What Small Businesses & Organizations Can Do
We are certainly living in unprecedented times. Every facet of our lives has been affected by Covid-19, some positively and some negatively, we have to think and re-think the way we do things.
When it comes to the area of costs related to Utilities i.e. Heat, light, telecommunications, chip & pin machines for an SME’s or any other organization operating in the commercial space below are three simple tips that might be useful:
- Keep Communication Channels Open With Suppliers
The suppliers realize the challenges the customers are going through and would be open to speak to customers to minimize the pact of this pandemic is having on their business regarding utilities. They are open to payment plans or similar arrangement with clients whose business is closed or operating on a reduced trading scale, but the important thing is to be in contact with suppliers and work out an arrangement.
- Notify The Suppliers With Current Meter Readings
Since deregulation, more competition has put more focus on reducing costs. How electricity and gas meters are read in ireland is not done on a monthly basis. The networks do these reads every quarter and most of the times the supplier bills the customer is on estimated annual usage. At present times with most businesses closed it is important that the customer takes a reading once a months and feeds that back to suppliers, this will in turn keep the bills accurate otherwise the suppliers will go on the estimated usage and the customer might end up getting a bigger bill. To keep things simple and accurate provide meter reads.
- Ideal Time To Review Utility Costs
We found that most small businesses lose money on utility costs and the number reason is they don’t have time as they are more focused on their core businesses. Well that excuse is no longer valid as we have plenty of time on our hands, so do the research and look at every cost in your business apart from broadening the revenue streams. If you need assistance contact us for an independent advice as there are 10 suppliers alone in the Irish commercial utility market namely Bord Gais, SSE Airtricity, Electric Ireland, Energia, Flogas, Panda Power, BE Energy, Go Power, Pinergy and Just Energy couple with different tariffs which might seem complex but the task can be made simple. As a general rule talk to the expert.
Hope this helps……….