The upside of budget cuts

The upside of budget cuts

The following question was recently posted to The Communicators' Network: I'm looking for ideas on how communicators can save money and get more out of their budgets. Any tips?

A: "I've always viewed these belt-tightening situations as an opportunity to ditch some of the more superfluous albeit time-monopolizing projects or initiatives that haven't gone anywhere or haven't any place to go, yet you've been expected to continue managing them.

More than once, I've played the "doing more with less" card, using it as a plausible explanation for why I, or my team, could no longer dedicate our time to so-and-so. With so much on our plates at any given time, it's often easy to lose sight of which activities are truly the critical ones and which ones are expendable.

So when you're first informed that a percentage of your budget is going away, don't despair; start weeding out. You may very well find that you can afford to take on some new projects - despite added budget constraints. Furthermore, it's likely that no one is going to cry over those projects you're kissing goodbye.

Denise BaronPresident, Baron Communications & Editorial Services
source: Business Communicator - Melcrum

Getting more from your budget

Getting more from your budget

Do you need to become a more effective financial manager when it comes to managing the comms budget? Alex Aiken, head of communication at London's Westminster City Council, shares some tried-and-tested ideas on how to save big bucks on your budget:

1. Do the research: Unless you understand your audience you'll waste money. When we centralized research and consultation we cut costs and were able to show that a proposed consultation costing GBP15,000 was unnecessary because the required research had already been done for a different project. Decentralized communications tends to lead to wasteful duplication.

2. Understand your objective: I meet too many heads of communication who complain about "lack of resources." What they usually mean is that they don't understand their goals, so they can't plan how to deliver them. You must be very clear about the business objectives you can meet with the resources at your disposal.

3. Define a structure that is streamlined and accountable: Too many communication specialists exist outside the corporate team, in HR or elsewhere. Unify them, and create a professional center of excellence. A local authority recently found that it could save GBP200,000 by centralizing communications, which in turn allowed the board to set the team clear and measurable targets.

4. Implement your plan using cost-effective channels first: Internal communication creates ambassadors and public relations should reach most audiences before the more expensive marketing tools are deployed. Westminster's "Innovation competition" to find ways to deliver more efficient government has realized more than 200 ideas from staff and local people which could save us 5 million GBP.

5. Evaluate: Work out whether your publications, electronic communications and internal initiatives are having an impact. If they are not, stop them. Bin the vanity publications and expensive events that don't have a verifiable impact. Communications should be brilliantly creative, but financial discipline is essential to proving its worth, otherwise it's simply not contributing to the business.

Source: The Business Communicator, March 2006.