Issue #101 - Ways to save energy and money 💡
ChatGPT vs. DeepSeek | 101 Ways to Save Energy & Money | Location and insurance costs | VoIP vs Landline | How to prepare for an inspection | Facts | Words | Tunes | More
🦾 GO
Chat GPT vs DeepSeek - who cares? 🤷♀️
Welcome to Issue #101 of The Backbone. The free fortnightly newsletter from Bionic
It’s been two years since we first asked ChatGPT to write an intro for The Backbone. And it did alright - you can see for yourself by looking at Issue #52 again.
Back then, ChatGPT was the new(ish) kid on the AI block. It gave many of us our first taste of generative tech. But now there’s a newer kid on the AI block - DeepSeek - and it’s blown things wide open.
Why? DeepSeek can do everything ChatGPT can do but at a fraction of the cost. It’s also more energy-efficient. This is very important when you consider how much energy and water AI tech needs to run. Something we covered in Issue #81.
DeepSeek is also completely open source, which means anyone can take it and build a version to suit their needs. This could take a lot of power away from the tech giants.
Who cares? It’s unlikely that this will impact many of our everyday lives - so far, it’s mainly spooked Silicon Valley and affected the share prices of some of the world’s biggest tech companies.
But DeepSeek has proven that cutting-edge AI models can be developed with relatively limited resources. This disruption is something rarely felt by those tech giants, and the race is now on to produce the definitive generative AI.
And as AI becomes more affordable and more commonplace, this has implications for all of us, whatever industry we work in. This BBC article has a pretty good overview of things, as does this episode of the Trashfuture podcast.
But the big question is, which is best for The Backbone?
We gave both ChatGPT and DeepSeek a similar prompt to the one we used in Issue #52 - Write a 60-word intro for The Backbone, an email newsletter targeted at small business owners in the UK, referencing relevant news from the last fortnight, in an irreverent and chatty style - and here’s what we got back…
ChatGPT
Hey, business warriors! The Financial Reporting Council is sniffing around audit fees, suspecting SMEs are getting fleeced. UK retailers want a tax loophole closed to stop Chinese giants from dodging duties. Meanwhile, Tesco’s rescuing Post Offices, and Scottish rugby stars are tackling the whisky biz. Grab a brew—let’s dive into the latest small biz chaos!
DeepSeek
Hey, small biz hustlers! Rishi’s Spring Budget tossed us a fuel duty freeze (cheers, pal), but energy bills are still sky-high. Inflation’s napping, but wages are snoozing harder. Meanwhile, Pret’s coffee war rages on, and the high street’s still a retail rollercoaster. The Backbone’s here to make sense of the madness—no fluff, just the stuff you need. Let’s go!
If we have to pick a winner, we’d say ChatGPT simply because DeepSeek seems to think it’s still 2022. But given how much we winced while reading both, it’s safe to say we won’t be using AI to write The Backbone anytime soon.
And finally…
By way of a very happy accident, Issue #101 of The Backbone coincides with the launch of our new video series - 101 Ways to Save Business Energy and Money. Check out @bionic_business on TikTok and subscribe to the Bionic YouTube channel for quick and simple ways to cut your energy use and save money.
Oh, and we also drew the winner for our Issue #100 £100 giveaway. The lucky winner has been emailed (look out for an email from thebackbone@bionic.co.uk) and if we get permission, we’ll post a picture of them at their business in the next issue.
🤝 COMMUNITY
Join our community of small business superheroes 🦸♀️
Small business owners are the superheroes of the high street. But small business owners rarely get their voices heard. Now there’s a place where they can chat, share advice and help each other through the lows and highs of running a business. To get involved, scan or click the QR code above or click the button below to sign up.
🗞 READ
🔥 Energy savings tips for small businesses
Whether your business operates with a few staff members from small premises or employs a large workforce across several sites, being mindful of how and when you use gas and electricity is vital when looking for ways to save money on your business energy.
🔒 How location affects the cost of insurance cover
Choosing the right insurance for your business is an important consideration, and one key factor that can influence your insurance costs is your location. Understanding this can help you make more informed decisions about your business insurance.
🌐 VoIP vs Landline - what's best for your business?
If you’ve never heard of VoIP before, it’s simply a way of making voice calls over an internet connection (like when you make a call on WhatsApp). But is this new tech better than your tried and trusted business landline?
Let’s pit VoIP versus landline to work out what’s best for your business.
🤝 How to prepare your business for an inspection
Inspections can make all the difference in avoiding common problems either now or in the future. Read this helpful Bionic guide to find out what a workplace inspection is and why you need one.
🗣 SHOUTOUT
#BionicBusinessStory - 3 businesses, 1 question 🤔
We asked three more business owners about their hopes for 2025. Here’s what they said…
Bionic - What are your aspirations for 2025?
🏃♀️➡️ “As a small gym owner in 2025 with 1,000 members and strong competition, your ambitions and aspirations should be a mix of growth, differentiation, and sustainability. Here’s a roadmap for what you should aim for:
Build a Loyal & Engaged Community - Become the go-to fitness hub where members feel like part of a family, not just another gym. Focus on member experience, not just workouts, social events, and personalised interactions.
Increase Member Retention & Lifetime Value - Keep members for 3+ years instead of losing them to competitors. Offer unique services (nutrition, mental wellness), loyalty programmes, milestone rewards, get feedback and follow up on inactive members.
Differentiate from the Competition - Be known for something unique, have the best training coaches, community, and results.” Mick Povall - Gravity Health and Fitness
☕ “For us as small business owners are ultimate ambition for 2025 and every year is to continue to offer the same amazing service, products that we can be proud of and customers who are happy and enjoy what they receive. We want to continue from previous years that growth trend and development.” Mark Hepworth - The Cap Coffee Roasting Company
🧟 “Our ambition for 2025 is to keep delivering a high-quality experience for customers while remaining affordable. We have not increased our ticket prices for three years and have had to embrace new technologies, including AI, to bring down our running costs. There are things that AI can do which are actually quite difficult for a human operator, so we have not seen a decrease in the quality of our offering; our average customer review score is still 4.9/5 and the frequency of 5* reviews has actually increased since we replaced some of our staff with AI.” Gary Stocker - Screamworks
📊 BUSINESS
Get your business costs sorted 💷
Bionic is the comparison site for your small business. We compare a range of business essentials to help you save time, money, and hassle.
Our tech-enabled team will answer all your questions in simple terms, and help you find the best deal on business energy, insurance, phone, broadband, or finance. No jargon. No-fuss. #BeABionicBusiness 🦾
🎧 LISTEN
Playlist 🎶
For Issue 101 we’re going with Now 100 Hits Forgotten 80s (it’s better than any of the ‘101’ playlists we could find and has 104 songs on it - bonus!). It does what it says on the tin and includes (among other stone-cold 80s gold) Tears for Fears Pale Shelter, Curiosity Killed the Cat Down to Earth, China Crisis Wishful Thinking and The Lotus Eaters The First Picture of You. If any of those songs are on your forgotten 80s list, you’re remembering the wrong parts.
Podcast 🎙
Unlike the playlist, we did get a ‘101’ podcast for issue 101 - 101 Part Time Jobs is a series of conversations of musicians about the many jobs they have taken to ensure that the show can go on - from casual jobs taken between tours to full-time careers that run in tandem with their music. Check out these tales of toil from members of Blossoms, The Wombats, Galliano, Franz Ferdinand, Pixies, Lambrini Girls, Mogwai, and more.
👩🤝👩🏾 SHARE
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🏡 HOUSEKEEPING
Check your folders 📁
If The Backbone isn’t landing in your inbox every other Friday, please mark this address as ‘not spam.’ If it isn’t in your spam folder, it may have been moved to another folder, like ‘Promotions’ or ‘Social’.
🚫 STOP
Thanks for making it to the end of another Bionic small business bulletin 🤝🏻
Carry on the conversation at our Bionic socials 🤳
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