1. steps to smartersteps to smarter
Modern business techniques that can
reduce costs and increase profits
Modern business techniques that can
reduce costs and increase profits
66
BUSINESSBUSINESS

2. Introduction
In modern, post-recession Britain, business has changed. The traditional processes, procedures
and operations have gone from being a mainstay for businesses, to a hindrance. Forward-
thinking, innovative businesses looking to grow and succeed today have to shake off the habits
of old and adopt a smarter approach to working.
From technological and collaborative solutions, to innovative staffing and reduced bureaucracy,
there are new ways of doing things to achieve success in the marketplace. By working smarter,
it’s possible to convert more of your revenue into profits; it’s not about cutting back on the
essentials or working 20 hour days to keep costs low either. Utilising the products/solutions and
techniques that help to streamline processes, keeps the menial tasks manageable, and frees up
resources to invest in business growth.
You may be using one or two smarter business solutions in your company already, but to
ensure you are aware of the most lucrative opportunities we’ve created this handy guide book.
Read on to find out more about what we consider to be the top six smarter business solutions
to help you reduce your outgoings and increase your business growth.

3. active registered
companies in the UK
in September 2014
There were
– companieshouse.gov
3,087,3313,087,331

4. Step 1:
Don’t beta ‘bout the bush
Businesses need to grow and expand to survive. Very few businesses survive on just one product or
one offering, so there’s an ever-growing need to continue providing new products/services. In times
gone by, this would have involved in-house research, testing and development, followed by further
development and further testing. However, the marketplaces of today are crowded and fast-moving,
meaning if there is an opportunity to cut the time it takes to get the product to market, then it should
be utilised. This solution is beta testing.
Beta testing is the last stage of testing and ultimately involves releasing the product into the open
market to gain real-world exposure and valuable feedback. This feedback can then be used to update
the product using additional versions as the business evolves.
The key benefits to the beta testing approach are cost-effective data gathering on products (compared
to other tactics), the involvement of the market at a critical stage in the process, and of course real
feedback from real customers.
In addition to these benefits, beta testing is also an excellent opportunity to show goodwill towards
customers and illustrate the value of their input. By providing customers with beta test versions of
products, it’s possible to evolve the customer relationship along with the product. The harmony beta
testing provides is ensuring products are developed that customers want to buy. The outcome is
increased sales, revenue and profit.
Implementing beta testing will cut costs, provide vital consumer information and help to build lasting
relationships with customers. And, of course, it’ll enable you to get your product to market sooner
rather later. In the busy marketplace it’s important to get products to buyers at the earliest opportunity,
and beta testing provides that opportunity in an effective and efficient way.

5. £87It now costs an average of £87 per square foot
including rent, service charges and property taxes
of office space in Londonof office space in London
that’s the same as
paying £87 for a space
the size of a standard
medium pizza
30cm
30cm

6. Step 2:
Build a foundation of collaboration
When businesses grow, most fall into the trappings of the corporate world and begin investing in assets
such as more office space, staff and vehicles. This investment of revenue back into the business is
a common-sense approach, but does it result in the maximum profit? What if there was another way?
What if there was a way that business growth didn’t result in growing overheads and costs?
The statistic to the left perfectly illustrates just how expensive it can be to invest in office space, especially
in London. When it costs £87 per square foot, you need to be generating a huge amount of revenue in
order to create a healthy profit margin. Thankfully though, collaborative solutions are the saving grace
of the modern business. Using shared office space is an ideal way to cut expenses and administrative
complexity. Plus, this flexibility means your business is immediately scalable as and when is needed.
The average annual cost of British road tax is £225 per car – webuyanycar.com
A large cost for organisations is vehicles. Whether you need cars to get to meetings, or vans to make
deliveries, each one of these assets requires fuel, insurance and Congestion Charge (for London).
And this doesn’t even take into account the cost of parking spaces in cities. In a previous study we
found that company-owned vehicles sit idle for 63% of business hours each week.
So what if you’re one of these businesses that uses their vehicles infrequently? Well, industry-leading
car rental organisations can provide competitive rates, locally-parked vehicles (cars and vans), and also
cover insurance, fuel and the Congestion Charge. Using these services on a pay-as-you-go basis means
you dramatically reduce your overheads, but more importantly, only pay for your vehicle when you are
using it.
Collaborative working solutions give businesses the chance to cut their costs and increase their profit
margins. And this isn’t just for trendy tech-based start-ups; this is for everyone. Whether you are an SME
or enterprise, don’t get tied down with assets that could be sourced more flexibly and cheaper elsewhere.

7. to provide candidates
20%to
25%
When recruiting a staff
member for a £20,000+ role,
recruitment agencies
will likely charge
– Hunt4Staff
(i.e.£4,000 upwards!)

8. Step 3:
Innovative staffing
The cost of recruiting a member of staff in today’s corporate world is astounding. The initial
recruitment charges don’t even take into account the time you’ll have to dedicate to training the new
staff member, or the 18 months it’ll take before they reach full productivity. The truth is that almost all
businesses in Britain could do with cutting these costs.
Thankfully, there is a solution. By operating your businesses using these smart business steps and
creating a flexible, dynamic and bureaucracy-free environment, highly talented people will actively
seek out your company. The innovative approach to the modern corporate world and the priority
placed on creativity and business growth means that people with similar philosophies will be attracted.
66% of employees base their decision to stay at a company partly on the incentive programs
offered - intelispend.com
Once you have staff in place, use open communications, a clear progressions path and continuous
training to help develop them professionally and retain their skills. Word will soon get around about
your contemporary approach to business and your attitude towards staffing and recruitment.
To help spread the word further about your company and the roles you require, use social media to
post to relevant groups, forums and chat rooms. Be sure to connect with people within your industry
and also join the groups they are members of.
By carrying out this step it’s possible to cut recruitment costs from thousands of pounds to potentially
zero. Therefore meaning that the saved funds can be reinvested back into the business to fund more
products/services or simply just increase the bottom line profit.

9. report they are using some
type of cloud application,
(up from 48% at the beginning of the year and 28% a year ago)
In a survey of 323 SMBs
62%
- Forbes

10. Step 4:
Tech’s appeal
The technology market is changing and advancing faster than almost every other. This year has seen
the rise of wearable tech such as glasses and smart watches; and the innovations are set to continue.
Scientists have recently discovered that by filling computer hard drives with helium instead of air, they
can increase the number of disks inside, therefore increasing storage by 50%. More importantly however,
is that along with more data storage, the new hard drives will also be 23% more power efficient. So, not
only are you saving on space but you’re also saving on your energy bills.
The point here is that technological solutions, although intimidating to some, can provide fantastic
opportunities to streamline your company’s processes and costs – regardless of whether it’s a start-up
or enterprise-sized.
A trend that has been gathering pace for the past few years is Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) where
employees are able to use their own mobile devices such as laptops, mobile phones and tablets to
carry out their role. The benefits include staff using devices they know and like, employees able to
work from anywhere in the world (not just in the office), as well as reduced the need for computer
assets on the company books.
Camden Council has increased its bring-your-own-device (BYOD) scheme by 240% over the last
three years - Computerweekly
An enabling factor in the BYOD movement is another technological wonder… cloud storage. By saving
documents and data in the cloud, they can be accessed securely by designated people anywhere
around the globe (as long as there’s internet). This solution, of course, means reduced need for on-
premise storage and the associated costs.
Simply by investing in technology like the cloud (or helium hard drives in future) it’s possible to work
more efficiently with less space, less costs and less of an impact on the environment.

11. Britain is expectedBritain is expected
– The Guardian
thisyearamong the G7 nations thisyear
to be the fastest-growing economy

12. Step 5:
Box-tickers beware
Post-recession Britain is growing rapidly and the economic improvements are expected to continue. The
result is that consumers will have more to spend, businesses will be generating more revenue, and will
therefore have more products/services to take to market. One key hurdle that can prevent a business from
utilising this economic improvement though is box-tickers.
These ‘traditionalists’ like to rely on old practices, and make sure all the boxes have been ticked before a
business reacts to a market trend. Ultimately, they represent a corporate structure that spends endless
time in meetings, and in the end, misses opportunities again and again. Averse to risk-taking, this type of
organisation is likely to find it difficult to impact the marketplace in contemporary Britain.
Bain & Company studied a sample of big firms, finding that their managers spent 15% of their time
in meetings. The higher up you go, the worse it is. Senior executives spend two full days a week in
meetings with three or more colleagues.
Regardless of size, organisations need to be adopting an agile and bureaucracy-free attitude to business.
Those who react quickest to market trends/patterns and get their product into the marketplace fastest are
likely to make the biggest impact and generate the greatest revenue. Those who get tied up in traditional
box ticking will be unlikely to achieve a similar result.
Entrepreneurial spirit from the top down is the organisational structure that modern businesses should be
looking to attain. Educate and inform the box-tickers on the contemporary approach, and also its inherent
benefits. With management buy-in and the desire to be an industry-leader, a business can give itself an
excellent chance of success (along with enviable profits).

13. New statistics have revealed...
is being raised via crowdfunding in the UK
-Mondovisione
more than per
hour£1,700£1,700

14. Step 6:
Keep your eyes on the prize
Never rest on your laurels. With the achievement of business growth and profits comes the risk of
complacency and reduced forward-thinking. Ensure you continue to use the previous five steps mentioned
in this guide, along with an ever-vigilant approach to new solutions, better staff, improved processes and
innovative technologies. Only by staying laser-focused on the future will you be able to maintain a strong
position within the industry and remain competitive.
With the high-speed rail links due to be connecting far-reaching parts of the country in the not-too-distant
future, be aware of the rise of super cities like London, Liverpool, Brighton, Birmingham and Manchester.
As travel to these places becomes more convenient and less time-consuming, businesses will find it easier
to operate there – generating new markets and uncovering untapped revenue sources.
As mobile business becomes the norm, more organisations will begin optimising their sites and creating
mobile apps. With the global markets connected via the internet, apps can automatically become doorways
to new continents, countries, markets and revenue. With very little adaptation, a small business operating in
a shared office space in London can be trading online with customers in Asia or the United States.
For businesses that require funding in order to take their business growth to the next level, traditional
lenders such as banks may have been the traditional go-to move. However, as the statistic to the left
shows, many forward-thinking organisations have utilised alternative approaches such as crowdfunding.
This process of asking for contributions from people who are interested or emotionally invested in your
product is a great way to generate funds without the banks’ involvement.
These are just a few observations and solutions that could have an impact on UK businesses in future, so
by preparing for them or utilising them, it’s possible to position a business for success. Put simply, forward-
thinking, agile decision-making and an entrepreneurial spirit is the key to business success.

15. Conclusion
And there you have it. Six steps to achieving business growth and larger profits in modern Britain. Put
simply, these steps are ways to cut costs, spend budgets more cost-effectively, and ultimately increase
profit margins.
The steps in this guide can be implemented by any size of business and begin to affect the company’s
bottom line rather quickly. However, it’s the attitude adjustments that will require the greatest effort.
Following the economic downturn, many organisations became overzealous about protecting their budgets
and reducing their spending. The result was that traditional box-ticking practices became required for
almost all corporate decisions (spending or otherwise). This lack of agility and slow response times hindered
the growth of many businesses when the markets recovered.
However, that no longer has to be the case. By adopting an entrepreneurial spirit throughout the
organisation from the C-suite or managing director down, it’s possible to escape the traditional approach
and become an industry-leader. With the new flexibility and cost-effective solutions, overheads will go down,
revenue will go up and profit margins will increase – and this is smarter business.

16. To find out more
about working
smarter and
collaborative
vehicle rental...
or email:
francesca.paradise@zipcaruk.com
speak to one of our
experts on:
0845 226 3108