Savings for business; cheap phone, broadband, and utilities

As the economic climate continues to worsen, many small businesses are suffering at the hands of rising costs and reduced profits. Many businesses will look for ways to reduce spending during the downturn, but deciding on where you can afford to cut costs is not always easy.

Often marketing and staff costs are the first casualties of cutbacks, but these decisions must be made with care as they could ultimately compromise the business. We suggest that if you are looking for places to reduce spending, your utility bills are a good place to start. We’ve offered some advice on how you can save on energy, phone and broadband bills, in order to help avoid those more drastic cutbacks.

Business energy costs

According to research by the carbon trust, reducing energy costs has become the number one priority in fighting the economic downtime. Experts suggest that the best way to reduce energy costs is not to switch supplier, but to start taking your own energy efficiency measures.

There are a number of simple things you can do (such as using energy saving light bulbs, and turning off any lights and equipment when they are not needed) that can make a significant impact on your energy bills. For more ways to use energy more efficiently, see our article: Simple ways to save your business energy. 

If you are thinking about changing energy providers, a good place to compare prices is Uswitch, where they provide impartial information on the cheapest business gas & electricity providers.

Business phone calls

Many businesses make a large volume of phone calls, and will notch up hefty phone bills to match. Fortunately, this is an area where significant saving can be made without causing any compromise to the business.

The first thing to consider is whether you could save money with a different provider. There are now a large number of telecoms suppliers in the UK, offering a range of different packages at competitive prices. Which will work out the cheapest for you will depend on the way you use your phone – as in how many calls, and the types of calls (are they local or international?) that you make. You can visit the websites of various providers to view information on various packages, but calling the provider and having a chat with them may make it easier to get all the facts. For more advice on making a switch, see our article: choosing a phone line provider.

XLN Telecom, which specialises in providing business landline and broadband services to small businesses, promises to beat any other provider on price - so if you’re looking for the cheapest landline packages, contact XLN and receive guaranteed price savings. If you’re already enjoying XLN’s cheap phone & broadband packages, recommend a friend and receive £35 either in cash, or off your next bill.

Once you are happy with your provider and package, there are still further steps you can take to reduce your bill, such as taking care not to call expensive numbers. For more information on how you can cut down your spending on calls, see ‘XLN tips for reducing your phone bill.’

Save with broadband

If you’re running a small business, chances are you already have broadband set up, and are using it as part of your daily operations. What you may not realise, is that broadband can be an effective tool for saving your business money.

First of all, you should consider the expense of the broadband itself. Different businesses will need different things from their broadband connection, and the prices for these will vary. While you should look for an inexpensive broadband option, if you need a high quality, fast connection, then the cheapest packages may not be suitable. One of the best ways to save on Broadband, without compromising the quality, is to look for a package which will bundle broadband with another service, such as your phone line. XLN offers bundled phone and business broadband packages from just £24.95 per month.

Once you have you broadband connection, you can use it to save money in a number of ways. You can make significant savings on travel and phone expenses using web telephony services like VoIP, which allow you to make calls over the web to anywhere in the world for free. A fast connection can keep staff costs down, as less time spent using the web and email means increased productivity. A number of software products which you may purchase for your business now have free, online equivalents, such as Openoffice instead of Word and Excel, or GoogleApps instead of Outlook. Finally, with broadband you can quickly visit the websites of different suppliers, or cost comparison sites, meaning you can find the cheapest deals on a range of products and services.

To put these simple cost cutting measures into action, start by evaluating the way that you use these utilities, and how much you spend on them. The chances are, significant savings could be made in these areas by a switch in provider, or simply through a change in habits.

Start saving now!
Start following our tips to reduce your energy use today, and visit Uswitch to compare prices of business energy suppliers. Call XLN Telecom for guaranteed price savings on your phone bill – and if you’re already lucky enough to be an XLN customer, don’t forget to recommend a friend. Finally, look for a high quality, low-cost bundled broadband connection, such as XLN’s Total Business Broadband, and then take advantage of the numerous ways this service can save your business money.