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PDT
#131 -- Going Green and Saving Some Green
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The Green
Issue!
November 19, 2008
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Private Duty Today
Welcome to Private Duty Today,
the bi-weekly electronic newsletter for Private Duty Home Care Leaders
from Leading Home Care ...a Tweed Jeffries company.
I'm Jason Tweed, Director of Business Development for
Leading Home Care, and Editor of Private
Duty Today.
Private Duty Today is published every
other Wednesday, and currently goes to over 7000 subscribers.
Private Duty Today is
a permission-based newsletter.
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 A popular trend is to think Green,
focusing our attention on reducing waste, saving energy, and reducing
consumption.
While people are giving the environment more attention,
businesses and consumers will only make major changes when it affects
their pocketbook directly.
In this special Green
Issue of Private
Duty Today we are going to look at a few ways that you can
demonstrate respect for the environment, and demonstrate respect for
your wallet at the same time.
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When business gets slow marketing should be the last
thing that you consider reducing, but that doesn't mean your marketing
can't be more environmentally friendly and more efficient at the same
time.
Create a great website for your
company and your marketing can be more effective, cost less, and be
environmentally friendly.
You probably
still need to have a brochure, but you can create specialized marketing
pieces in PDF format that can be e-mailed or distributed on your
website. These specialty marketing pieces can be highly targeted to
small groups of referral sources. Create a Fact Sheet for Medicaid case managers
and another one for bank trust officers. You can even print the sheets
on your office printer and hand them out in person. People will forgive
the informal nature of copy paper for the immediacy of e-mail or
website downloads. When handing out these fact sheets in person, let
people know it's part of your effort to "Go Green"
and you may garner even more respect than you would get with an
expensive glossy flyer.
Shaking hands
and networking is very important for meeting new potential referral
sources, but staying in touch with these
referral sources can be more effective and very Green with a
little organization. Use a CRM (customer relationship management)
software to keep in touch via e-mail, direct mail, and telephone with
your referral sources and potential referral sources. You can connect
with a huge number of people far more frequently than you can by
hopping in your vehicle and driving across town. Don't replace outside
sales with these techniques, but enhance your outside sales program and
save money on gasoline at the same time.
Use the Postal Service to say thank you.
Personal notes and small gifts demonstrate to your employees, referral
sources, and customers how much you value their business. The men and
women who run around all summer in those sexy gray knee length shorts
with the black stripe are going to be stopping by your office
every day anyhow.
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 Reducing expenses in your office drops money directly to
the bottom line. Here are a few ways that Going Green can
help you stay
in the Black.
Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) are perfect in
offices that use regular light bulbs. These bulbs use 75% less power,
and last 400% longer. While more expensive, in the long run they save
money and energy. They are ideal for offices where we frequently use
artificial lighting even during the day.
When saving money by printing your own marketing
materials, make sure to purchase recycled ink cartridges, and recycle
the cartridges from your printers. This will save you money and reduce
landfill. All Staples stores and many
other office supply stores will recycle the cartridges for you. Epson
and Hewlett-Packard also have mail order recycling programs.
Don't buy new
office equipment unless necessary, but when you do look for the Energy Star logo. Energy
Star compliant equipment and appliances meet stricter federal standards
for energy consumption.
Store everything
digitally rather than on paper. A single CD-ROM can store up to 28 file
cabinet drawers full of paper. Storing your important records digitally
and backing them up is far more efficient than file cabinets. Your
office employees will thank you when they have more space to move
around as well.
Recycled paper
is now about the same price as new paper. When purchasing recycled
paper look for a high percentage of post consumer content.
Shut down as
many appliances and office machines as possible when the office is
closed. Furthermore, use surge protectors and/or unplug unnecessary
equipment. Up to 70% of energy used by office equipment is consumed
while the equipment is idle. Even equipment that is turned off
frequently uses trickles of electricity.
Turn down/off
heat or air conditioning over the weekend.
Last but not
least, as your father has "told
you a hundred times if he has said it once, turn off the lights when
you leave the room!"
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 Your caregivers can Go Green too. This doesn't always
put money directly back in your pockets, but it can put money back into
your caregivers pockets. Remember,
happy caregivers = happy CEOs.
Use scheduling software with the
capability to organize your caregivers and clients based on geography.
Whenever possible arrange for caregivers to serve clients near their
homes and serve clients that live in close proximity to each other.
This can dramatically reduce fuel consumption, plus travel time pay.
Providing
multiple uniforms reduces your caregiver expenses related to laundry (a
huge drain on natural resources), plus makes the uniforms last longer.
Encourage your
caregivers to utilize direct deposit, electronic timesheets, and e-mail
communications.
Hold a Green
in-service training. Teach caregivers how to Go Green at
home and on the road. Reducing fuel consumption while driving is often
related to well-maintained cars and safer driving habits which will
reduce your lost time expenses.
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Our firm uses many of these practices. While we don't
provide caregivers, the cost savings has been significant in our
offices.
We've been using Green
marketing practices since 2003 and have reduced printing costs by
thousands of dollars annually.
More recently, in my personal office space (which is in
my home) I've reduced expenses related to energy consumption. The tax
advantages alone have saved me hundreds for a small office of only
three people.
Thinking Green today can be as much
about the Green in your wallet as the Green on the earth.
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Don't be an energy hog ...
become a Power Pigg!
 Want to learn more about saving
money on utilities in your home and office?
I encourage you
to check out a website that was created and is updated by Tammy
Schenck, my administrative assistant.
She and I are
both passionate about preserving the earth for our children. She's put
literally hundreds of hours of her free time into finding some great
energy-saving tips for you.
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If you haven't checked out the Private Duty Today blog
yet, I encourage you to do so. The past couple of issues (where we've
stirred the pot by mentioning both politics and religion) have garnered
dozens of e-mails to my father and me. Many of them were supportive, a
few were critical, but all gave us insight.
While I think we
will avoid discussions of politics for a little while, it did tell us
that our readers want to communicate with us and with each other.
Today I am
posting a brief note on the blog inviting you to share your "Go Green"
ideas and practices. If you're doing something I haven't mentioned, or
if you've had favorable results with Going Green in
mind we would love your comments and suggestions.
blog.PrivateDutyToday.com
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