Staying on top of your costs is important for a small business and adopting a policy for best practice cost savings can be extremely beneficial. As the UK economy continues to fluctuate, we are seeing increasing utility charges. Focusing on running costs and energy usage should form an integral part of the businesses best practice cost saving policy.
Clearly staff have a responsibility for embracing cost savings, areas such as keeping temperatures to an optimum level, switching to energy efficient lightbulbs, switching off devices rather than leaving on standby and moving to a paper-free ethos are just some areas that can be focussed on. However, ultimately it is the business owner who must lead by example and make sure all the best practice savings are deployed.
Something which will help almost immediately is the installation of a smart meter. This device will allow better understanding and control of the business’s energy usage and costs. The UK Government are big advocates that the business community start to benefit from the introduction of smart meters.
A smart meter will provide real-time analysis on energy usage which is then fed directly back to the energy suppliers. This information can put a business owner in better control with greater visibility of how to make the business cleaner whilst also saving on running costs.
3 key benefits of why your business should install a smart meter:
- A smart meter gives immediate data which results in accurate billing. In essence, you will only pay for the energy that you use so from a budgeting perspective you can accurately predict your energy costs and help to successfully manage cashflow.
- You have total control and can easily manage every aspect of your energy usage.
- Not only do you benefit from real-time energy analysis, but you can also make use of historical data. The smart meter will give you access to energy statistics dating back 12 months. This helps with monitoring the success of cost saving activities that have been deployed and with budgeting.
Whilst we are not experts with the installation of smart meters, we are a firm of proactive accountants looking to help the small business community.
If you have any questions or need some help, please call us on 01173 700 079 or e-mail hello@steppingstonesaccountancy.co.uk. You can also book a free 30-minute call with Yarka – https://calendly.com/yarka-ssa/30min
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