Recently, new PM Liz Truss pledged to tackle the high energy bills that have been causing misery for households up and down the country. Hopefully, she will be able to extend her assistance to the many businesses that are also suffering. Until then, however, businesses will have to make their own arrangements. Here are some tips to help.
Take action early
If you know you’re going to need to renew a contract, then take action early. Assume that the process is going to take significantly longer than normal.
Get professional help
Do your best to find a professional broker to help you. Remember, you can decide on what broker is best for you at any time. In fact, it’s highly advisable to do so. Realistically, brokers are likely to be extremely busy just now. It’s therefore likely to be very much in your best interests to book as far in advance as you can.
Assume you’ll need a hefty deposit
If you were asked for a discount of up to £10K, would you be able to provide it? If not, then think carefully about how you could get around this. The obvious answer would be to look at financing. Could you qualify for a business loan? Could you get an agreement in principle for the sort of figures a utility provider could be looking at?
If you can’t get a business loan for the whole amount, then how much could you get? Could you make up the shortfall out of your own funds? Could you use insurance to mitigate the risk for a supplier (and you)? For example, if you had income protection cover for your business, would that eliminate (or at least reduce) the need for a deposit?
Be prepared to be switched to pay-as-you-go
Even with your best preparation, it may be impossible for you to avoid being switched to pay-as-you-go. This may be frustrating but there are steps you can take to deal with it.
See if you can generate your own power
This is by no means as far-fetched as it might, at first, sound. Large appliances generally need to be plugged into the mains. If, however, a device can run off a battery, then it can potentially be charged by solar power.
There are plenty of solar-powered charging devices at reasonable prices. They’re popular accessories for festivals and camping but can work just fine in autumn and winter. Firstly, even in the depths of winter, the UK does still get several hours of daylight.
Secondly, artificial light can also be used for power. This means that you can essentially recycle the power you use to light your workspace. If you buy extra batteries, you can have one set charging while the other set is in use.
Look at your working processes
If you have a smart metre, you may have statistics on where, exactly, you’re using energy. If you don’t, you can probably work it out by looking at your working processes. Examine all of them closely and develop a list of all of your options for saving energy. Then give all of them consideration.
This may require you to make compromises you’d have preferred to avoid. If, however, these compromises deliver an overall benefit, then they are worth making. In particular, look at your opening/working hours. Think very carefully about whether or not they really are justified by the amount of traffic you get/work you get done.
If they’re not but they’re important for marketing, then try to find alternative options. For example, instead of keeping a full store open late all week, mix up some late openings with click-and-collect and home delivery.
You don’t have to offer click-and-collect on all the other evenings. You just need to offer it enough to keep your customers happy and give yourself time to catch up on housekeeping tasks.
