by Roger Jones, TATOC board member and committee member at Pueblo La Quinta

We open our newspapers or turn on the TV and we hear of cuts in budgets and services and we decide this is wrong and that those in government have no ideas.
The world is in an economic mess, money needs to be saved and we all have to bear the pain for jam tomorrow. 

It is a fact of life that governments will cut, blame the other political party and say we are all in it together and we must share the pain equally.

The reality is somewhat different to the rhetoric:  those who have do not suffer as much as those who have not. But is there another way?

I will argue that there is another way to cut - by turning a cist into an income stream. 

Ryanair looks at its costs and asks if it can turn costs into income.  You may not like O’Leary or Ryanair. But you have to admire how he runs that business.

His thinking can be applied to your resorts or even your own homes.  Be critical in the way you look at your costs and ask what benefit you get - and what you could you do without.

In the majority of company annual reports chairmen or CEOs say their most valuable asset is the staff.  But when the time comes to cut where does the axe fall first?  It always seems to be the staff.

But if we cut costs by cutting staff we are throwing away our most valuable asset.  We always claim to be protecting services but getting rid of assets will damage these services.

The world is experiencing a period of austerity and central governments have to cut its budgets by reducing staff accordingly, and services are cut as well.

Let us step back from this process and let us think about what we throw away.  What we throw away is called rubbish and that costs money.  We are told we must reduce, re-use and re-cycle our waste in order to avoid landfill costs. 

The main reason? Tax.  Landfill tax is £56 per tonne for 2011/12 and will be £64 per tonne for 2012/13 plus VAT.  The average family disposes of over five tonnes of rubbish a year - a cost of over £336 in tax for the current year and £384 next tax year.

If you have a resort of say 50 units you can be paying around £16,800 a year - or one person’s salary.  Waste has no value to the resort.  Do something different with it and you can save money and protect services.

If we take the cutting of waste further we could potentially make money out of it.  Local authorities in the U.K. have us separate our waste into glass, plastic bottles, food and drinks cans and paper and card products.  Ask yourselves why they do this and the answer is simple: because they sell it and save on landfill and the landfill tax.

Other  local authorities separate  green and garden waste and, increasingly, food waste as all three can be turned into compost again avoiding landfill and producing a product that can be used to improve soil.

Compost is a saleable product and produces an income.  Timeshare resorts could compost garden waste for soil improvement products for their gardens and waste disposal costs avoided.  No need to buy compost!

At the TATOC conference this March there was a constant message being delivered about investment.  But there is also a realisation that cost reductions are needed to make the investments work. 

The world cannot continue to landfill and therefore billions are being invested by the U.K. to reduce the cost and impact of waste.  Timeshare resorts can take inspiration from this and look to re-cycling. 

The young of the nation want to re-cycle - so having a resort that re-cycles can make a difference.  The young want green measures so a resort that embraces and promotes being green has an immediate advantage.

Savings made by reducing waste and saving the use of fossil fuels in generating electricity or heating can generate the funds needed to invest in making the resort better.

Mr. Stuart Lamont said at the TATOC conference that by not investing in being ahead of the competitor means the resort will die.  To invest you need funds. Adopting green measures and reducing waste to landfill can create the funds to invest.

Timeshare committees need to question everything about their consumable rather than investment costs.  They must find better ways to use costs to help generate investment funds.

There is no one answer on how you save costs. It is up to each committee to decide for itself.  But you are urged to think about what you do and how you impact the environment. 

Look for ways to reduce your effect on the environment and you will save money again; challenge costs to ensure you are not over-paying. 

Challenge management to look for waste and then cut it.  Look for duplication and stop it.  Look for new services to replace old services as they may cost less.

But do not cancel a new service simply because the cost is more than the old.

Taken from Sharetime magazine issue 6