Running a business can be hard enough without the added worry of rising utility costs. If your jaw has ever dropped at the price of your electricity bills, then you’re going to love these tips to get the best deal from your supplier. The advice comes courtesy of Make It Cheaper, who provide impartial advice to help businesses save on their bills.

“With energy prices on the rise again (when do they ever fall?), the hikes suffered by people who run businesses will be far worse than for homeowners.

So far this year, two of the Big 6 energy suppliers have already announced price rises of up to 19% for householders and it widely expected that the rest will follow suit. Prices for businesses, however, are not published in the same way so business owners are instead expected to anxiously wait for contract renewal letters from their suppliers to find out their proposed new (higher) prices.

Businesses pay fixed price tariffs for one, two or three years and recently some business bill payers have seen their prices doubling as they come up for renewal at the end of their contract. Dodie Stark, a ladies fashion boutique in Haywards Heath, for example, has just received a renewal letter with a quotation from their supplier which increases the electricity unit price from 8p to 16p per kilowatt – and that’s after just a year of being with them.

If you are concerned about what’s lurking round the corner for your small business electricity and gas bills…here’s what you can do:

1. Call your supplier to clarify the unit price you’re currently paying in kilowatts, whether it is negotiable, how long until they send you out a renewal letter and your contract end date.

2. A typical renewal window for a business energy contract will be between 120 and 130 days before the contract end date, and it is usually only during this period that a business can apply to switch or look to negotiate a better deal. Businesses who may have already missed their renewal letter can find out if their renewal window is still open by using the following tool.

3. If the price they are offering you to renew your contract is over 10 pence per kilowatt for electricity (or 3p/kWh for gas) then you’d be wise to shop around. Competition between suppliers means the price range has widened – i.e. cheaper offers to attract new customers are counterbalanced by suppliers charging their existing customers more.

4. Make certain your supplier acknowledges your intention to switch by sending a termination letter by recorded delivery. This must contain the correct reference number for the meter/s in question or else it may be rejected. Termination letters can be created using this tool.

5. Whoever you decide to sign up with, be sure they tell you the length of your new contract, the contract end date and the notice period you need to give to leave at the end. Keep this information safe and, if using an intermediary rather than going direct, sign up for their renewal reminder service.

Finally, once you’ve got your price nailed down, provide your supplier with regular meter readings. Over-estimated readings mean you’ll be overpaying and building up unnecessary non-interest bearing credit, while underestimated readings mean you’ll eventually end up with a nasty shock as business bills can be backdated for up to six years.”

Jonathan Elliott, managing director of Make It Cheaper

If you’d like to find out more about how you can get a better deal for your business, why not speak directly to the Make It Cheaper team? Call them on 0800 970 0077 or click here!

“Networking can be a hugely powerful tool for any business, whether you want to get your company’s name known, find partners for a new venture or just make contacts for the future. Good networkers will find that the more contacts they make, the more referrals they get for their business.

Since the boom of Twitter and LinkedIn, we tend to think of networking as something done largely online. Not true – even in these social-media heavy times, nothing can replace the power of a face-to-face, personal connection.

However, for most people it can be difficult to find opportunities to increase their network of contacts. Just like dating, you need to seek out opportunities to meet useful and interesting people.

An excellent place to start is by attending a trade show relevant to your industry. You could even hire a stall for your company. Not only are trade show attendees very responsive to making new connections, but you can also see what your competition is doing. You could also research industry networking events or join an organization like 4networking, become a member of a trade association or consider attending a conference.

If you are the kind of person who feels uncomfortable striking up conversations with strangers, let alone pushing an agenda, don’t worry. Here are my top tips:

• Unique selling point – what can your business offer that others can’t? What services do you provide and what makes them special? Prepare – and practice – a 30 second summary of your company.
• Plan ahead – whatever the event, get hold of the invite list ahead of time and decide who you are going to meet. This also gives you time to research attendees to provide you with an edge.  
• Be interested – everyone likes to talk about themselves. Ask lots of questions about the other person’s business needs, find out what their goals are and then you can better pitch yourself as someone who they could find useful.
• No sales – networking is about building relationships, not closing a deal. That – hopefully – can come later.
• Body language  –  you might be saying all the right things but your body language can let you down. Take note of your posture, aiming for a straight-backed, confident stance. Shake hands firmly but without giving the impression you are trying to break your contact’s hand. Make eye-contact throughout. Smile occasionally, but not constantly.
• Give back – if someone needs a service that you can’t provide, but you know who can, don’t be shy to recommend someone else in your network. You pitch yourself as a problem solver, while making it more likely that the person you recommend will one day return the favour.
• Take notes – make sure you note down any important or potentially useful details about the contacts you have met and store this information carefully. This will help you make more of an impact when you follow up and can prove useful later.
• Follow up – this is absolutely crucial. You could send a friendly email, message them through LinkedIn or pop that information pack in the post like you promised…just make sure you build on the first meeting, while your contact remembers who you are.

Networking is something that takes practice, but once you've been to a few events you'll find that you quickly get the hang of it. Invest some time in making contacts - and in the long-term it could really pay off!

Expert of the month – logo design

Do you have a logo for your website and business yet? Maybe you’ve thought about designing one but not really sure where to start…or perhaps you have a logo but want to update it? To help start your design journey, we’ve asked Mr Site’s Brand Identity Developer, Paul Huxen, to share his top logo advice!

“A logo is a very personal piece of work – it provides a ‘voice’ for your brand and needs to represent you and your company. You can hire a designer to design a logo for you, however, if you fancy giving it a go yourself here are a few tips to help you:

No clip art
This will be spotted instantly and often looks amateurish and bland – there’s two words you don’t want to be associated to your logo! If you’re serious about using an illustration in your design then I would recommend either attempting to do yourself using free illustration software you can get from the web (such as GIMP or Inkscape) or ask for some help from someone that can already illustrate.

Use sensible typography
For any fonts you use in your logo, make sure they are appropriate to your business. For example, if you are an accountant you wouldn’t want to use a font like Comic Sans as it would give the wrong impression. In a similar vein, a children’s entertainer wouldn’t use something like Times New Roman as it might look too stuffy. And on that note…

Make it interesting
You don’t have to have an illustration in your logo at all – you might decide you just want the name of your company. If this if the case, take your time to choose a font. No one wants to look a logo set in a boring 18pt Times New Roman! There are some great websites that offer free fonts, such as www.fontsquirrel.com and www.dafont.com. Get creative – but remember, make sure it fits the image you want to project for your business.

Colour
Any logo you create should also work well in black and white – this is not to be confused with greyscale, which is a printing option. A black and white version should have no grey in it whatsoever and would be used for faxes, invoices and single colour printed material. Smashing magazine has a great article about colour theory – click here to read it now.”

As you are all probably aware, from the 4th January 2011 VAT in the UK will be increasing to 20%. To ensure all our business customers are prepared for the change, we asked our friend Duane Jackson, Managing Director and Founder of accounting software KashFlow, for some helpful advice to keep your accounts flowing:

“Another new year, another change to the standard rate of VAT. After dropping to 15% in 2009 it reverted to 17.5% in 2010…and now for 2011 the VAT man has decided the new rate will be 20%.

The financial impact of this change will vary from business to business – if you mainly sell to other VAT registered businesses then the effect should be unnoticeable. If anything there’s a positive element to it, as it means you’ll have slightly more cash flowing through your bank account.

If you’re selling to the general public or non-VAT registered businesses then it’s not so positive. The increase either needs to be applied to your prices, making your products or services more expensive or you’ll need to absorb the increase by making less profit. Not a nice position to be in.

If you’re using the right accounting software then the technical impact should be virtually unnoticeable, for example, if you’re using our KashFlow Online Accounting Software then it’ll be dealt with for you automatically. Your default VAT rate will be changed for you and any repeat invoices you have set up will automatically be updated to the new rate.

But if you don’t have an automated system that can deal with this for you then you might need a little guidance. Typically, anything you invoice on or after 4th January 2011 should be at the new rate of 20%, however, there are some exceptions:

• Supplies made prior to 4th January – if you provide goods or services prior to 4th January but invoice afterwards then the old rate of 17.5% should be used

• Continuous supplies – if you’re providing an ongoing service (perhaps office cleaning or leasing of equipment) then you may apply the VAT rate of 17.5% on the portion of the service up until 3rd January and then 20% on the portion on or after 4th January. If you decide to do this you need to make sure you can demonstrate how you calculated it and that it’s fair

There are other, more rare exceptions, and if you’re in any doubt you should speak to your accountant. And remember…as if all the hassle with the VAT rate change wasn’t enough, then there’s another important date in January – January 31st is the deadline for online filing of your Self Assessment tax return!

If you’d like some help with your accounts, Mr Site customers are invited to try a 60-day free trial of KashFlow’s incredibly easy to use accounting software, with tools to make running your business as hassle-free as possible. Just click here to get started.”

Thinking about taking on your first employee or want to know more about employment contracts…read on! This month our friends at Law Donut have offered their top recruitment – for more legal hints and tips from Law Donut, along with all the advice and resources you need to run a successful business, just click here.

Recruitment and employment contracts

Establishing a successful recruitment process can have a major impact on your business. Similarly, once you’ve decided to hire someone, setting out the terms of your agreement with them in a clear written contract helps reduce the risk of any disputes arising later.

The recruitment process

Effective hiring starts with a well-planned recruitment process. Focus on what you need the employee to do and prepare a job description and person specification setting out the required skills and experience. You must avoid any form of discrimination in the way you recruit staff. This includes discrimination on grounds of race, sex, age, disability and so on.

Make sure you understand how what you say or write during the recruitment process (such as during a job interview) can constitute an offer of employment or become part of an eventual employment contract. When you do make a job offer, it makes sense to send out a written offer clarifying the main terms and conditions. You will need to ensure that these comply with key legal restrictions such as limits on the working week.

Your initial employment offer should state whether the offer is subject to any conditions such as satisfactory references. You can also include a probationary period of up to a year.

Employment contracts

A contract of employment exists for every employee, whether you have provided a written employment contract or not. The employment contract is created the moment an employee accepts your job offer. You should take legal advice if you are unsure whether an individual is employed by you or is self-employed in their own right.

As well as any written offer of employment, the terms of the employment contract can be affected by any other employment documents (such as a job description or a written statement of employment terms) or spoken agreement. The terms of the employment contract can also be affected by employment practice: for example, if you provide a bonus every Christmas, it may become a contractual entitlement.

No agreement or contract can override an employee's statutory rights. For example, there are statutory entitlements to sick pay, maternity leave and the minimum wage. However, a contract can offer more generous entitlements than the statutory minimum.

You are legally obliged to provide a written statement of employment terms within two months of taking on a new employee. The written statement must include specified basic details such as pay, working hours and holiday entitlement.

Other things to watch In general, you cannot unilaterally change the terms of an employment contract without risking a claim of constructive dismissal. So you should aim for employment contracts to be as flexible as possible. For example, you should avoid narrow job descriptions and include the right to change the job description or the employee’s place of work. Make it clear when employment benefits are intended to be discretionary.

You may want to consider other contractual terms, particularly for senior employees. For example, you might want the employment contract to include clauses on confidentiality and restrictions on leaving to set up a competing business or poaching staff. You should take legal advice to ensure that any terms in the employment contract will be enforceable.

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