It’s no secret that bills and costs for the general public and businesses have been going through the roof in recent months.
These increases pose a serious threat to small businesses that are desperately trying to grow or just keep their head above water.
With no end to the rising costs in sight, small business owners need to take a proactive approach to fight the rising costs, and that’s what we wanted to talk about in this article.
Where are costs rising?
Energy Bills
Due to the current energy crisis, energy bills are on the rise and are forecast to increase even further throughout the year.
These growing bills aren’t just being felt by the public, they’re seriously impacting businesses too.
For businesses, energy bills represent a significant proportion of their total running costs, with nearly two-thirds of companies spending between 5% and 20% of their total costs on energy in the UK.
With these costs rising drastically, it’s going to put more pressure on businesses and will make it harder to maintain a steady profit and grow.
Small businesses in particular will be feeling the impact. With tighter budgets and lower cash flows, many small businesses are having to up their prices to cover the rising energy costs, which could affect their customer retention and loyalty.
In a recent survey of more than 1,000 businesses, 62% looked toward gas and electricity bills as their main source of pressure on them to raise prices.
It doesn’t end there either; small businesses that are upping their prices could then be at a further disadvantage to larger competitors that aren’t as affected by the energy crisis and can maintain their current prices.
Logistics
The cost of transporting goods has been rising at an unprecedented rate in recent months.
With the rising costs of fuel, impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit, as well as other supply chain pressures, a lot of shipping providers have been putting their prices up to cover their growing costs of transporting goods in the UK and internationally.
A survey by the freight trade association found that 71% of respondents had reported an escalation in the cost of transporting goods during Q1 2022.
A lot of industries will be feeling the impact of the rising shipping costs and it doesn’t look to be getting better anytime soon.
Whether your business ships products domestically through a courier or internationally through a freight carrier, rising costs are likely to put a further strain on your business and your bottom line.
Wages
With the cost of living going up drastically, more and more people are struggling to cover growing energy, food, and fuel costs.
Over the past couple of months, a lot of businesses have given their employees pay rises across the board to help them deal with the cost of living crisis.
While this is a great gesture from these businesses and shows they’re looking after their staff, it’s also going to mean their monthly wage overheads will go up by tens of thousands of pounds.
For SMEs, especially those of you still recovering from the damage caused by COVID-19, this additional increase could put even more pressure on your business and your ability to grow.
Procurement
For some manufacturers, certain materials are becoming more difficult and expensive to get hold of.
With the effects of the pandemic still being felt and seen in many manufacturing spaces, like the circuit board shortages, for example, procurement for technology and vehicle manufacturers has become more complicated and expensive.
But it’s not just the pandemic causing issues, the current conflict in Ukraine is also putting pressure on global supply chains, with Russia and Ukraine both being large exporters of Copper, Nickel, and other commodities. For example, both countries account for around 29% of the world’s wheat export market.
With shortages and cost increases causing issues in various supply chains and markets, manufacturers are having to put their costs up to cover their growing procurement costs.
This, in turn, puts additional pressure on retailers, distributors, and resellers that acquire products directly from these manufacturers.
How can telemarketing help?
To cover the sky-rocketing costs, you need to make sure you’re bringing in more revenue to bolster your bottom line and maintain a steady profit.
To do so, you need to take a proactive approach to engage your prospects and start more conversations with decision-makers.
One of the fastest ways to do this is by picking up the phone!
Telemarketing is great for getting hold of decision-makers quickly and generating immediate opportunities and ROI.
If your business offers a product or service that is designed to save businesses money or help them make more, now is the perfect time to take a direct outreach approach while your target customers are looking to cut costs and increase their revenue.
Telemarketing isn’t the only solution mind you; email marketing, events, and paid social/search can all help you bring in new business, but some of them take longer to gain traction or get set up.
In the current economic climate, waiting months to see any sort of ROI just isn’t an option, which is why a well-managed and executed telemarketing campaign could be just what your business needs!
How we can support your business
At River, many of our recent clients have turned to us for help in generating qualified opportunities and supporting their business growth to fight the growing costs.
If you’re wanting to explore your options of lead generation and appointment setting, or if you’d just like to learn more about how telemarketing could help, fill in our contact form to get a call back from a member of our team!