Jonathan Elliott - Make It Cheaper

It has taken less than two years for Make It Cheaper to establish itself as the UK’s leading price comparison and switching service for small companies looking to reduce their utility bills. For entrepreneur Jonathan Elliott, founder and Managing Director, its leading position has not been affected by the recession.

In fact, the recession provides a perfect storm of market conditions for Make It Cheaper. Not only has the downturn meant that every start-up, small and medium sized company is looking to cut costs, but energy prices have risen faster in the past two years than at any time in the decade since the industry was deregulated.

“It is a real win-win,” says Elliott, pointing out that the internet company saves businesses money and costs them nothing to use.

Make It Cheaper, which was established in 2007 is based in Central London. All the call centre staff are based in the London office rather than being an off-shore centre – something Elliott is proud of. “There are forty-plus people who are passionate about the values of the company and act with integrity,” he says.

The company receives around 2,000 price enquiries a week and arranges around 1,000 new contracts a week. But it has only scratched the surface of the potential market. With around 50,000 customers Elliott points to the 1.8m firms that are classed as small and medium sized businesses.

But even in a tough economy with a cost reduction proposal this is a hard market to penetrate. Entrepreneurs are notoriously difficult to drag away from their day job. “There were times we thought we would not be able to do this,” says Elliott. “It has not been plain sailing to get to where we are. But we always felt in terms of the market there is no one who offers this in the right way.”

Elliott and his team have steered away from cold calling and have instead gone for the personal approach. “It is about working the marketing hard both online and offline, as well as gaining testimonials and getting referrals,” says Elliott.

It is a strategy that has worked, since there is both a high rate of referral and of returning customers. Once customers have used the service they will get a call when they are next able to switch to check whether they are still getting the best deal. Switching energy supplier is an obvious thing to do but SMEs usually need help because, unlike residential customers, businesses are only permitted to switch in very narrow renewal windows dictated by the suppliers.

Elliott saw the potential of an energy switching service for small firms when he was involved in the sale of a company to Uswitch, the domestic utility switching service. During the process Elliott learned about energy companies and the switching market. “I could see no one was doing it for small firms,” he says. “I wanted to be able to offer a small company savings across a range of services,” he says. Cost savings are now offered across a range of products including electricity, gas, insurance and telecoms. The prices Make It Cheaper offers are often better than could be found by going direct to suppliers because of the volume of deals it negotiates. 

And there is more scope to develop the business, using the same revenue model. For example there are peripheral services such as printing, which are a high cost for small firms but there is potential for a larger company like Make It Cheaper to negotiate deals on their behalf. “It is about the noncore procurement that small firms have to go through,” says Elliott.

Make It Cheaper has enough data to build a picture of different types of businesses and their needs. It will enable the company to deliver a bespoke package of savings going forward on all sorts of products and services, from energy to things like salt and pepper shakers for coffee shops. “We have so much data we can paint a picture of what a specific type of company could save over five years. Our goal is to help them save £15,000 over five years,” says Elliott.

Elliott always wanted to run his own business. And like many entrepreneurs he was prepared to put his own money into the company and work for free in the early days. “I put money in – but we were able to trade and grow through cash flow,” he says.  Make It Cheaper's services are free for companies to use because it earns an introductory commission from suppliers once a switch is complete. Once the company was up and running it grew rapidly. “We have more than doubled every year in sales and profit and staff numbers. This shows the proposition is about right,” explains Elliott.

http://www.makeitcheaper.com

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