How to Manage Rising Energy Bills If You Are an SME

SMEs mean Small and Medium Enterprises in the UK. If you have a small or medium business, then you fall into this category, and this post is for you. Keep in mind that micro businesses do exist.

Rising energy bills? Well, if it had not been a significant problem, the government wouldn’t have taken steps to ensure assistance programs. In the UK, companies are suffering from serious issues with managing power bills. It is not only unfavourable for finances, but also distracting for the work you do, isn’t it?

That said, we can take a look at some of the assistance programs and other ways to manage this financial trouble. You will find them below in this post.

How Much Do Energy Bills Cost for a Small or Medium Firm in the UK

As a small or medium firm, you use somewhat around 20,000 kW/ h. According to this rate, you might expect a bill of £4,114 in a year. However, this is based on the ‘average’ scale. You need to understand your power usage to come to a conclusion.

Although it is true that these rates look manageable, many businesses in the UK also have found them more complicated to manage. For example, a Fish and Chips Shop in the UK has experienced an annual energy bill rise from £9,000 to £35,000.

At this rate, it is impossible to manage to pay them. Of course, there are assistance programs. However, if you see energy bills are towering and that you cannot manage them, then you might need to look for quick financial assistance. You might want to look for creditors. However, it can again be problematic when you have a bad credit score.

You can still get credit for paying power bills, though. Contact private lenders. They can help you out with unsecured loans even if you suffer from poor credit scores. If you have a surging energy bill, taking out a 5000-pound loan in bad credit or in a greater amount can come in use. Speak to your lender for more loan products because they design special loans for particular needs and borrowers.

To calculate the energy bills in a proper way, you need to know what energy your brand is using. You can have an idea about power usage from the following table.

How Can You Get Assistance When You Need to Manage Increasing Power Bills?

As per government records, the small and medium businesses in the UK are the most affected enterprises. In fact, small businesses are the worst sufferers; according to government officials.

You can get assistance from government programs since the government of the UK has taken steps to help all enterprises manage their bills. The officials of the government received pleas from uncountable organisations to help them manage energy costs. Below, you might find a few ways to help you with that:

1. The ‘Blend and Extend’ Contracts

It is a contract made by two organisations to help companies manage surging power rates. British Gas and Octopus have introduced this contract. As mentioned earlier, the application of the contracts followed innumerable phone calls and notifications from the SME federation. They requested to cut tariffs for businesses undergoing serious financial trouble. This may also apply to the brands that are struggling with energy bills in particular.

2. Get the Best of the Energy Bills Discount Scheme

This scheme first landed in 2021. It runs almost in the way of sessions. In 2023, it runs from April of the year to March 2024.

The Energy Bills Discount Scheme is often portrayed as a ‘less rewarding’ financial assistance. However, it also made it a point that savings can easily make way if you have used this scheme without hard analysis.

Those firms which have fixed-price contracts will get this facility. The scheme will allow you to pay discounted energy bills. However, the discounts are completely dependent on the calculations of the officials leading the scheme. Your brand will get a discounted rate per energy usage and what the scheme determines as a cost reduction plan for your energy bills.

3. Speak to Your Energy Service

You can ask your energy bill provider in the UK for discounted rates. Believe it or not, it is possible. When you see you are suffering a surging energy bill and you know at the core of your heart that you cannot manage it, dial the number of your energy provider or power service and speak to them.

Be it household power usage or a small/ medium business, you need to tell your business frankly what financial problems you have to face. There are cost-effective packages that the power services might offer you.

Always remember that many issues are solved when you prioritise frank conversations. If you think this way to save power usage costs, you are likely to achieve a better option.

4. Get Financial Aid If Required  

When you cannot deal with power costs, you might want to get a service to help you out. A financial service such as private lending can help you out. These are lenders that develop separate loan products for a variety of borrowing needs. You can surely get an array of business loan products when you inquire about them on their websites. Moreover, most of the loans you get from these lenders are personal loans. It means you need not worry about collateral.

Did you know that you can pay your power bills if your brand runs on zero income or suffers from seriously low earnings? With private lenders, you can get unemployed bad credit loans in the UK. You can repay the money when your revenue starts generating again. Or else, you can repay your lender flexibly using an alternative income source (passive income; freelancing etc.).

What Can You Do to Reduce Power Costs?

By far, we know how energy bills are created and what you can do if the amount you have to pay becomes quite high. At this point, we will discuss a few ways to control the costs. They are written below for your consideration:

• You can use energy-efficient lighting and HVAC choices to keep the bills controlled and low.
• Take note of your insulation. Well-insulated office or workplace consumes less power making the area efficient for both people and power usage.
• Improved systems these days help you with ‘power-saving mode’. While purchasing your electronic equipment and power tools, inquire more about this facility and turn the mode on to save extra power.
• Train your staff on how to use the electrical appliances in an office to maximise power saving.
• Use solar power to run electrical appliances and machines if possible. Maybe you’ll need an upfront cost. However, for small and medium businesses, it might still be manageable.

Apart from these measures, you can evaluate the workforce and set more power-saving attributes to help reduce the bills. This is why you might need to do some more research on this topic.

To Conclude

Now that you have known a few ways to pay and reduce energy bills, you might get to save some money. As a concluding piece of advice, do not overthink this matter or get stressed. Organise your finances; make smart moves, and you can deal with high energy bills effectively.