GARBAGE....

"Beth, this is garbage," I said looking at the yogurt container she had given me.

"Sorry. Throw it out and get another out of the fridge," she responded

"No. It's not spoiled. It's recycled trash," I explained.

"Then maybe you want to write and tell the company what you think."

"I mean it's brilliant," I said. "These Oreo crumbs they package with it. They are selling broken cookies Oreo would normally toss out. They are quite smart."

"Oh. I think I'm going to be reading this conversation in a Marketing Tip, soon."

I see ideas where others see snack food. Sometimes I must be kind of hard to live with.

There are lots of companies that make money turning trash into treasure. Kingsford Charcoal was founded to use scrap wood from the Ford Motor plant in Kingsford, Michigan. Coors sells the solids resulting from the beer making process to make animal feed. I once worked for a client that charged landscapers to dump their logs and hardwood. Then they shredded the hardwood and sold it back to landscapers as mulch. Now that's a great business model!

Perhaps turning waste into widgets doesn't seem to fit you. Maybe you are in a service business. Think harder. What about wasted time?

Do you have downtime you could use to add a new profit center? Or perhaps you can volunteer a portion of that time or talent to a charitable or community cause. Can you donate inventory that's collecting dust to a school or non-profit and take the tax write-off? The resulting goodwill and publicity could create a great return on your investment.

Just recently, I opened the online help for one of my programs and realized it does things I never realized! I've owned the software but have not been using it to it's full potential.

Look around your company. Are you making the most of your firm's time, talents and tools?

What potential are you losing?

- Phil Sasso