How business save money across the globe
Today we welcome Dave Green from Inanutshell.biz, who provide a forum to discuss UK business. He is looking at ways in which small and large businesses are saving money in the real world, across the globe. Ideally these methods coincide with improved efficiency and higher profit rather than redundancies.
Cadbury Schweppes are hoping to save enough money to recoup their massive lose this year, caused by the Salmonella outbreak in their factory, and thus a product recall costing them £31million in fines and decontamination. They are looking to shed 700 jobs within the next 2 and a half years; whilst moving some 500 jobs to Poland. (Source)
Money saving lesson for your business
Your options – Can you outsource some of your operations to other areas of Europe? Or even areas of Asia. Increasingly agencies including the UK Chambers of Commerce are setting up fact finding trips to foreign countries for business owners to discuss aspects of outsourcing both products and services with them.
The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) in the States has over 19,000 members; all of which have been asked to pledge to cut their energy consumption by 10 percent. This would allow them to collectively save approximately $193 million in energy costs and to eliminate more than one million tons of greenhouse gas emissions being emitted into the atmosphere each year. (Source)
Money saving lesson for your business
Your options – This is the same message being given over and over, if everyone does something small it can have a global impact. Could your business fit occupancy sensors to toilets, offices and storerooms which will only turn on the lights when they are required? How difficult would it be to fit window film to reduce summer heat and prevent heat loss during the winter? Even the use of the Hippo Water Saver in your businesses toilet cisterns will save you £3 per annum per employee.
The capital expenditure (CapEx) on new software can sometimes be huge, especially for high end database driven applications; but have you ever considered the idea of renting your software? All Forum of Private Business (FPB) members can now download applications for a range of things including financial planning, marketing and customer appointments. They pay a flat monthly fee which covers all licensing costs and full technical support. (Source)
Money saving lesson for your business
Your options – Are you a member of a business club such as a Chamber of Commerce or the Federation of Small Businesses? Ask them how they leverage their member base to achieve cost savings for members like yourselves. Tell them about the provisions that the FPB have put in place and see if they can agree similar arrangements.
Have you ever considered what assets your company owns? You would probably come up with things like computers, chairs, tables, buildings etc. But what about your software licenses? A company in the UK have spotted an opportunity provided by the insolvency laws and Microsoft’s own software licence terms, that allows them to resell the software licences from companies which go into administration. The savings can be anywhere from 20 to 70% on the original price. (Source)
Money saving lesson for your business
Your options - When next looking to replace your Microsoft software licences head over to www.discount-licensing.com and see if you can get exactly what your after for up to 70% off the RRP.
Hopefully you will see that none of these options are rocket science, but that they can all save your business some money. We are not recommending that all of these methods will be relevant to every business; but maybe they have sparked off some other money saving ideas for business that you would like to discuss at the Inanutshell.biz Business advice UK forum.
