What Any Startup Should Know About Water

by Startacus Admin

Running your own business can be a juggling act at the best of times. When you’re looking after everything from staff to products to workflow, the last thing you’d ever want on your mind is how much water has been used in the last month.

But, as it is an essential part of having a business, having at least a passing knowledge of what water requirements your business has helps, especially when it comes to paying your water bill. A big part of that is lifting the lid and getting to know all the hidden tricks your water meter is trying to tell you.

Thanks to Castle Water, a business water supplier which provides water meter help for businesses of all sizes across the UK, here are some essential tips & warning signs that anyone running their own business should know about when looking at water.

After all, managing your costs when running a startup can be a key way to keep your business afloat...

Your business should be metered to the decimal point

Every single drop of water that comes into (and the waste going out) counts. When launching a startup, especially if it has anything to do with food or textiles, you’ll end up with a huge reliance on extensive water usage. If your business is being billed from an estimated water rate, and not to the exact amount you use, you could see yourself wasting a lot of money on water bills.

How can this be? Let’s imagine there are two identical buildings beside each other. One is a cafe. The other is a restaurant. You know just from that information that both will use water differently. Still, if either is using an estimated rate, charges for things like wastewater may be calculated based on the area and how much surrounding businesses pay.

That’s why you must have a smart water meter installed. It will calculate the water coming in and automatically send data to your supplier. This eliminates the “stab in the dark” approach to billing. Oh, and as a starting point, if you don’t know where in the building your water meter is, find out and check. Make a note of the reading and come back after a few days to keep tabs. A faulty meter could see you paying for water that doesn’t exist.

Your business should be audited

Don’t just have your meter looked at. Get every area of the business which uses water audited. Just like how your fire alarms will need checking once in a while so everyone knows they’re working and everything is above board, chat to the company you pay your water bills to and ask them if they can put you in touch with a local water agent.

These are people who can come in and assess the building from top to bottom, before showing you where they have found internal water problems and places to reduce usage. It could be something as simple as them finding that you are definitely being charged too much for your tariff, to finding hidden leaks which are just slowly (and almost literally) dripping away money into your water bill.

A respected auditor will also advise on ways your business could lower wastewater production when working in an industrial setting.

Your business should have a water plan

If the electricity and lights went out right now, you might have a good idea of what to do so that work can continue, and dependent products aren’t damaged. But would you know what help you need if the water suddenly stopped in the middle of the day?

Many businesses do NOT have a water plan in place. If there’s a burst mains down the street, or the supply is severely limited, your business should be able to phone your supplier and have emergency water delivered in no time at all. Again, this works at all levels, so while an office might need bottled water delivered for staff after the kitchen tap goes, a start-up using water in the manufacturing process will need water delivered by the crate/container.

There you have it. Just some of the ways any start-up can improve how they view and treat water in daily operations.

 

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Published on: 14th September 2020