Management Matters

Cutting Costs is Never a Solution You Are Going to Win, Productivity Is the Real Cost-Cutter

Prices are down, honey yields are down—it all looks like doom and gloom in the world of honey.

While you can't control the wholesale price of honey, it's best to focus on what you can control. With this mindset, most people immediately think about reducing costs, and cutting expenses wherever possible—some call this penny-pinching. But to truly improve your business, you need to either make more dollars or save dollars, not just save pennies or cents.

You can’t simply reduce the cost of essential inputs like labour, sugar, treatments, or fuel—these are largely out of your control. In the short term, you might save some money by taking on more of the work yourself, but in reality, you're just robbing yourself of time and energy. Eventually, it will catch up with you.

Have you stopped to consider how productivity affects overall costs and profit margins?
To get the most from the assets in your business, it's crucial to understand how productivity and profitability are linked. The two most significant costs in an apiary business are labour and vehicle running costs, and a significant portion of these costs can be saved by minimising unproductive time.

Wasted time adds up fast. It can be the difference between one team working 100 hives in a day versus another team only managing 50.

The Real Hidden Costs

When your team arrives at the workshop in the morning, what happens next? Do they:

Muck around before heading out to a job?
Wait on you for instructions or missing gear?
Show up late and expect others to wait?

These might seem like minor delays, but they compound into massive productivity losses over time.
Let’s break it down:

If it takes 30 minutes every morning for your team to actually start working, that’s 2.5 hours per worker wasted every week.
With a team of 10 workers, that adds up to 25 lost hours per week.
Over a year, that’s 1,300 hours of paid time that isn’t generating revenue!

You wouldn’t throw away thousands of dollars in cash, so why let productivity losses drain your profits?

The same applies to inefficient travel. Getting lost trying to find an apiary, forgetting essential equipment, or understocking a truck and needing to make unnecessary trips—these all add up.

But the good news? You can minimise this wastage and maximize productivity.

4 Simple Ways to Improve Productivity

Give Clear Communication and Allocate Jobs the Day/week Before

If your team knows exactly what they’re doing and what gear they need for tomorrow, there’ll be no excuse for waiting around the following day.

What really helps here is Having a Digital job management tool like MyApiary that has the plan for the week pre-approved with hive number and location so the guys are clear on what they need to do and what equipment they will need before leaving the workshop.
Have Equipment Ready to Go

Searching for tools and materials wastes valuable time.

Assign someone to prep all necessary equipment the day before. A structured morning routine can save your business significant time—if your team spends the first 5 minutes of the day gathering what they need, they’ll start the job efficiently instead of scrambling.
Reduce Unproductive Travel Time

Travel to, between and from sites is all unproductive time, with 2-3 bums on seats doing nothing, probably playing on their phones.

Doing longer, more intense apiary visits can be more cost-effective than lots of short visits.

Review your management plan; how can you reduce the number of visits to each apiary? What task can be easily accomplished in one visit? Can you adjust your treatment or feeding plan to avoid another visit?
Don’t renumerate work by the hour.

Does your remuneration system encourage working overtime or getting the job done in the most time-effective way?

Paying Hourly wages may not be the best approach. Could you look at more creative ways that fit within your employment laws that encourage getting more done? The most obvious solution is a fixed salary, but what other creative idea can you come up with?

The Bottom Line

Studies show that a 10% increase in productivity can lead to a 30–50% increase in profit margins, depending on the business model. Every minute saved is a minute that can be reinvested into growing your operation, improving hive health, or reducing stress on your team.

So instead of just thinking about cutting costs, focus on boosting productivity—because at the end of the day, more efficient operations lead to better profits and a more sustainable business.

Book a time for a call with one of our sales representatives