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Are you considering reducing your opening hours to cut costs?

Journalist: Angharad Carrick, This Is Money

ended 26. August 2022

With energy bills on the rise and no price cap for businesses this winter is going to be tough for many small businesses. 

Have you considered reducing your opening hours to try and save on energy and staff costs? 

Will you close for more days a week now that costs are expected to increase even further? 

Will cutting your hours offset these costs? Are you considering closing for good? 


 

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Imran Hussain
Director at Harmony Financial Services
Personally, I am not considering reducing hours, but I will be working more flexibly going forward as this works well with my clients. Some clients I tend to meet and grab a coffee with as our processes reduce the need for any pointless trips back and forth to the office and the cost of heating and having the lights on in the office with no one in is a pointless exercise. I am already seeing businesses in my industry close their doors now due to the cost of having premises and offices; one or two large firms have had substantial media coverage, and there will be many more, especially any that have big liabilities and large numbers of staff to pay for. I am already seeing some independent retailers close their doors or open for set hours on specific days such as Wednesday to Saturday. This will have a knock-on effect on staff wages, which will only make the winter months harder for those who already earn the lowest in society.
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Mark Robinson
Managing Director at Albion Forest Mortgages
Albion Forest Mortgages has a bit of a different set up, as our advisers are based across the South coast and work from home. This lowers our costs. I can see more companies moving to the work from home basis to reduce their overheads over the next 12 months. A lot of the infrastructure is already there following on from Covid anyway so it will make a lot of sense.
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Holly Hinton
Founder at Web Goddess
Unfortunately, my hours of work are going to increase instead of decrease to ensure that I am making enough to cover costs in the business, including staff as I want to ensure they have job security and can afford the energy rises as they work remotely.