No matter how big your business is, you need to save money on your energy bill. That said, when you are a small business, it is imperative to keep your utility bill at a minimum. With this in mind, there are many ideas that you can use to keep overheads as low as possible.
Increasing your bottom line through lowering your business energy outgoings is a great way to make the most profits, but how do you do that? Have a read of these five ideas that can make a great deal of difference to both you and your business through the year.
- Work-from-home – You pay good money for your office space, so why would you want people to telecommute? Well, your utility bills add up to more than just the rental costs and if you can use less energy one day a week then you will go some way to cutting the electricity overheads.
- Compare electricity prices – There are many people across the UK, and the globe, who have never switched suppliers. This can be a key reason in why utility bills are sky high when they come through the door. While it’s impossible for you to stop paying the rising energy prices, you can save hundreds of pounds by using the right supplier for your needs.
- Phone and broadband – While it’s true that your computers and laptops take up a lot of electricity are you using every megabyte that you pay for on broadband and every minute you get with the phone line? The truth is, probably not. It is unlikely for any business to get complete value for money. What this means, in turn, is that you need to switch tariffs on your broadband and/or phone to ensure maximum value.
- Lighting – Always everyone will tell you this, whether you are in the home or in the office take advantage of cutting down on lighting. Anything from not turning the lights until 10am to putting energy saving light bulbs in for the regular ones can be used to get the most out of your lighting.
- Office sharing – A drastic, and to some, unthinkable option is to team up with another company and work within the same office. From here you can work towards the same energy saving goals, while also being greener and more efficient at the same time. Some business owners like their own space and privacy but it can be a great money-saving method for small businesses.
In today’s market, the lack of credit and struggling economy means that it isn’t a great time to be a small business. But, as you can see from the tips above, if you take everything into consideration you will be able to save significant amounts of money on a yearly basis.
Extra measures to consider would include implementing a paperless office whereby you move all communication online with emails and electronic signatures for business matters. This helps your office to remain neat and tidy while also having documents easily and efficiently store. Alternatively, switching the heat down by just one degree can save more than a hundred pounds over a year.
Each time a new mobile phone comes to the market and the inevitable clamor for the consumers to get their hands on it more and more old phones find themselves relegated to the back of a dusty drawer. Most of these old mobiles will never again see the light of day and are kept purely as a backup.
But as in most things in life one mans rubbish is another mans treasure and your old phone can either be refurbished and sold around the world where users are not as fussy or keen to have the latest all singing and all dancing super phone or simply stripped down and broken up into parts.
Many companies have been set up in the last few years and will buy your old phones off you and for more than you think with even the oldest phones have some value. Often you can search online and get a fixed price for your mobile , the purchasing firm will them post you a prepaid bag and you pop it in the post box and return it to them. They will them test the handset and deposit the money directly into your chosen account.
Lots of these firms will also guarantee to wipe the mobile phone of all data including SMS , photos and telephone numbers. Perhaps more importantly, many phones do contain some very nasty substances including Cadmium, Rhodium, Beryllium, Palladium and Lead and without recycling most of it would end its days buried in a land fill site or the tipped into sea
If on the other hand you wish to donate your old phone to charity many of the bigger charitable organizations such as Oxfam ate now actively asking you to send them your old mobile phones and with over 20 million upgrades in the UK alone this year they are hoping for a share of this growing market.
I read an article about VoIP recently and the first line seemed to stick in my mind. It spoke of the one and only golden rule and that was “ never pay for any VoIP calls you make from your computer” so I thought I would do some digging and find out how hard it would be to make free calls to my brother currently working in for a UK bank in Mumbai. To make the matter slightly more difficult I chose to call him on his mobile rather than at work or home.
Making free calls to India from pc to mobile would save me a few bob as I call him once a week and calls normally cost about five pounds for just 10 minutes. My PC at home is nothing special in fact most computers manufactured in the last three or four years plugged into a standard broadband connection should be able to cope with this task. I bought a phone that plugged un one of my USB slots on eBay for £5 and I was ready to go. I could have used the inbuilt speakers and microphone that came with my but I was told that the plug in phone option would give me the best call quality.
The phone came with details of many of the free to download VoIP packages available and I set to googleing them all to see which ones were recommended and which to avoid. The golden rule of “never pay” was always at the forefront of my mind and I skipped any provider that had some cost implications concentrating on the free VoIP calls option only.
Within an hour I had made my choice, logged onto their site , chosen an account name and password and was ready to roll. I dialled the number and after a couple of extra fractions of a second the line was ringing, he picked up and we chatted for 15 minutes. I had read that The quality of the phone call is sometimes better than a standard fixed line as the data that is carried is far higher with a VoIP and it helps to collect sounds over a wider range of frequencies.. Of course the speed of you connection has some bearing on the matter but my call was perfect and I get an average of just over 2mb speed.
Every body loves the iphone but at $400 to buy with a contract its out of the reach of most people. Well now there is another simple way, you can get a free iphone by referring other people to online companies that effectively pay you a commission for introducing business to them
How it works is a company selling widgets or something wants to promote themselves and will gladly pay you a small commission for introducing new clients to them. You talk to your friends on facebook and twitter about this great company and their fantastic widgets and they go to the site and sign up for some widgets. They love these widgets and tell their facebook friends and so on and on.. The widget company sells more widgets and they in turn pay you a commission based on this extra business. It’s a simple process , you tell 20 people and they each tell 20 people and within no time you have a thousand or so people all contributing a tiny amount to your new iphone. Some lucky people have reported it took them less than 2 weeks from signing up to playing with their new phone.
It wont take you long to google the words free iphone or iphone blog and you will see that there are many such offers available online currently with big international companies offering a free iPhones and a reward for one thing or another. It might take a while but you cant get something for nothing and at the end of the day a free iPhone is better than a poke in the face with a sharp stick you know!!!
Solar power IS a great Investment.
Here at Solarlec PV Solutions Ltd we believe there has never been a better time to invest in Solar PV technology. We are specialists in solar energy systems, are fully accredited under The Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) and members of REAL (Renewable Energy Assurance Listed) code of conduct. We install Solar PV systems for domestic homes and properties throughout the UK. We have a range of PV systems that can be fitted to almost any type of property. We offer free consultation and advice on types and size of system whilst also explaining the major financial incentives for you by investing in a solar PV system. The UK Governments latest renewable energy initiative known as the “Clean Energy Cash back Scheme” means that there has never been a better time to invest in a Solar PV system. A Solar PV array can be installed to the roof of your property in typically 8 hours meaning little disruption to you and your home. The scheme also known as the Feed in Tariff or FIT’s for short came into operation on the 1st April 2010 and pays a generous 41.3 pence for every unit of electricity you produce. This would generate you an income of between £700 and £1610 per year depending on the size of installation and is guaranteed for 25 years. It’s also worth bearing in mind that once your solar panels system is operational you could save up to 50% or more per year on your electricity bills and be paid for any electricity that you don’t use, by way of an export tariff. Export tariffs range in price from 3p to 15p depending on your energy supplier, so it would be well worth considering switching for a better deal. Remember to qualify for the Feed in Tariff the government insists that you must use qualified installers. To find out more why not visit our website or join us on facebook.
Category: 
November 21, 2011
