if
the result of that cut ispositive or if it's negative,
(19:46):
and then you can respondaccordingly. Now I understand
that as we had thisconversation, many of you right
now are going, this sounds likeso much work, and I'm not even
sure if it's worth the hassle.
But the statistics don't lie.Remember we said on average,
businesses waste how much? Up to30% of their operating budget on
(20:06):
waste. 30% just going down thedrain. But just a 3% reduction
in waste, it can actuallyincrease profits to 40% because
every $1 invested in wastereduction can save $14 in
operating cost.
It is worth it. And if you're onthe fence, ask Ford if it was
(20:29):
worth it to them. Back in theearly two thousands, you can
probably remember this that Fordrealized it had way too many car
models. They were spendingunnecessarily millions of
dollars on parts to support, tobuild low selling vehicles. They
were making a big investment invehicles that did not have the
(20:50):
return.
So in order to cut the fat, inorder to streamline the process,
they eliminated some of thosemodels. They trimmed the fat,
got rid of some of theunderperforming models, and then
they began to make more money.Even though they had to go in,
they had to reevaluate, they hadto take all the data, they had
to go in and reorganize andrestructure and work with all
(21:13):
their vendors and all thedifferent things that it took.
Come on. It was a lot of work,but it was worth it because they
saved a lot of money.
So here's what I want us to do.I want us to get started. I want
us to get your business lean andmean. And I wanna give you a
quick start guide so that youcan apply all of this this week.
We've talked about why we needto do it.
(21:34):
We've talked about areas that weneed to focus on. And so now, I
want to just equip you with agame plan. And don't forget,
this can be done in yourorganization and it can also be
done in your personal life. Andnumber one, here's where you
start. Just do a mini audit.
Start small. Just a mini auditjust to get the ball rolling. I
(21:55):
would say you could set asidetwo hours. Take two hours, put
it on the calendar on this day,at this time, and then gather
your team to just take a closelook at all of your expenses.
You can do this in yourorganization.
You can do this with your spouseif it's in a family setting.
Then begin to dig into all ofthat data. All this stuff that
(22:16):
we're collecting so that we canget the information. This could
be bank statements for you. Youcan take a look at those
software subscriptions we talkedabout.
Those vendor contracts,operational costs. You can look
for any and all unnecessaryspending. Just look for the fat.
What are we spending money onthat is unnecessary? And then by
(22:38):
including those key leaders, Ibelieve that they will help you
find spending that you probablydid not even know existed.
Because they're working inareas, spending money, they're
seeing the day to day at acloser angle. They're closer to
the work every single day thanpotentially you may be so they
can help you uncover some of thewaste that you may have not
(23:00):
noticed on your own. Number two,after you've taken a look at you
need to cut the fat. Just cutthe fat. If you find an expense
that falls into the wastecategory, don't wait.
Cut it today. Some expenses maythey may they may seem minor.
They may not seem like that bigof a deal. But together, all of
(23:21):
these add up to significantsavings. And the faster you cut
the fat, the quicker you can seethe results.
We talked about one of thosetime wasters was making
decisions and it getting throughall of the different layers. But
as soon as you see it, as soonas you notice it, go ahead, trim
the fat. Number three is set anefficiency goal. Challenge
(23:42):
yourself and challenge yourteam. I think you should give a
measurable target.
Something that we are allshooting for. Because when you
say something like, oh, we'rejust gonna trim the waste. We
have to define the waste. Yougotta take that data. You gotta
bring it together.
You gotta serve it to your team.And then give them a goal.
Something like maybe reduceexpenses by 5% over the next
(24:04):
quarter. You see a clear goalkeeps everyone focused and
motivated while making sure thatthese cuts are made
strategically. And if youencourage creativity, this will
help you too.
You can encourage creativeproblem solving because savings
don't just come from cuttingcost, but they can come from
improving processes and findingmore cost effective solutions.
(24:28):
So when you set an efficiencygoal and you actually equip and
empower your team, well it maynot be subscription. It may not
be a vendor. It may just simplybe a process in which something
is done that could be donebetter. Time saving.
It could be personnel saving. Sohere's what happens. When you
equip them and you encouragethem to get creative, They can
(24:51):
bring solutions to you that youdidn't even have to think of on
your own. And if you want yourteam to buy into this, if you
want them to be a part of thisDoge process, I want you to
number four, reward youremployees for finding savings.
You need them to buy in.
And listen, your team will behappy to trim the fat if they
(25:13):
know they're going to get apiece of the pie. You have to
offer them incentives like abonus, money, or even extra time
off. See, when people have apersonal stake in reducing
waste, they'll be more likely toparticipate and then offer the
solutions. And plus, when youshare the benefits of the cost
and all the savings that youjust have with your team, it
(25:34):
helps build morale and astronger culture and of course,
financial responsibility.Because as they spend, as they
purchase, as they produce, theyknow that the lack of waste is
going to increase their bottomline because the entire
organization is sharing in thistogether.
And then number five, commit toongoing reviews. Look. At this
(25:59):
point, you've already done thehard work. You've already
invested the time. You'vecollected all of the
information.
Brandon Matthews (26:04):
You've already begun to cut the fat. By this
point, you're seeing thebenefit. So just understand that
this isn't just a one and done.It's not just a one time thing.
This should be an ongoingprocess.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
So you could set up a quarterly review. Just make sure
that things are staying lean andwaste hasn't happened again.
Because the reality is this,that as your company continues
to grow, well your expenses aregoing to grow. As your company
operations become morecomplicated, well so do all the
expenses that come along withit. But regular check ins just
(26:40):
help you to catch anyunnecessary cost before they
become a burden on yourorganization.
So set a schedule, set a processin which just like any other
important thing that happens inyour organization, that this is
a quarterly review where youjust take a time, you take a
moment to go in and look for thewaste, start the audit all over
(27:02):
again so that you can ensurethat you're operating lean and
mean. Now, Doge may be focusedon government waste, but you can
take that same mindset, apply itto your business, your
department, or even yourpersonal budget. You can take
all of this information and youcan begin working this and
experiencing the benefits today.So this is my challenge for you.
(27:26):
I want you to pick at least onearea in your organization to
audit this week.
That may be your budget. It maybe your team's workflow. It
could be your meeting schedules.Maybe you need to cut some
meetings out. But just find atleast one way this week that you
can begin to cut waste in yourlife or in your organization.
(27:46):
And then I want you to let meknow what you found. I would
love to hear some successstories from your very own Doge
audit. And I wanna say thank youfor joining me for the Mind Your
Business podcast. As always, ifyou found this helpful, just
like, subscribe, share this witha friend, leave a review because
this helps us add value to asmany people as possible. Until
(28:09):
next time, go and mind yourbusiness.
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