A couple of years ago we assigned each line item on our Profit and Loss statement to one staff member. That person was asked to manage that line item like they were spending their own money. Someone was assigned to each item – phones, internet, office supplies, rent, leases, etc.

The person dealing with “office supplies” went hog wild. We were previously using Quill and she did a bunch of price comparisons. We ended up getting some supplies from Quill, some from another mail-order vendor and a bunch from Costco. Her line item was reduced dramatically.

For many items, Costco had much better prices than the other vendors we checked. I’ve heard they have similar prices at Sam’s Club and at Walmart.

Unfortunately, while the “office supplies” cost went down, another line item went up.

“Payroll” increased because we were sending someone to Costco each month. We originally thought one trip a month would do the job. We imagined that the trip would take an hour or so.

The fact was that it ended up being more than one trip per month and the trip lasted more than an hour. We had some “detours” happen during the trips and the time added up to much more than we expected. Items were forgotten and extra trips had to be taken.

In the end, we found that the Costco discount was more than offset by the cost of the pickup.

We’re back to Quill for most items. With our mail-order vendor we can order more than once a month if we need to and we get free shipping.

Many of the changes we made worked out and we continue with them today. Others, like the move to Costco, required revisiting. Change is good. It just doesn’t always work out as planned.