The Art of Optimizing Anything
Profit Margin & Process Refinement
As the world changes, how we do business also needs to shift. Those of us who own or manage a small business, non-profit, or grant-driven operation need to build in time to take a breath, refine processes, and reimagine details. For those who have achieved that moment of breath, this is a good time to optimize workflow and review profit margins. Whether you are refining or streamlining offerings, creating new products or services, or discovering more sustainable approaches to managing communication , Design for the Arts can help you see the big picture, break down the flow of your materials and processes, and fine-tune important details.
The art of optimizing is a requisite task for any small business. To assist with this need, Brand Evaluation, Brand Development, and Brand Mapping can be extremely helpful tools. I’m also offering custom spreadsheet calculations to help you adjust quantities, scope, cost, and fees. What can you optimize? Virtually anything.
Contact me to chat about what you want to optimize. Together we can determine a plan that will best serve you. You provide the costs and I create a spreadsheet with variables that you can adjust. Read on for examples and to learn how this process can help you plan. We can start simply and affordably or build on complex scenarios.
What Can You Optimize?
Pricing for products, services, or art
Fees for virtual workshops or classes
Subscription or class schedules
Optimize a production schedule that considers income + work/life balance
Refine an hourly rate based on new variables (like accepting credit cards)
What can be estimated?
Credit card processing and transaction fees
Shipping costs
Wholesale product costs
Vendor or print costs
Item variables based on quantity
Hourly rates, fees, and profit margins
Plan for the Future
Small businesses often have fine lines between the margins of profit and loss. My nerdy love for creating spreadsheets in Xcel and Numbers is how I relax into those margins for my own business. I use them for everything: from monthly and annual revenue and expenses to print cost projections or pricing artwork or products. This simple, old-fashioned spreadsheet calculator is a powerful tool for profit guidance and business planning when formulas are applied to the right concepts.
Crafting a spreadsheet that is unique to your specific needs can help you understand how to price products or services, define optimal quantities, and maximize margins. Each spreadsheet is a tool that is designed to flex and recalculate with each variable. It’s kind of magic.
Once a calculation has been crafted, if a variable changes or a fee increases, all it takes is one small keystroke adjustment, hit return, and the totals update.
The Art of Optimizing
This isn’t just a calculator, it can help you improve concepts before making costly mistakes so that you can relax into a rhythm in the production stage. These are the steps we’ll take:
Determine the variables (we do this together)
Document costs and estimations (you gather the numbers)
Create the calculation(s) (Design for the Arts)
Rethink variables to modify for better outcomes (we do this together)
Refine variables over time (you adjust the numbers)
The only variable remaining is whether or not your product or service is perceived by your community of customers as having the value that you attached to it.
