Thousands of small business owners around the nation are currently struggling to keep their businesses alive as their energy prices significantly increases. Not to mention, several of them have scaled back and closed out of respect for the Queen’s death. This article will give you an insightful view on what is happening to these businesses, why they are impacted, and what they are able to do.

How are these small businesses being impacted?

There are several reasons as of why these small businesses are being impacted. The major reason as of why these small business owners are terrified is because their energy bills are soaring. In addition, due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the UK economy has significantly slowed down.

On September 6, Prime Minister Liz Truss has announced that there will be a massive aid plan for British businesses due to the soaring energy costs. This will result in a 6 month freeze for businesses and public institutions.


However, due to the Queen’s death, there has been a hold on the £40 billion aid, making these small businesses even more at risk. Businesses around the nation are getting ready to struggle even more as this will severely impact the UK economy in many ways. But this isn’t the first time small businesses were at risk.

What impact does the energy crisis have on these small businesses?


Over the past few months, these businesses were heavily impacted by the energy crisis.
 
Thousands of small businesses are facing a price increase of more than 350%. Data from the Federation of Small Businesses demonstrates that these firms have experienced an increase of 424% rise in their gas costs and 349% increase in their electricity since the beginning of February 2021.

Why are small businesses being affected?


These uncontrollable energy prices all correlate back to the energy crisis that is currently affecting several nations. This energy crisis has been severely affecting individuals, businesses and organisations but most importantly suppliers as well. Numerous suppliers have been going bust throughout the past few months due to the crisis. Overall, they have been struggling to keep up with the increased energy prices.

Overall there have been many factors that have influenced the crisis. These factors include the following:

  • Global demand and shortage of gas
  • Still recovering from the COVID lockdowns
  • Calm weather in the UK has been affecting the wind power production
  • Low provision of natural gas from Russia to Europe

How small businesses should react?


Just like how everyone is trying to recover from the Queen’s death, smaller businesses can find ways to reduce their energy bills and recover from the damage that has been happening.

A few energy saving tips and measures that these small businesses can implement include the following:

  • Turn off any appliance that you are not using – especially overnight, make sure that you turn off any TV, stereo, speaker, computer or more.
  • Keep track of the temperature that you are using throughout the day. We would suggest that you install a cheap smart thermostat.
  • Turn down your thermostat
  • Install a new boiler
  • Use energy efficient light bulbs
  • Fix any hot taps

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