The Best Ways for Local Businesses to Cut Costs

For the purposes of this article I’m using the term ‘local businesses’ to refer to the type of small and medium businesses that are dotted all around Shropshire. It can be hard being a local business, because you don’t make as much of a profit as your large scale, big city competitors, however you still have to cover many of the same costs that the conglomerates have to cover. Local businesses need all the help they can get in this over-competitive capitalist ‘utopia’ we call a country and so I thought I would share some ways that these companies can save a bit of cash and use that to grow within their market.

Gas and Electric

Without power, you’re not going to get very far, unless you run a vegan café for blind people where you only serve lettuce and cold soup. Gas and electric can become a huge financial burden, especially if you’re an office based business. While there’s not a lot of ways to affect this price, there are some; noticeably, make sure you’re sending in metre readings and not letting them do that estimate thing. Do you really trust them to charge you less than they could? Another way is to simply be more energy conscious by buying energy saving bulbs, not turning them on unnecessarily, and making sure all computers and hardware is fully switched off over night.

Sneaky Employees

This is a tricky one to sort out, because it’s so common place that many don’t even realise it’s happening. How many times have you taken a pen from work or a pot of staples that you were going to bring back, but then never did? This will seem pretty harmless, but if everyone is taking something small every couple of months, eventually it will lead to quite a big loss. You have to make the decision about how to combat this, because if you become too vigilant, then you will risk making employees nervous and they will start to resent you. Depending on the way you tackle this issue, you could save yourself a pretty penny.

The Cloud

Yes, cloud computing rears its head, (it’s inescapable isn’t it). Not only is cloud computing software going to make your business run as smooth as a frictionless marble, it will also save the planet from being destroyed by global warming (probably); save you hours of stress and worry; as well as saving you lots and lots of sweet cash. The cloud will mean you won’t have to hang on to all of that nasty hardware, your employees will be able to work from anywhere, and you will protect yourself from information loss due to the backed up files and website. The main benefit is that it’s so much quicker and can save you so much time that you will be able to focus on more important things, which will make your business more efficient and run smoother. If it all seems confusing because you have no idea how to navigate the jargon around DNS, hosted desktops, SQL, and the differences between the cloud servers and the balls of water vapour in the sky, then there are companies that handle it all for you.

That’s three simple ways you can save money on your business, as well as revolutionising it in the context of the third entry. You could always just hire someone to handle all cost based issues with your business and they could handle all of these listed here, kind of like a cross between an accountant and a drill sergeant who can scream at anyone who forgot about the biro in their bag, next to the stolen laptop.