It’s hardly a secret that running a small business is extremely challenging.
Aside from the associated fatigue and money worries, SMEs are under increasing pressure to reduce their carbon footprint and slash energy usage – but many are puzzled about how best to proceed.
One of the major contributing factors in the bid to cut energy usage, as reported in the Guardian recently, is the lack of transparency from energy suppliers around tariffs.
Fears are rising that the efforts of SMEs are being held back due to the lack of advice about how to keep their costs under control, which is causing a major headache for business owners.
With prices rising rapidly, some firms are struggling to cope, which is why many are now frantically seeking advice on how to reduce their energy usage.
However, inevitable that some SMEs simply have no interest in cutting energy usage, with owners more concerned in increasing customer numbers and developing marketing strategies.
But in an effort to help all small business keep energy costs in check, the Guardian teamed up with E.ON to run a seminar on cutting energy costs and making businesses more efficient.
Slashing Your Firm’s Energy Usage
According to expert speakers throughout the seminar, reducing your firm’s energy consumption by 20 per cent is equivalent to a five per cent increase in sales – and those figures cannot be ignored.
Consequently, there are a number of easy wins your firm can make to slash costs.
For example, depending on the size of your premises, vast numbers of fluorescent lights are burning a sizeable hole in your bottom line.
To stop these lights spoiling your profits, then, you can replace them with LEDs and watch your energy bills fall.
While this is a rather simplistic method, it’s one of many measures that can be employed to help your firm save money by reducing energy bills AND carbon emissions.
Of course, you’ll want to track your energy usage and gain satisfaction from the drop, which is why it’s important to invest in automated meter reading (AMR) to measure, collate and communicate your energy data,
Not only that, but AMR can effectively reduce your firm’s carbon emissions, as it arms you with all the facts and figures you need to identify where energy saving methods can be implemented.
Importantly, advanced metering means your business provides reliable billing data to your energy supplier, resulting in accurate energy invoices going forward.