What is a micro business?
A micro business is a small business usually with less than 10 employees. When looking at energy consumption you are usually classed as a micro business if your business energy consumption comes under 100,000kWh of electricity per year or 293,000Kwh for gas.
When you have a small business energy can be priced a little bit differently and you could also receive support to shield you from being overpriced by suppliers as a micro business. It is worth knowing what you are entitled to this, as this will ensure you’re not overpaying for your business energy.
Why being a micro business can help?
Ofgem has tried to make it as simple as possible for micro-businesses to work with energy suppliers for their contracts. This includes ensuring everything is communicated as simplistic as possible. This means energy suppliers must set out energy contracts in plain language to ensure somebody that is not an energy expert would be able to understand. Suppliers must also give micro-businesses as much information as possible about their energy contracts including the contract start and end dates, and they must inform the customer that their contract is going to expire 30 days before the relevant date.
How to prove that you are a micro business?
There are a few ways that you can prove that you are a micro business:
- You could show your energy consumption- if you use up to 100,000Kw of electricity per year or up to 293,000Kw of gas per year then your supplier should recognize you as a small supplier.
- You could also prove you employ fewer than 10 full-time employees, this will also class you as a micro business
- Finally, you could also prove that you earn an annual turnover no greater than £2 Million.
If your business is registered as a micro-business, then your supplier should already adhere to the support you are entitled to. However, if they do not think that you qualify as a micro-business then the above evidence could be used to prove that you are a micro-business.
Business energy contracts for micro-businesses
Ensure to find the cheapest energy contract by being aware of your current energy consumption. By sending regular meter readings to your current energy supplier, you will have a more accurate idea of exactly how much energy is being used so you can find the best contract for your usage.
To make sure you’re getting the most competitive prices for your business energy you should compare prices before you switch. You can do that today with our energy price comparison tool. Ensuring you're finding the cheapest prices can be hard. However, it doesn’t have to be. We can quote you the cheapest price from the best suppliers in the market in just a few minutes.
