Running a business is hard, whether it is a fish-and-chips shop or someone’s dot-com brainchild. When businesses grow and the profits increase, one’s attention can be drawn away from the fine details. The owner-manager might focus more on the sales side of the business and neglect the minor tasks that seemed so important when they were starting. These tasks may be delegated to over-busy staff members or simply forgotten. This is the Achillies’ heel of many small businesses and, in this article, I will give you some tips on how to identify and make up for this mistake.

 1.       No Buying Consortium

When the manager of a business becomes busier, their common purchases – weather it be paper, stationary, potatoes, or coffee – are side-lined so that they can spend more time on important tasks. Therefore, they have less time to negotiate better deals for these purchases. Paying a membership fee to a buying consortium could not only save money in the long run but also give you power to make deliveries of these items more regular and under better payment terms. It is as simple as running their price up against your current expenditure and seeing if fits.

2.       Energy

It is amazing how many businesses don’t bother to track their energy costs. Understanding how your business is using energy and where savings can be made is not only important to be profitable but will help you to reach the holy grail of a carbon neutral status, which in itself can be an asset. Many customers and clients prefer to deal with green companies. It is worth checking the energy efficiency ratings of all appliances your business uses. It is possible that there is an ancient, energy guzzling device hiding somewhere, or perhaps it is leased equipment that is driving up the bills. It is also worth using occupancy sensors in hallways and bathrooms to reduce lighting costs.

3.       Employee Theft

82% of workers in the UK have admitted to stealing from the work place. In most cases this will be stationary and the cost to the company will only add up over time. On the other hand, 25% of employees in the UK have admitted to never returning their work laptop. There are also people who will steal cash from tills, forge company cheques, steal information, or grant discounts to friends who visit the business. To better avoid the risk of this happening, one must perform a proper inventory of what the company owns. Checking references of incoming employees is crucial as well as building a proper theft and security policy.

4.       Tax

There is a strong chance that if you have bought, leased or improved a commercial property you will be allowed to offset some of that capital expenditure for tax purposes. Some small businesses could be losing thousands of pounds a year due to not making appropriate claims for money spent on their premises – and it is a relatively simple thing to determine. www.riftcapitalallowances.com is one of many sites that can help assess your eligibility for a tax refund.