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Cut The Costs For Your Business - Chris Flanagan, CostController

Cut The Costs For Your Business

Chris Flanagan looks at the top ten ways to cut costs in your business.

1. Telecoms
Since the telecoms market became deregulated there’s plenty of competition for your business! You should easily save 10% off your line rental if you’re with a ‘big brand’ provider and often more on call charges. Remember to compare like for like rates and consider the length of contract you’re entering into.

2. Printing
Lose those desktop printers. Install MFDs (Multi Functional Devices) that can photocopy, scan, print and fax. Your overall hardware costs will reduce and running costs will drop by taking a CPC (cost per copy) contract, rather than paying out for maintenance and consumables.

3. Office Stationery
Consolidate your suppliers and invoices. Buying from one source will increase your negotiating power and using a buying group will increase this further. Monitor your own usage and limit the number of people who have the authority to reorder stock. Using own brand products can also save up to 25%.

4. Utilities
Many businesses have never compared their gas and electricity providers and are missing out on potentially huge savings for very little effort. Go through a broker as they will be able to access a wider range of tariffs. If you’re still in a contract ensure that you know when to give notice to your current suppliers, many will only offer small window before rolling you into another long term deal.

5. Go Green
Set the default printing function on all your office PCs to print mono and on both sides of the pages. Office paper is one of the single biggest costs and by taking this action you could not only reduce your paper costs by up to 50% but avoid paying for colour copies, often about 10 times the cost of Black & White! Turning off monitors, lights and electrical devices when not in use will help save money and the environment.

6. Outsourcing
Outsourcing non critical functions can potentially result in substantial savings. IT, HR and Finance are the main areas that usually come under review, but depending on your industry you may be consider outsourcing manufacturing, distribution, marketing or customer services.

7. Banking
Review your bank charges! Remember these are not fixed in stone and there are a number of areas where banks profit from your business. What interest rates are you being charged and what are you receiving for any accounts in credit? Many banks have different levels of online systems and paying a higher monthly fee to use these systems could result in a lower cost overall through reduced transactional fees.

8. Business Rates
Your business rates can be challenged every five years. Don’t assume that the rates won’t change; you can challenge this yourself or go through specialist consultants. If you use a consultant make sure they don’t charge an upfront fee and that any charge only relates to savings they make.

9. Capital Allowances
It’s estimated that the capital allowance tax relief that businesses are entitled to hasn’t been claimed on 95% of commercial premises in the UK! Imagine that, literally mi££ions of pounds remain unclaimed. Capital allowances are a valuable form of tax relief available to anyone buying or building commercial property. As a business you can claim these allowances, deduct a proportion of them from your taxable profits and reduce your tax bill.

10. Fixed Cellular Terminals (FCT’S)
FCT’s are essentially a mobile device that allows fixed telephony devices such as PBX Telephone Systems to connect directly to the GSM Mobile Phone Network. This can be used to call other mobile users at reduced rates (depending upon available tariffs) or for use in remote offices where no fixed line services are available (e.g. building site / remote monitoring post). In an age where the landline to mobile calls are dramatically increasing for businesses FCT’s can offer the potential of reducing these charges to around 3ppm which is a staggering saving when compared to competitive fixed line charges of around 7-8ppm currently in the market.

Chris Flanagan

Chris Flanagan is the manager of the Cost Controller buying group run by Manchester solicitors Pannone LLP. Having worked for the firm for over ten years, Chris has built a wealth of information on business expenditure across a wide range of industries.

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