101 Ways UK Small Businesses Can Save Energy And Lower Their Costs
There are undoubtedly 101 ways UK small businesses can save energy and lower their costs. But just how significant would it be if SMEs increased their energy efficiency?
According to the Carbon Trust, UK SMEs account for 45 per cent of business energy usage and, says Harry Morrison, general manager of the Carbon Trust Standard Company, UK SMEs have the greatest potential for savings on energy: 20 per cent compared to eight per cent for larger organisations.
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Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year
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UK Government to Invest £75 Million in Small Business Innovation and Technology
The government is dangling a £75m carrot in front of SMEs to encourage them to invest in technology.
Several incentives intended to spur companies to innovate and grow have been published as part of the government’s Innovation and Research Strategy, which reveals that funding to support technology innovation will be delivered by the Technology Strategy Board.
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8 Core Selling Skills Sales People Should Possess
For any sales person to be effective, they should be able to demonstrate ability and competence in the following 8 core selling skills:
- Preparing the sales call – Sets objectives before contact and has all relevant information
- Positioning – Establishes a purpose, knows client’s agenda, knows how to add value
- Discovering – Listens effectively, asks questions, understands client’s business and needs
- Building - Engages client in discussion, explores the impact or consequences of a need/solution, uses critical questioning techniques
- Presenting and resolving – Discusses pros and cons of available options, helps client to define the best solution
- Securing - Seeks commitment to action, advances negotiations to another stage, defines next steps clearly
- Concluding – Reaches consensus, agrees time for next meeting, uses open and closed questioning techniques, uses informative questioning techniques
- Debriefing - Ensures all commitments made are met, reviews issues identified, seeks other issues to resolve, records output for next visit
Source: Proudfoot
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Social media helps boost small business interactions with customers
Implementing social media into daily customer interactions has helped small businesses see a surge in effectiveness for interacting with customers
As the use of social media across businesses is gradually being adopted SME’s have seen an increase in the effectiveness of social media to help market their business.
According to a 2011 study of nearly 2,000 businesses by Constant Contact, an online marketing company for SMEs, results showed that companies had increased opinion that using social media was easy and not time consuming.
The study saw an increase of 24% of businesses reporting social media was easy to navigate and a 45% increase of businesses saying it worked well with customers. In the survey of UK and US businesses, 81% reported that they dedicate a significant amount of time to social media, which is up 8% from last year.
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10 Top Tips To Better Manage Your Cashflow
Cash is king in any business – being on top of what money is coming in and what money is going out and when is essential.
As they say, “every little helps”, so here are 10 tips to help you manage your cash more effectively:
1. Plan the cash flow year – If the business experiences peaks and troughs in demand, prepare for these and put in place measures to ensure the cash flow reflects the changes.
2. Don’t bulk buy – hold as little stock as possible and turn it over quickly. Agree with suppliers a right of return of unsold stock. Look at getting ‘stock on consignment’ (you do not pay before it is sold). Can suppliers deliver to customers on the company’s behalf? Careful planning should eliminate this potential drain on cash.
3. Keep costs down – Review all cost items (including products and energy) and relate this to efficiency. Turning off one PC overnight can save over £50 a year.
4. Run a credit check on customers and potential customers – look at the credit histories with a view to eliminating late or non-payment. Try to instil in staff the thought that ‘a sale is only valid when the cash is in the bank’. Before accepting an order ensure the customer/potential customer accepts the payment terms – in writing. It is also essential to enforce payment terms and if a customer doesn’t pay, put them on a stop.
5. Invoice promptly – issue them as soon as is practical. Soon after they are issued contact the customer by phone or email ensuring they have the invoice in their system and that they have no problems with the supply – record this. Get them used to paying on time. Remember “a sale is only valid…”
6. Ensure that systems advise you of late customer payments – keep an eye on debtors’ days (trade debtors’ ÷ sales for the previous 12 months) × 365). An increase could indicate a credit control issue.
7. Take precautions – consider taking out insurance to cover all trading with a large or doubtful customers or even against individual invoices.
8. Negotiate or re-negotiate credit terms with suppliers – Ask for early settlement discounts (if cash is available) and try to split annual costs into monthly payments. This will probably be easier than paying a large bill at the end of the year. Consider what would happen to the business if a supplier failed? Too much reliance on any one supplier could leave the company extremely vulnerable. Use credit checks and find alternate source(s).
9. Review wages and salaries – In times where cash is tight, these (usually) monthly payments are strain on cashflow.
10. Consider invoice finance – These facilities can bring in a value of up to 90 per cent issued invoices – but it has a cost. It can assist as the cashflow income then grows in line with sales, and bridges the gap between issuing an invoice and receiving payment.
Source: Barry Hill of www.ukba.co.uk
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Funding announced for 10,000 small business mentors – A waste of money
With regard to the article below – is this really the best use of funding for SMEs?
The first question that it begs is, “How do you train experience?”. And, why would experienced business advisors want to give away their services for free? There is the old adage that you actually get what you pay for in terms of value.
A recent comment by UK Business Advisors questioned the effectiveness of these mentors as, due to liability issues for poor advice, the individuals are actually unable to provide any to the business they are supposedly mentoring – crazy!!
Grant of £1.2 million to provide experienced advisers for businesses
Funding to recruit and train an additional 10,000 business mentors has been announced by the government today.
A new grant of £1.2 million will be made available to the ‘Get Mentoring’ scheme from the Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative so it can enlist 10,000 business volunteers from SMEs, the Department of Business Innovation and Skills has confirmed.
This latest move comes in addition to the funding announcement for 5,000 mentors to support female entrepreneurs earlier this month, and will add to the 11,000 business mentors already available through the website mentorsme.co.uk.
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Government failing SMEs
A survey of small businesses reveals that 70 per cent of those polled do not feel that the Government is doing enough to help them despite the fact that the ‘Start-up Britain’ initiative places start-ups and small firms at the heart of the UK’s economic recovery.
According to the research by skilledpeople.com, small businesses want to see a range of changes to help them grow. Some 44 per cent would like to see more flexible employment laws introduced; 38 per cent would like to see business rates reduced; 30per cent would like the Government to introduce lower levels of corporation tax, while 29 per cent of business owners want to see the Government provide tax breaks to employ unemployed people.
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