When it comes to business, it’s important to keep any running costs and overheads to a minimum. This is particularly true for small businesses, where any cuts to overheads can have an immediate impact on profit.
Here are 7 cost cutting tips for small businesses which we believe can help boost profit:
1- Install energy efficient bulbs
It may not surprise you to know that energy efficient bulbs cans save you money in the workplace – whether that’s an office, factory, shop floor or otherwise. However, you may not be aware of just how much you can save – it’s more than the cost of a few lightbulbs! Typically, businesses who upgrade to LED lighting can save around 75% on their annual lighting bills.
2 – Get smart
Get smart – with smart meters that is! Many businesses use standard energy meters and are unsure not only of the tariff they are on, but how much energy is consumed on a regular basis. Smart meters allow small businesses to monitor usage to within the minute, meaning you can view trends and keep control of energy spend pretty much in real time. Additionally, smart meters can easily highlight where savings could be made.
3 – Invest in energy efficient equipment
We know the saying goes “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it,” but it could be that you’re haemorrhaging energy (and money) if your equipment ain’t broken but is a fair few years old. Things like up to date office tech such as laptops, printers and other equipment may have lower running costs, whereas newer, larger equipment such as high-efficiency refrigeration equipment or biomass boilers could help you significantly reduce your energy bill year on year.
4 – Reduce waste
Reducing waste can help any business, as this can lower waste disposal costs. Depending on your business industry, there may be compliance targets to meet, or if you have a physical product you may benefit significantly by simply improving your processes to reduce waste and increase output.
5 – Involve staff and clients or customers
One way to keep costs down is to motivate staff and any clients or customers who use your business premises is to get them involved in any initiatives. For example, if you’re looking to cut lighting bills, you may have clear signs up asking people to switch lights off when not in use. Similarly, you could encourage staff to ensure equipment is powered down the same way. An incentive always works well when trying to get staff on board, so you may offer a reward for the department with the lowest lighting bill in May or encourage staff as a whole to reduce costs by a certain percentage before they can have a teambuilding day.
6 – Look for unique business savings
Not every business is the same, and many will use different equipment in different premises to meet different demands. You may find that your business overspends on printing, or on sending out a high volume of comms via post rather than email. Or alternatively your heating and ventilation systems may be dominated by the use of personal electric fans and heaters, where a communal system could prove a better use of energy.
7 – Get the experts in
Large businesses usually benefit from tendering out their procurement services, ensuring utilities and water are negotiated by the experts who can get them the best price.
Small businesses can also take advantage of cost consultants such as ourselves, in order to identify areas to make savings. As an independent consultancy, we take no commission from any brokers, so you can be sure that we are finding the best value, most suitable deal for your company.
Whether your business chooses to use a cost consultancy to simply negotiate a deal for a one-off fee, or is looking for someone to continually monitor and manage bills and regular costs, we can help. We offer a free desktop audit on any of our services, with no obligation. In the unlikely event we are unable to make savings for you, you will not incur any charge and there will have been no time or resources wasted on your part.
To find out more, or to arrange your free audit, please get in touch with Deboragh Pirie on 0141 226 8525 or fill out your details here and we’ll get back to you.
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