Partner Article

Choice, energy and the key to business success

OK, so business in the UK might not (yet) be booming, but it is certainly on the up. However, as in all things, success is by no means assured. Without wanting to be a prophet of doom, it is clear that the global economy is still volatile and any number of foreseeable and unforeseeable events could hinder growth. In this environment it is more important than ever for small businesses to enhance their growth prospects, as well as their competitive advantages, in the most cost effective way possible.

It is here that choice becomes important. The more choice businesses have over how they set up and run their operations, the greater their ability to achieve strong margin. Historically, the way that energy services have been supplied to SMEs has precluded this. Energy has been, and all too often still is, delivered as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ service, regardless of where in its growth trajectory a business is.

This seems a very outdated way of doing business and is not reflected in other industries. Take telecommunications – businesses are provided with a wide array of plans to choose from, so they can pick the one that best suits their needs. These plans are also very transparent – I would wager that most businesses can accurately forecast how much their telephone bill will be each month.

This is exactly the sort of approach that the energy sector needs to embrace. If you are a start-up business without an established credit history, why should you be penalised for this in your energy bill? What if you are a landlord who only needs energy service for a short period of time – why should you be tied in to a contract for a year? Or what if you are a more established business with a good idea of where you are going to be in a few years – surely you should be able to get a plan that allows you to forecast into the future with a good degree of certainty?

It is the ability to make exactly these sort of choices that will make a huge difference to businesses looking to grow. Energy forms an important expenditure for small businesses and it is only right that they have full transparency over what they are paying and the opportunity to choose a plan that delivers what their business most needs at any given time: whether that is price stability or freedom from long-term contracts. The benefits that this choice-centric approach will provide businesses in terms of budgeting and planning, could in many cases prove to be that key competitive differentiator that drives success.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Phil Scholes .