IDEA: Get to know your neighbors’ purchase agents. Trade vendor invoices, compare prices and save money.

Introduce yourself and your company to each of your nearby neighbors’ purchasing managers. Tell them there has to be savings waiting for you and your nearby businesses to share if you simply share common costs.   Compare costs such as utility bills (kilowatts, water, sewer and garbage pickup), telephone costs (landline and cellular), freight costs (deliveries, overnight, across town, less than a load (LTLs), waste disposal (rolloffs and other containers), property taxes (assessment values), office and warehouse supplies, printing services, advertisement packages and other multiple purchases. Consider speaking together as a unit to a company and negotiate a large buyer discount. Talk to your neighbors.

NOTE: To get started, if you do not know where to start, scan or fax to your neighbors’ purchasing agents copies of ten to twenty various current invoices and ask if you are paying more or less than they currently are paying. You will get their attention if you just go ahead and  share your costs upfront and show them prices lower than they currently pay.