Mark Edwards is general manager at Rocket Lawyer
January is the perfect time for setting improvement goals: It's when most businesses are looking back on what they achieved and didn't achieve last year, and planning their new objectives for the new year. Increasing efficiency and overall productivity should always be part of your objectives because it reduces costs and, therefore, increases profits. It often improves your customer experience too.
Siân Evans is the SME customer engagement manager at E.ON
What simple changes can businesses make to improve their premises and save on bills? The simplest thing is to focus on really close control. Make sure that the rooms are heated only when you need them. This means keeping an eye on when it gets cold and switching heating on just in time to get things comfortable. A lot of energy is wasted on heating during periods when buildings are not occupied. If you own the building there are other long term measures you can take. For example, insulation, draft proofing or upgrading temperature controls and heating equipment.
Are SMEs unsure what sort of improvements they could and should be making? The truth is that in most businesses, energy only represents a small proportion of total costs, and therefore energy saving can only justify a relatively small amount of time and attention. One idea is to tackle energy as a subject for, say, one day, and set up a long-term action plan which you can follow for the next couple of years.
John Hoskin is the director of online accountants CleverAccounts
How can flexible or remote working improve business efficiency? It depends on the business. It can undoubtedly reduce costs but I think communication can suffer. As with many growing businesses recruiting new people, we're keen on having everyone together, so that we can instill a common culture and strategy and keep good control over the standards we want to deliver – in short what's important to us and our customers and the way we do things. We find that easier if we are all together during the working day. However, that doesn't mean it's not right for others.
You can't do everything yourself and you can get swamped running your own business: You need to be focused on keeping your customers happy and doing what you are the expert in, but also making time to work on the future of the business, not just working in the here and now. Don't be afraid to outsource the non-core admin elements of what you do - such as accounts and admin - to a professional provider. It doesn't have to be all that costly if you find the right supplier.
Olly Henderson is founder and managing director of Capology
Implement a constant review process to improve efficiency in SMEs: All elements of the business, whether it be suppliers, staff, banks or finance, should be under constant scrutiny. If this level of scrutiny is not upheld, then things start to slip, such as customer experience or cashflow. I also think this is a top down cultural thing and feeds from myself and my fellow directors, right to the part-time store staff, or parcel packagers in the warehouse. If they see us being thorough, then they are more likely to be too.
Allen Creedy is the environment, water and energy chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses
How do you engage staff in energy saving? Buy an energy monitor and challenge the staff to use it to reduce consumption. Reward the staff for saving money. Harness their ideas and talent – they are your biggest asset. If staff are on separate sites then you can set up a competition between sites and set targets for simple savings from switching off equipment when not in use. Give reward points for every 100 kWh saved. For example, if you're paying 20p per kWh, reducing consumption by 1,000 kWhrs will save you £200 - so you can afford to buy cakes on Friday for everybody.
Read the rest of the live Q&A here
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