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Five things AXA Business’ new competition can teach you about business

For any business, regardless of size, there is always room for improvement and more often than not this involves streamlining and reducing costs. A common misconception we seem to have is that such acts are difficult and require grand gestures and big acts but AXA Business have turned this idea on its head with their new competition.

Available on their Facebook page, the competition is offering £2,000 for the winner to spend business tech such as computers, printers and smartphones. It’s all based around small, practical business tips which can have a big impact on your business and we found plenty of great tips on the AXA Business Facebook page which we’re eager to put into practice.

Below, we’ve listed our top five but there are plenty more for you to view – so why not log-on and take a look? Enter the competition by following the link on their page and contribute your own tips and advice. You never know where it might lead!

1. Buy in bulk

We were shocked to learn only 8% of businesses get their office supplies (such as stationery) in bulk. Wise up and start shopping around for better deals and discounted prices. You’ll find a lot of firms offering discounts for buying in bulk, cutting overall costs drastically.

2. Negotiate

You might think haggling is an act reserved for street markets – but you’d be wrong. According to AXA, the cost of not haggling amounts to a whopping £459,264,000 for UK SMEs so remember: if you don’t ask then you won’t get!

3. Be money-wise

Money is the backbone to business dealings, but a shocking amount of SMEs don’t take enough care of it. Almost one third (32%) leaves their spare cash in an account which pays no interest. Add in the fact only 22% take advantage of any tax benefits and you can see where money is being wasted.

4. Protect your assets

We’re all familiar with the need for insurance when running a business but did you know there may be more than one type you need? Employer’s liability insurance is needed for businesses who employ staff and while 16% of SME’s have more than one person on their payroll only 3% have this necessary insurance cover in place to protect their assets.

5. Don’t be complacent

Overall, SMEs are estimated to be wasting £2 billion – and a lot of this is bred from complacency. Automatically renewing your insurance? You could be missing out on annual savings of around 5%. Still using your original business broadband contract? That could be £249 wasted. Not checking your energy tariff? That’s another £399 lost.

Be smart with your money and always do your research before renewing or signing up to a service. It might cost you otherwise!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Peter Rivers .