President Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk are rapidly looking at costs that are currently in the government budget that may be able to be whittled out.  It may not be perfect and it may not even be proper — as is discussed in this Yahoo Finance article about the government financial procedure of “Empoundment” — but it may eventually create a bigger “margin” between tax revenues and government expenses.

 

So, I believe, regardless of how you feel about the Trump/Musk team taking a chainsaw to the federal budget, there may be something to learn from their desire to do so.

 

I’m of the opinion that if original budgeted expenses are not annually watched and acknowledged they become expenses that grow in cost and, over time, may not be needed.  Take, for instance, a funeral home budget for advertising and marketing.  Maybe that budget has $12,000 appropriated for ad space on highway billboards.  Instead of simply adding a number such as 3% inflation to that $12,000 for the next year making the expense $12,360, one should look at the line item of $12,000 and determine if that number is still appropriate and is actually doing for the funeral business what was expected of that $12,000 expenditure.

 

Some items, like advertising spending, can be tough to quantify, but they should be looked at and discussed with potential options in mind. . . . Maybe social media, or radio or cable tv would bring better results. . . . and at the same time be less costly.

 

My main point about the Trump/Musk “efficiency” project should be an annual project at your business.  However you widen the gap between revenue recieved and expenses paid increases your bottom financial line.  The two ways to do that are “enhancing revenues” and “containing costs” and forever fine-tuning those items will lead to a stream-lined financial business that will create increased value over time.

 

Going over your revenue and expense line items annually and putting some thought into each line is somewhat time-consuming and can be challenging as you may have to have the courage to change some expense items.  However, the failure not to do annual zero-based budgeting will lead to, more than likely, receiving less than the optimum income you should be able to bring in and create a bloated, inefficient expense budget.

 

Again, in my opinion, bloated, ineffecient budgets of some traditional funeral homes will eventually invite competitors who can come to market with less expensive options and still have a sufficient margin.  That is why in this day of growing choice of Death Care disposition services it is more and more important to keep watching your costs.

 

Empoundment —  This article from Yahoo Finance questions the President’s authorization on the issue of “Empoundment”.  What is meant by that is, “Does the President have the legal authority to not pay, or remove from the budget, items that have been authorized by Congress to be paid and signed by a former President (in this case President Biden).”

 

The challenge argument to Empoundment is that not paying these authorized amounts seemingly removes the separation of powers from the United States government.  i.e. It seems to put “spending” on the President’s table rather than Congress’.  The article states that this issue is on the path to be settled at the Supreme Court.

 

A Business created with “Enhanced Revenues and Cost-Containment” — One of the businesses that I have been associated with and founded during my business life was the International Basketball Association.  While there is a much longer story to my involvement let me say that the impetus for starting this business was to be able to bring minor league sports, in this case basketball, to smaller communities.

 

In the business conceptual planning the only way possible to do that was to find a way to bring costs down to the point where smaller communities, with less available ticket payers and advertisers, had the income available to build a profitable margin.  That was my challenge.

 

Over time I was able to create profitable margins by taking existing minor league basketball budgets and looking at ways to enhance revenue and contain costs which would allow profits in smaller communities with less opportunities for ticket sales and advertising revenue.  We enhanced revenues wherever we could by not only selling admission tickets and advertising but by creating fan clubs, youth clubs, royalties on concessions, etc.  The cost-containment side was even more scrutinized with the biggest savings developed by transporting players via charter buses rather than airline travel and partnering with arenas on rent dependent on the size of the crowds we drew for each game.

 

Because of the charter bus travel geographic locations of teams had to be in close proximity.  We operated very well for about five or so years with profitable clubs. . . which actually led to headaches as we grew.  The distances between teams grew and some of the cost-containment features were lost as we became a league that stretched from Saskatoon, Alberta, to Youngstown, Ohio.

 

We eventually discovered that we should have became a confederation of smaller regional leagues rather than stretch our distances creating a national-like league in scope.

 

Again, it points out the importance of knowing who you are and how you bring in your financial margins.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• The rise of women in the funeral profession.  Hucknall Dispatch (Great Britain)
• City staff works towards “natural burials” regulation.  Sault This Week (Ontario – Canada)
• Change must begin at the top:  Barrington Capital sends letter to Matthews International.  PR Newswire

 

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