The Framers Forum

Today I am changing to a new telecoms provider which saves my some money, but at the same time I am getting rid of the broadband connection to my shop and connecting to the router in my flat next door.

The saving on the broadband costs alone is almost £300 per year.

I will also be making further savings next month when I change to a different electricity supplier.

Has anyone discovered other ways of reducing the costs of being in business?

I saved £500 on my insurance two years ago. Buying glass backing board and mount board in bulk save me about 30-40% a year which is adds up to quite a lot over the year. But I think having a good accountant who knows how to mitigate your tax is very important especially in the early years when perhaps you are not a limited company, becoming limited does save money in tax.

I have just changed electricity suppliers and saved a bundle.

Insurance renewal has just dropped through the door today will be inviting other company's to quote.

I have hardly advertised in the last year and not noticed the difference and I think this is because so many people just switch on the computer anf google what they are looking for. I don't think you even need a very sophisticated website. Three or four pages telling what you do where you etc. are will be enough to bring enquiries in.

Always worth asking suppliers if they can do a better price especially if you are loyal to them.

I already buy my glass 30 sheets at a time and eventually I will extend my glass rack to hold even more. It's a huge saving over the smaller quantity prices.

I'm in the process of phasing out most of my remaining stock of self adhesive brown paper tapes for sealing the back of frames and returning to buying 90 gsm 75mm wide heavy duty gummed paper tape. The saving is massive! Unfortunately gummed paper tape does not stick well to most polymer mouldings, so I will still keep some self adhesive tape for use with polymer mouldings.

Like J2M, I don't advertise. I haven't advertised for years, as I simply don't need to do so!

I have already initiated the process of changing my electricity supplier and the change over will be mid July. Again this will be a significant cost saving.

BTW, this post is my first posting over the wireless link to the router in my flat next door. This means that I now only pay for one broadband account, where as it previously was two.

I am saving about a tenner a month by having a mobile card machine as opposed to a fixed landline connection. We dont bother with a land line as all business is conducted via the blackberry, calls, text and email.

As I own the premises, most of my fixed overheads are covered by the other tenants within the building.
My business model when I started had two artist studios within our premises who would pay a reasonable rent on a license arrangement as opposed to a tenancy agreement (easy come easy go ) which was beneficial should I find the need to expand in the future.
The rents pay for the gas, electric and a fair proportion of the insurance which is very helpful and also provides a steady flow of framing work from the artists!

Just a query on your bulk buying Alistair, do you purchase your mountcard etc, direct from the manufacturer or the wholesaler?

The flat rate VAT scheme, if you fall into the right turnover bracket like us then its good. Saves me around £300 per quarter and saves time too.

blokman wrote:Just a query on your bulk buying Alistair, do you purchase your mountcard etc, direct from the manufacturer or the wholesaler?

I buy from arqadia I buy a palette at a time so I only have the one colour in 2 thicknesses. They will supply 25 sheet packs cheaper and if you buy a mix of 125 sheets you should attract some serious discount so you would be able to stock up on quite a few colours and get it cheaper. I save about 35% by buying a palette.

Glass I buy by the palette as well which again means I pay £2.75 a sheet, however some wholesellers have been having glass wars in certain areas and you may well pay not much more for just buying 10-20 sheets, but only if there is a price war.

Bulk buying is great until you need the money tied up for something else, or extra space for it.

You can instead try to be lean and get stock just as you need it.

In reality the cost of mountboard etc. is not a huge factor until you get into big volumes on price sensitive jobs. Also a little and often means you can often get free carriage - a lot now and then and very little in bursts can result in higher delivery costs. If you have the same annual spend you can often get a similar discount too. Wholesalers would often prefer you did this than come along and buy up all their stock suddenly - they want to keep all their customers happy.

The flipside is you don't want to stock so little you spend all your time placing orders. That's why slowly I'm increasing stock - I have some spare space and it makes things easier to manage.

Keep your costs down where sensible but the greater effort needs to go into keeping or improving sales at a good price, and efficiency. I try not to stress about overheads too much once committed. Sometimes savings are only temporary, or because you got a 3 year deal, by which time the goalposts can have moved.

I used to have massive stocks of almost everything and therefore I have tried to live of my stock as the recession has gone on.

While this has helped me a lot, I have come to realise that having a lot of stock does not neccessarily help in a recession. Stock is definately no substute for hard cash!

We always shop around for utilities. Three different suppliers in 3 years for electricity. We haven't moved the phones yet becuause there is the possiblity of fibre in the next few months and we want that.

Shopping around for insurance, utilities and most other stuff seems to be a way of life and I always get a good chunk off. I have no idea why these companies don't try to retain their clients, but I have a good collection of meercats

Advertising we do a lot of and I am wondering about the value of Yell for what we pay. Stock is a bug bear but we need decent stocks to cater for "urgent" jobs so I put up with it, although I am trying to reduce it.

Not your average framer wrote:I used to have massive stocks of almost everything and therefore I have tried to live of my stock as the recession has gone on.

While this has helped me a lot, I have come to realise that having a lot of stock does not neccessarily help in a recession. Stock is definately no substute for hard cash!

One of the reasons we specialise in medals is less stock - only inner and outer mouldings (one of ech) plus the space needed . Think we have become like henry ford - any colour you want as long as its black (ok i know its not a colour) but our medal frames are all the same two mouldings and i can short interval purchase. There are backup alts in case of OOS but never needed them. Medals are ok as stock as they seem to rapidly rise in value !! and don't take up a lot of space only need to keep an eye on the insurance value.

Er, I switched from beer to shandy....at home.
Makes the beer last twice as long.

Sacrilege, almost as bad as adding ice to malt whiskey.

Also tastes like Sh*t IMHO

Never tasted sh*t myself however as a gout sufferer its that or nothing and it does seem to lessen the attacks.
Oh how I miss that ale.

Graysalchemy wrote:Sacrilege, almost as bad as adding ice to malt whiskey.

Also tastes like Sh*t IMHO

I brew my own and drink more complex flavoured ales which means I sup rather than neck so I to drink less.

Nice, perhaps if I ever do become gout free I'll start brewing too.
If there are any other gout sufferers out there I find cherry active capsules a great way to detoxify and remove all the excess uric acid.

And the shandy was only with a Budweiser for the puratins. Stella Artois also seems to be one beer I can handle without the need of lemonade dilution, however it does have a certain side effect.

Graysalchemy wrote:I brew my own and drink more complex flavoured ales which means I sup rather than neck so I to drink less.

Stella is not called "wife beater" for nothing. I thought it was a load of B******** until I spoke with a very experienced barmaid and she told me that it is true that Stella does have extremely negative effects I can't drink lager anymore and have to drink pale ale now, which is great. Marstons do a good one... as far as I can remember

Hmm, that would explain a lot.

Before I used to drink Stella to relax, now I just go for a run

misterdiy wrote:Stella is not called "wife beater" for nothing. I thought it was a load of B******** until I spoke with a very experienced barmaid and she told me that it is true that Stella does have extremely negative effects I can't drink lager anymore and have to drink pale ale now, which is great. Marstons do a good one... as far as I can remember

Stella in the UK is certainly not as strong as it used to be or its french counterpart. There is also nothing in it any different to any other lager.

Incidently hops in beer have the effect of inducing drowsiness unlike the multitude of herbs used prior to the 15 centuary when afrodisiacs hallucigens and poisons was the norm. Hops also have a precursor to the female hormone estrogen which is the cause of drinkers droop .

More worrying is effects on Gynecomastia or Man Boobs to you and me. So be warned. However if you are drinking the likes of Fosters John Smiths or Carling the effect is likely to be minimal due to the lack of hops in the beer but if you like your American pale ales or are a fan of Brewdogs hoppy concoctions be warned.