Simple Technical Solutions To Combat Business Waste

– Contributed content –

28 July 2017. Science and technology have revolutionized the way that companies do business in the 21st century. They’ve enabled businesses from all kinds of industries of all shapes and sizes to optimize their efficiency while reducing operational costs. Technology has enabled businesses of all sizes to expand their reach across the globe and allowed thriving businesses to be run from living rooms. Every business fights a daily battle against the waste of time and resources, though not every entrepreneur is cognizant of the multitude of technical solutions that can enable them to do this.

Here are some ways in which affordable technologies can help to combat waste, save money and allow your business to grow and prosper.

Voice over IP (Wikimedia Commons)

VOIP your phones

Decades ago, telephone technology became proliferate across the world, enabling businesses to expand their reach to a global scale. It also, however, necessitated enormous charges for international and daytime calls. While businesses were able to get more preferential rates than domestic clients, they still faced huge phone bills. VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) suppliers can save businesses a fortune by carrying their telephone and video conference calls over their internet connection.

Heating and lighting

If you run your business from a space where you have to pay for the utilities, you may still be using low-cost incandescent bulbs. Stop! This an egregious false economy. Old-fashioned incandescent bulbs work by heating the filament inside to a high enough temperature to provide heat and light energy. The trouble for business owners is the unfavorable ratios of heat to light. 90% of the energy produced is heat and only 10% is light. Very few entrepreneurs would get behind any other solution that’s only 10% efficient, but because incandescent bulbs are so cheap and ubiquitous we tend to give them a pass. Replace them with compact florescent lights and you could save $50 a year per bulb!

You may also be paying over the odds for the winterization of your pipes too. Nobody wants to pay to replace busted frozen pipes but that doesn’t mean you should pay over the odds for heating them. Heat trace cable prevents water from freezing in your pipes at a minimal cost. It uses a built in thermostat so only deploys when needed, cutting down energy waste.

(Pixabay)

File storage

There was a time when SMEs had to store their documents in filing cabinets. Over time these would take up entire walls of office space, resulting in huge premises overheads. As digital technology began to flourish, data could be stored on digital servers, but they were still pretty pricey. Now, SMEs can use cloud-based solutions for their entire IT infrastructure.

Rethink your apps

Whatever software your business uses, chances are there’s something out there that’s cheaper and more time or cost efficient. For example, if you have basic imaging needs, there’s probably no need for anything as sophisticated as Photoshop when an open sources, web based solution like Pixlr will work just as well. Likewise, Google Docs is pound for pound a better and more user friendly word processing app than Microsoft Word that allows for easier collaboration.

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