cost consultants

Z

Zapatista

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Does anyone know of any such company that offers cost consultancy to businesses? A friend of mine recently took over a small retail outlet which had previously been badly run. He is looking for professional advice regarding keeping costs at a minimum and maximising profit margins.
 
Your local county enterprise board should offer a mentoring service for a nominal fee. HTH
 
Read about this guy before, not sure if he's still in business. His email and phone number is at the bottom of the link.

I agree with RD's comments, but it's right down to the quality of the accountant and their fees, in relation to how far they will go in sourcing, for example, the best phone supplier for your type of business.

It might also be a help to have a non-objective view on other suppliers, such as........your accountant!
 
Thanks guys.

He has an accountant but the point sinewave made comes into play in this situation. His fees are quite high and he possibly doesn't look into items like cheapest phone supplier as much as a specialist might.
Eddie Lennon might be just what my friend is looking for.

Thanks,

Zapa.
 
Just had another thought.

What credentials just be asked for when seeking consultancy from such a specialist? What I mean is should my friend ask to see references, qualifications, etc. before handing his books over to a non-accountant cost consultant.

Zapa.
 
Zapatista said:
Thanks guys.

He has an accountant but the point sinewave made comes into play in this situation. His fees are quite high and he possibly doesn't look into items like cheapest phone supplier as much as a specialist might.
Eddie Lennon might be just what my friend is looking for.

Thanks,

Zapa.
Click to expand...
Unless his costs in each of these areas are pretty huge (e.g. 5-figure sums), I reckon he'll find it hard to get value-for-money in paying any professional (accountant or otherwise) to advise him on this. There is no single 'cheapest phone supplier' - it all depends on your usage patterns. Unless the accountant (or other advisor) has a computerised model with all the charges for all the phone companies and is able to feed your shop owners usage data into the model, he's not going to be able to get an answer on this. He might well be better off with some informal networking - talk to the other shop owners on the block.
 
Rainyday,

Thanks for your opinion but Im not sure I agree with you in this case. This Eddie Lennon guy charges €1000 per annum for 8-10 searches. I imagine it would not be too hard to find two virtually identical businesses with a difference in overheads of €1000. Then again I'm no expert so maybe I'm wrong.

Zapa.
 
On another note, your mate could register on AAM and ask questions regarding each of their supply channels........all free.
 
Good thinking Sinewave. I think he's looking for an easy way out though, i.e. someone to do the work for him- even if he has to pay for it.
 
Still doesn't make sense to me. I've met Eddie and I've a lot of respect for the articles he used to write for the Indo. But the kind of services that Eddie will be covering (phones, internet, insurance etc) are going to be the tip of the iceberg for the shop owner. The bulk of his spending will be on the product that he sells and his staff, so he needs to focus his attention there, rather than on the non-core spending on phones etc. If his accountant can't or won't provide this advice, then he should be getting a new accountant.
 
Fair Enough Rainyday,

I assumed Eddie would concentrate on wages/cost of goods, etc. also.

Zapa.
 
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