Small Business Tips – Sustainable Cost Control
With the current economic times, being the status quo, it makes sense to, not only have a cost control plan in place, but also one that can reduce the environmental impact your business has. Cutting costs does not mean cutting corners. Rather than compromising the quality of your product or service, look in to different areas of the business whereby savings could be made. These are some of the measures we have undertaken in our company, Smart Ark Ltd.
Reduce bills
There are some very obvious things that you can do to reduce bills in your work environment. Using energy efficient light bulbs, turning off office equipment and heating during non office hours can considerably trim down your annual costs. Consider working from home, rather than paying rent for an office, you will also cut out travel and fuel bills.
Re use packaging
As part of our environmental policy, here at Smart Ark Ltd, we have an ongoing initiative whereby we collect cardboard boxes from local businesses and reuse them in our packaging. We find that most of the customers are supportive of this and are happy to receive their products in boxes that may have had a previous life. I think they appreciate the fact that an effort has been made to be sustainable.
Communicate by email unless totally necessary
Largely we communicate by email unless it’s a significant document that needs to be on paper. When we do need to use paper we source them from other ethical companies, which if you shop around, is not always the more expensive option. When we do print, we try to use both sides of the paper, or use the other side for rough drafts or note writing. When printing, print on the “draft” option of the printer. We also have an online PDF catalogue as opposed to a paper one.
Energy efficient Equipment
When buying a computer or printer we only opt for the one with the highest energy star as our usage can equate to up 12 hours a day. The energy savings on a green PC can be anything from 30 to 80 percent, against the ordinary PC. The new low emission breed of PC’s are more widely available now and manufactures appear to be putting the prices down. In the long term, energy efficient equipment will save money on your bills, as well as help you to reduce your carbon footprint.
Buy only what you need
It’s good business practice to buy things for the purpose they serve. Why pay extra for gimmicks and added extras that you probably won’t use once the novelty wears off. Instead buy only what is essential, and it doesn’t always have to be a new item. I often buy second hand office products from thrift shops or online auctions. I find I can really make a big savings doing this and second hand products generally tend to be of a better quality anyway.
Article by: Fehmida Ibrahim Shah, director of Smart Ark Ltd, an ethical company which makes educational Islamic products for children. www.smartark.com
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