Travel budgets cut but tea and biscuits still on offer

NEARLY 40% of small businesses are planning to cut their budgets for advertising and business travel to help weather the recession, acccording to reasearch.

A recent YouGov survey, commisioned by independent electricity supplier Opus Energy, showed that travel and advertising spend were top of the list for budget cuts for one in five SMEs.

The survey also found that the larger the company, the more likely it is that staff will face cuts to their bonuses.

Indeed, a third (33%) of the largest companies surveyed (employing up to 50 people) said that employee bonuses would be the first area they would rein in.

Interestingly, when asked which areas cutbacks were the least likely during recession, a quarter of small businesses (25%) were adamant they would not
reduce spending on IT.

Employees can also rest assured that day to day staff perks were the second least likely area to face cutbacks during difficult times.

More than 15% of managers vowed not to reduce spending on extras for employees such as biscuits, tea and coffee and entertainment, which can help maintain vital staff morale particularly in a gloomy economic climate.

Andy Nash, operations director at Opus Energy said, “While some value can
be had from trimming excess spending on business travel and advertising
budgets, it is surprising that a review of utility bills does not appear
higher up the list.

“Only 3% of small businesses said they would review their gas or electricity tariffs in order to make business savings. Indeed, Carbon Trust research shows that simply monitoring energy efficiency in the workplace could help companies save more than 12% on their bills.”