Small Biz MoneySaving Banking, gas & elec, phones & web

Keeping small business bills down is easier than you think, using the same techniques as for slashing household costs. This is a speedy small business MoneySaving guide with best buys for business bank accounts & savings, utilities, phones, broadband & insurance and more.

Feedback please. MSE's focus is helping consumers, yet many small business owners have asked for help. This guide includes some top picks, but primarily utilises the best of other sites' tools. This is the first incarnation, so please use the feedback links in each section to help us finesse the info.

Top bank accounts for businesses

Personal bank accounts are usually fees-free if you're in-credit, yet the opposite's true for their business brothers. There, charges of £25 per transaction are possible on top of monthly account fees, and this can be a nightmare. There are four steps to beating this...

• Step 1: Use a personal account if you can

  If you are a sole trader (ie not a limited company) then you can simply use your normal bank account for your business, with all the better terms that involves.
  
  However, using a separate, dedicated account could make your record keeping a lot easier, and could be a huge bonus if the HMRC selects your tax return for an in-depth enquiry. For all the best buys see the top bank account guide.

  Yet if you make large amounts of transactions, of big sums, or need to regularly bank cash, then your bank may request you get a business account. If that's likely, start with the right one straight away.



• Step 2: Lowest charge business account

  Based on charges, the Santander Start Up Business Account stands head and shoulders above the competition, offering unlimited free day-to-day transactions for a year or 18 months if you're already a Santander customer. It also pays 0.25% incredit interest.

  However it's effectively just like a consumer bank account. If you need complex facilities, such as an account that automatically works with Sage software or need business assistance, other banks tend to have more rigorous systems, but at a price.

  Business banking best buy comparison sites:

  Moneysupermarket* | Business Moneyfacts

  Even if you can't find one with the services you like at a low charge, don't give up with business accounts, it's often possible to negotiate with your bank to waive the charges as long as you stay within set transaction constraints e.g. max. 10 requests to process business cheques each month.

• Step 3: Minimise the charges you pay

  Whatever the account, make your first job listing down the fees that apply and ensure you (and any staff) are aware of them.

  Think about how you operate to minimise charges: ensure you're paid by BACS rather than cheque, stick to online banking, cut down on the cash you pay into the account, use automated transactions where possible and avoid using unauthorised overdrafts.

  Make sure you check the charges in your statement, it may also help you spot problems - for example, if you accept a cheque that's been returned unpaid by the debtor's bank, your bank will charge you an administration cost, and you won't get the money due. So then you can chase the payment up and ask them to pay the incurred charges too.

• Step 4: Sweep cash into savings

  If you're in the fortunate position to build cash up in your account, be sure to have a business savings account linked to it, that you can sweep the money into it to maximise interest (see below).

Discuss / Report Successes / Suggest Others
Top Business Bank Accounts

Top cashback card for businesses

Cashback credit cards pay you money every time you spend on them. Normally the top cards aren't for business use, but the one below is. Ensure you repay in full every month so you don't get charged interest, otherwise it'll wipe out the gain. Read the full guide for more details on Cashback Credit Cards.

Top business savings

If you have spare cash that isn't needed day-to-day, it makes sense to stash it away. Yet where to put it depends on your company type.

Sole Traders - Use the top personal instant access accounts

Being a sole trader means money from the business is in your name and so can be moved into accounts opened by you. This allows you to get the top personal savings account rates, which beat specific business accounts hands down. It also means, regardless of how big your business is, you get the normal £85,000 per person per institutions savings safety.

For daily-updated best buys read the Top Savings guide.

Limited Companies - Find the best paying business savings

If you have a limited company then legally the company is an 'entity' and the money belongs to it not you. If you therefore tried to move money into your own name it will trigger a tax liability.

So if you just want somewhere to stash the company's cash and earn interest, then you need a business savings account, sometimes called Deposit, Reserve or even Investment accounts. But with all, the aim is to put your money somewhere safe and maximise the interest on it.

The highest rate depends on how much access you want to your cash, and the amount of money you've got to save.

• Guaranteed good rate: Investec 2.25% AER

  The Business High 5 account from Investec pays the average of the five highest business savings rates in the market, currently 2.25% AER (as decided by price comparison site Moneyfacts).

  You need to save over £50,000 and give three months notice to withdraw any money, so only go for this if you don't need instant access to your cash. The account can operated online, by post, phone or fax, and has a maximum allowed balance of £250,000.

• Top easy access: Saffron BS 1.5% AER

  If you want to be able to lay your hands on your funds more quickly, the Saffron BS Business e-saver variable rate account pays 1.5% AER for balances from £1,000 and 1.75% on balances above £100,000, although it can only be operated online.

Discuss / Report Successes / Suggest Others
Biz Savings

Savings safety

The FSCS explicitly state that this is only an indicative guide. They state the protection of your limited company's savings is dependant on fulfilling 2 of the following 3 factors.

• Turnover not more than £6.5m

• Balance sheet of less than £3.26m

• Less than 50 employees

If you fulfil 2 of these 3 it is likely that your savings will be protected up to £85,000.

Cut business gas & electricity bills

Just like domestic energy bills, it's possible to compare and switch to cheaper providers, The right comparisons to use depend again on what type of business you are running.

• Limited companies (or anyone with commercial premises)

  Here you're limited to using special business tariffs, but luckily some of the top energy price comparisons have cottoned on to the small business market.

  However while there are websites, for their business comparison services most tend to operate through callback systems (ie you request it calls and goes through the savings with you), not online.

  Business energy best buy comparison sites:

  UK Power (online quote) |
  BAS | Energyhelpline* | Makeitcheaper* | Simplyswitch* | uSwitch*

  The savings possible are huge though, for a sample postcode we tried in the North West of England an annual electricity bill of £3,500 using the regional electricity company, it was possible to cut the bill to £2,300, a saving of £1,200!

• Sole trader (working from a house)

  If you are working on a small scale, eg. in your own or a colleague's home, and are a sole trader, you can usually deduct a proportion of your household bills as a business expense.

  Switch the house to the cheapest gas and electricity providers using the top standard price comparisons (plus get cashback), using the normal Gas & Electricity switching technique.

Use less energy!

The bigger the bills, the more you can save by being energy efficient. Spending a little money on decent draft insulation, turning off lights, turning computers off standby, and more - see Energy Saving Trust.

Discuss / Report Successes / Suggest Others
Business Gas & Electricity

Office phone & broadband

Costs here can vary enormously, depending on whether your business is consumer facing and how professional your telecoms need to appear.

Are you based at home?

If you run a small business from home, most will find it cheaper using a domestic supplier for their phone and broadband. It's possible to get a landline installed for free, broadband for around a £6/month, and line rental including calls from £8/month. See the Cheap Home Phone and Cheap Broadband guides for full info.

Ask yourself whether you need additional features though, such as the ability to forward calls to your mobile, call divert etc, or a faster internet connection with a large download limit and extras like your own dedicated webspace or an intranet.

If you think you'll need these sort of features, consider plumping for the options below, which although are more expensive, are aimed at business or office premises.

Business services

Don't think that you need take all your communications services from one provider. Review all the options for the cheapest line, broadband and calls providers and then whether you can cut costs further.

• Need to get a line installed? The vast majority of lines are provided by BT Openreach, even if you pay line rental to Primus, the Post Office or others.

  Currently TalkTalk Business* is offering a free line if you sign up to its broadband service for 24 months which, as some of its broadband tariffs are the most competitive anyway, isn't too bad a deal.

• Get the cheapest deal... Because you'll probably need both a phone service and the internet, it may be worth buying a bundled package. But don't assume that these are necessarily cheapest.

  BT's Featureline Compact* option is one of our best buys. If you sign a three year contract, for £17.56/month plus VAT you get 500 mins/month to UK landlines and features like call hold, divert, transfer and conference calling.

  For cheap broadband, TalkTalk Business* is £10/month for up to 24Mb, unlimited downloads on a two-year contract, but you must have its £13.95/month line rental to get it - even so, overall it's one of the cheapest.

  Business phone and broadband comparison services

  BroadbandChoices* (web comparison)
  Biz Advisory Service | Makeitcheaper* | Uswitch* (call back services)

  Do remember though with the comparison services, they won't mention or factor in the override providers below, which can substantially save you cash.

• Slash call costs with override providers All the main calls packages include some free calls, but you can slice the cost of the rest too - whether it's calls to daytime landlines, mobiles or international destinations or 0870 numbers.

  This is all about the use of override providers. These are specialist companies which you can access without changing your phone provider and get much cheaper calls eg 5p per call to landlines during the day, no matter how long you speak for. More info below.

The Top Override providers

If calls aren't included in your 'free minutes', the cost can really stack up: providers charge up to 4p/min or more for daytime calls to landlines, and around 12p/min to call mobiles. It's easy to slash the price.

Sign up to 18185, then dial that number before every call you make. This gets you access to much cheaper call costs: 6p/min to mobiles in the daytime (less at other times) and just 5p per CALL to phone other landlines, no matter how long the call!

Alternatively, if your provider blocks the use of 18185 (eg TalkTalk does) use the daily updated UK CallChecker to find the cheapest simply dial providers (where you phone an 0844 number, then your destination) which cost as little as 0.5p/min

When using overrides, always do some test calls to check you're being charged the price your expecting by your landline provider before going hell for leather on it. Just in case it is operating a different pricing regime and it costs you much more. For more info see the full Home Phones guide.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)

Another option's to use VoIP, which is becoming a more reliable and popular service. For more information check out our VoIP guide. It's worth noting that many providers now offer specialised business services.

Discuss / Report Successes / Suggest Others
Business Telecoms

Insurance

It's possible to slash insurance costs right across the board, but before you get to that stage it's worth checking exactly which policies you should have.

If you have staff there are some compulsory policies - use the tool below which should establish exactly what you need.

Here's a quick run though of some of the key ones, we've also linked to some comparison services, though you may be able to negotiate a better deal by using a local broker and putting all the policies through them.

• Car and van insurance

  If you're using a van or car for your business, make sure you tick the 'business use' box and not just the more usual 'domestic' and 'pleasure' use. Depending on your occupation and the level of business use could have an impact of the premium, but you should still be able to get a decent deal, use the Cheap Car Insurance or Van Insurance guides for full info.

• Do you have employees?

  If so consider 'Employers Liability' (EL) insurance - cover of at least £5 million is required by law for limited companies and you can be fined up to £2,500 for EACH day you aren't covered. There is an exemption if the limited company has only one employee and that employee owns 50%+ of the company.

  These policies protect you / your business for any claims made by employees who have been injured at work or experienced illness as a result of work, where the fault lies with you. It also covers you for expenses in legal cases against your business taken by employees.

  Plus, if your business goes into liquidation or receivership, EL insurance means that your employees can still claim and be paid damages.

  While that's the only compulsory service, others to consider include Public Liability (PL) Insurance; this covers damages and legal fees if your business has caused injury or death to a member of the public, or damage to their property. There are also business premises insurance, contents insurance (for stock, machinery and contents) and product liability insurance & professional indemnity insurance.

Discuss / Report Successes / Suggest Others
Business Insurance

Grab grants to aid your business

Any leg up in business is worth taking - especially if it's from the Government. There's a lot more money out there than you think, many businesses thrive on grant cash.

These often come with strings attached, for example it may provide the cash for you to invest in equipment but you need to match it with your own cash.

Grants are typically pretty specific, and can only be spent on certain costs, or are targeted at small locations or industry sectors. Funders will also probably want to see a business plan so prepare this in advance to make the application process quicker.

• Free courses for your employees

  As part of the government funded Train to Gain programme, employers in England of all sizes and in all sectors can get free or subsidised training courses for their employees. Companies are given a training package tailored to their business, with free courses tending to be for literacy and numeracy, yet apprenticeship and leadership and management skills are also available. Similar programmes are available in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland.

• Business Link

  Business Link is a government service to help and encourage businesses (both established and start-ups) in the UK. Its Grants and Support Directory lets you search for start-up or business development help. You can search for financial assistance, advice or practical involvement with projects. It also has some general tips to saving money and increasing efficiency.

• Finding funding

  Four free websites, Grantsnet, Grantnet, j4bcommunity and Grantsonline (seven day free trial followed by subscription cost from £25) all give information on funding schemes in the UK for small businesses, community groups or voluntary organisations.

  Greengrantsmachine lists grants to help businesses become more environmental, eg purchase hybrid fleet vehicles, install solar panels, introduce a recycling scheme in the workplace.

  Governmentfunding has a searchable database of government grants for the voluntary and community sector, with downloadable application forms and guidance documents.

• Local council grants

  There may also be grants to help your organisation available from your local council. As councils can offer different funding, search for details on its website or contact them to ask for more information. To find your local council's details enter your postcode in the DirectGov website.

Discuss / Report Successes / Suggest Others
Business Grants