12 Ways Small Businesses Can Save Energy

By Salman Zafar | February 1, 2023 - 4:48 pm |February 1, 2023 Business, Electricity, Energy Efficiency, Green

Saving money is important for businesses and saving energy is important for all of us – so here is the perfect mix of both and some great tips for small businesses to save on energy. Remember, these are not the only ways you can save on your energy costs. You have to ensure that you are on the best electricity rate plan that is right for your business. Energy comparison sites like Electricityrates.com can help you find the best rates around your area to suit your business needs. All you need to do is enter your ZIP code, and you’ll get a list of electric providers in your area to choose from based on your preferences.

1. Get A Free Energy Audit

A full energy audit helps identify issues that might be causing energy wastage – these include insulation issues and air leaks. Most electricity utility companies offer these audits free of charge. The inspection not only helps you determine how energy is used but also ways to address energy wastage. The audit report will also recommend ways to keep your energy usage on the low, such as investing in energy efficient lighting and equipment.

Inquire with Josco Energy Corporation about a free audit.

2. Invest in Energy-Efficient Office Equipment

Energy efficient (energy-star rated) appliances use up less energy as compared to older non-rated ones. That said, it would be advisable for you to lease/buy energy star rated office electronics. This should help see your energy bills drop significantly, hence substantial cost savings in the long run.

3. Avoid Peak Demand

Peak demand can be defined as the time of the day when there’s a high demand for energy. These are the hours when energy usage is the highest. The typical peak hours start from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Reducing your demand for electricity during these times and only running the factory and heavy equipment early in the morning, and later in the evening can help reduce energy consumption. Reducing your demand for energy during peak hours also means your small business spends less on energy usage at the end of the day. Check here to learn how to start a small business.

4. Use Programmable Thermostats

Smart thermostats make it easy to monitor and control temperatures in the workplace when everyone is in the office (9 – 5), and away. The thermostat can be programmed to turn OFF the heating and cooling appliances during the night, and back ON a few minutes to ‘work hours’. This in return sees you save lots of energy that would have otherwise been wasted had the HVAC systems remained on through the night.

5. Switch Off Lights in Unused Areas

Most offices have an always-on lights setup. This means the lights in all rooms including bathrooms, conference rooms, breakrooms, and even unused corridors. This leads to energy wastage which can be preserved if lights were only turned on when needed. Installing sensors to turn the lights on or off when required could help too.

6. Switch to Energy-Efficient Light Bulbs

Incandescent bulbs use up more energy for the same amount of light when compared to CFLs and LEDs that use just a fraction of it. Switching from incandescent bulbs to CFL or LEDs should help the company use less energy in lighting. This is the simplest and easiest ways to save energy in the workplace.

7. Make Use of Natural Light

Always take advantage of the natural sunlight whenever you can. You can do so by drawing the blinds, curtains, and opening the windows to allow the sunlight in. Be sure to switch off lights in well-lit areas well. Letting the sunlight in also means you get passive heating from the sun, hence no need to have the heaters on. While it may seem like nothing, taking advantage of the natural sunlight should help save the business a few kilowatt hours a day.

8. Run Fans

Have fans installed in showrooms, warehouses, kitchens, and offices alike. The fans will help keep the air moving, hence facilitate optimal air circulation. This means the HVAC system will run more efficiently and smoothly translating to lower energy consumption.

9. Power Down Computers and Other Office Equipment When Not in Use

Having everyone power down their computers at the end of the day should help save lots of energy. You might also want to set the laptops to go to sleep or hibernate if not used for a certain number of minutes or hours. Be sure to turn off and unplug other electronic devices from the mains sockets.

Although modern toasters, coffee makers, printers, and other office appliances have a ‘sleep’ mode when not in use, these continue to draw some current if left plugged. Unplugging these will save some more kilowatts.

10. Avoid ‘Phantom’ Energy

As mentioned earlier, some equipment will continue to draw electricity when plugged in. That said, making it a habit of unplugging such devices or using a power strip on them, can help save some energy. With a power strip, a simple flip of the switch will cut electricity supply to the connected devices.

11. Make Adjustments to the Surrounding Landscape

If you have control over the landscape around, you can then use it to your advantage. Energy-efficient landscaping, such as planting trees strategically to block winds and provide shelter, will go a long way in reducing heating and cooling costs.

Planting more trees and vegetation will go a long way in reducing heat in urban settings.

12. Involve the Employees

Encouraging the employees to take on energy-efficiency practices can help reduce electricity costs and energy wastage too. Train the employees to turn off their computers after work, switch off lights, as well as use energy efficient appliances in the workplace.

Inspiring them to save more energy should work well for the company. You can see more tips and tricks on how to improve employee energy-saving practices here.

How to Give Recognition to Employees

By Salman Zafar | February 22, 2022 - 1:22 pm |June 3, 2022 Business

1 Comment

These days it has become really important to provide recognition to the employees of any organization or company for their hard work, efforts, and contributions. The success and growth of a company highly depend on different factors, such as employee satisfaction, employee morale, employee motivation, employee engagement, etc. And all these factors are heavily reliant on employee recognition.

When an employee gets recognized for their efforts and good performance by the higher-ups of the company, it highly increases their morale. They feel happy and satisfied to work in the company. As the employees feel appreciated and valued if they are provided with the recognition they deserve, it gets them highly engaged with their work and the workplace. As a result, they get highly motivated to keep doing better at their jobs, and bringing in better results for the company. Also, the employee retention rate increases in the company, so it gets to retain the best talents.

If a company invests in providing recognition to its employees and implements a proper employee recognition program, it will get a great return on investment. If the achievements and good work of the employees are acknowledged and recognized, a company can experience a 50% increase in the employee productivity level, and around a 20% increase in the business outcomes. Also, it creates an emotional connection between the employees and the company. All these cater to the massive growth and success of the company. So, it’s really important to give recognition to your employees.

Here are some ways that you can go for to give recognition to your employees–

1. Sending Employee Care Packages

You can make care packages for your employees that will be full of an assortment of things like gift certificates, hand-written notes, beautiful stationeries, wholesome snacks, etc. that will show them that you care. You can provide your employees with these care packages to recognize their good work. If the items of the care packages are selected carefully based on the likings of your employees, it will create a great impact on them. They will feel highly valued and appreciated. It will also get them highly engaged with the workplace.

2. Employee Wellness

One of the most effective ways to provide employees with recognition is to arrange wellness programs for them. If you focus on various aspects of employee wellbeing and make sure that your employees are being able to maintain their good health, it will make them feel highly valued and cared for. Based on a recent survey on workplace wellness, around 70% of the employees think that they need help from their employers to stay healthy. So, it’s important that you arrange special wellness programs for your employees such as yoga classes, exercise sessions, etc. It will help your employees keep healthy, and make them feel highly engaged with the company.

3. Giving Creative Feedback

One of the best and most original forms of recognition is providing employees with thoughtful and positive feedback. It is also a really simple and effective way to make the employees feel highly appreciated. It motivates them to keep doing better in their jobs. Also, it helps them understand what they are doing right, and what they are not. It can help them to do better in their jobs and grow professionally. So, it will increase the employee engagement and satisfaction level by a lot.

4. Spot Bonus

If any of your employees manage to do something praiseworthy, meet a target, complete an important project, or go above and beyond for the company, you can show your appreciation to them immediately with words of praise, and recognize them by sending them a spot bonus through the recognition platform you are using. Spot bonuses are an effective way to encourage collaboration between employees. Also, it motivates the employees to highly to keep doing a great job at the office.

5. Company-Wide Shoutout

One of the best ways to provide recognition to employees is to give them a company-wide shoutout through the employee recognition platform you are using, or through social media. You can acknowledge your employees for their achievements, good work, great performance through heartfelt and nice words, and let everyone in the company know about them. It will make your employees feel highly appreciated and valued.

6. Thank You Notes

Sending personalized and simple thank you notes to employees is one of the simplest and most effective ways to provide recognition to employees. You can easily send a note through email or send them a handwritten note that shows them how grateful you are for their good work and efforts for the company. It doesn’t take much time or effort, but it will make your employees feel highly appreciated. Also, they will feel highly motivated to keep going.

7. Celebrating Work Anniversaries

You can recognize your employees for their special achievements, and great performance. But you can also recognize them by celebrating their work milestones and work anniversaries, which are glorious achievements for any employee. If you celebrate the work anniversaries of your employees in a thoughtful and joyous manner with the other employees of the workplace, it will make them feel highly valued and recognized. You can send them special gifts and heartfelt messages on the occasion of their work anniversaries, which will get them even more engaged with the workplace.

8. Taking Your Employees Out for Lunch

You can take your employees out for lunch, and provide them with their much anticipated one-to-one time with their higher-ups. During lunch, you can give your feedback to your employees, and listen to whatever feedback and suggestions they have for the company. If they have any concerns, you can listen to them. Also, you can make them know how much you appreciate all their hard work and contributions to the company. It will make them feel highly recognized.

9. Sending Gift Cards

You can try sending gift cards to your employees as a token of appreciation for their efforts and good work. You can send them gift cards from their favorite restaurants, fashion houses, or something similar. It will make them really happy, and they will also feel highly valued. This is a great way of providing recognition to your employees.

Final Words

These days nothing is as important as providing recognition to employees in a company for its success and growth. Employees of a company are the foundations and life of a company. You can’t get your desired results without keeping your employees happy and satisfied. You can increase their morale, happiness, and engagement level with the company by recognizing their contributions, good performance, and hard work. If your employees feel valued, appreciated, and engaged, it will motivate them to do better and be more productive. The company will enjoy massive growth and success in return.

How to Treat Employees?

By Salman Zafar | September 14, 2021 - 8:04 pm |January 21, 2022 Business

3 Comments

Any more or less serious business can’t do without employees. And the attitude of the manager directly affects the success of the business.

Ideally, the business owner should not manage himself. This should be done by a hired CEO. In reality, the owner cannot afford to hire a good manager, for the time being, so he has to perform these functions independently.

What trap do aspiring entrepreneurs fall into when they have to manage their first employees?

Into the trap of kindness.

We are all people. And no one wants to be a despot and a Cerberus. Everyone wants to be loved and treated well. The business owner is no exception. A novice owner, when he has the first employees, feels ashamed that people receive a salary, and he makes a profit that is significantly higher than the salary. But there is nothing wrong with this, you can show the employee the best paystub generator free and explain to the smallest detail why he got exactly such a salary. You may not admit it to yourself and deny this fact, but in 99% of cases, everything happens exactly like this. I and my fellow entrepreneurs have also gone through this stage, but the bottom line is that you can’t stay at this stage, you have to develop.

The reality is that until the owner gets rid of this shame, his business is destined to remain small. A small firm with a little more or a little less than ten employees usually have a family atmosphere. Employees are pleased to be there. The relationship between the employees and the owner is friendly. The owner of the company knows everything that happens in the personal life of employees and make efforts to promote employee wellbeing. On the other hand, employees know a lot about the personal life of the boss. Such a small family.

It is very difficult for the owner to destroy such an atmosphere, even when he understands the need for this. In fact, it may not always be necessary to do this. If you don’t have a task to increase the size of your business, then you can leave everything as it is. But if a person wants to earn more money from his business, then it is necessary to decide on radical changes.

The people in your company are mechanisms

In fact, it is necessary to understand one simple truth. I will not be its discoverer, many people write and talk about the same, but for some reason few people get it! The people who work in your business are not really people. They are the mechanisms that you use to achieve your goals. You just need to understand and accept this.

For example, your goal is to go to another country. You understand that it’s a long walk there. You buy a plane ticket and fly there, using the plane and its staff for your own personal purposes. And this does not confuse your subtle mental organization.

If you pay money in the store, then you demand that you are served well. You generally consider yourself entitled to be served well. You use other people for your own interests, always when you pay money. This is the law of life. And there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just the rules of the game. Many people find it difficult to accept even this.

Of course, you need to know the boundaries in everything. If I go to a fast-food store, then I don’t have any special expectations about the service. They will bring food quickly and well. But when I pay normal money in a restaurant, I am very picky about the service.

Well, so, the relationship with employees should be exactly the same. You pay money – you have the right to demand from them the best service for you and your interests. The less you are interested in the personal life of employees, the easier it will be for you to get rid of them. And you will have to get rid of them often.

In fact, the owner takes employees for rent. And pays a monthly rent for it. It is this soulless approach that allows us to achieve efficiency and constant business growth. The main thing is that the owner finally takes off the rose-colored glasses from his eyes and understands what the situation really is.

When I voice my approach, many people tell me that I probably hate people, since I allow myself to talk about hired employees in this way. In fact, I have recently treated people in any way. Neither good nor bad, just nothing. Both good and bad attitudes must be earned. I just soberly assess the situation and I am always on the side of entrepreneurs. Firstly, because I am an entrepreneur myself, and secondly, the state protects employees.

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