How To Make Big Savings On Your Printing Supplies

There are certain things that every office needs in order to survive. Staff, computers and office supplies, for example, are just three of the essentials that keep the average workplace ticking over on a day-to-day basis.

However, the recession has dictated that some of these essentials be cut back on. Cases of businesses having to a significant chunk of their staff are well-publicised but there are hundreds of other internal cost-cutting measures taking their toll on businesses throughout the country, such as widespread bans on printing or even asking staff to work from home on a particular day of the week to save on energy costs.

Nevertheless, the news surrounding the economy over the past few weeks has been positive. There seems to be a renewed confidence in the economy and signs that we are finally beginning to recover from the financial crisis. While things aren’t necessarily getting better, they aren’t getting worse either. That can only be good news for small business owners, right?

Well, not exactly. Recent reports have suggested confidence levels amongst small business owners are at their lowest levels since 2008 and for all intents and purposes, it looks like many small businesses are going to have to continue living austere hand-to-mouth existences until things improve.

With so much to potentially cut back on in order to balance the books in these times of economic strife, it can be overwhelming for the person in charge of the purse strings to know where exactly savings can be made without affecting the overall function of the business.

Printing is often one of the first targets when it comes to cost-cutting, which is understandable considering how expensive ink and toner cartridges can be. The costs of cutting out printing entirely, however, can be even harsher than printing at your current rate with productivity potentially taking a massive hit.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t save on your printing costs, however. Here are a few budget-friendly printing practices you can implement in your workplace.

Change Your Supplier

Old habits die hard and falling into a routine of relying on the same supplier for years is one that arguably dies the hardest. This is particularly prevalent when it comes to office printing supplies, with businesses relying solely on supplies made by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) largely in the belief that they are the best quality.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the most cost-effective method of keeping your office printer stocked up. As an alternative, consider switching to compatible ink cartridges or remanufactured toner cartridges; they’re usually a fraction of the cost and produce prints of a comparable quality.

Consider the Environment

The environment probably isn’t primary to your concerns when trying to trim excess from the annual budget but making your business more environmentally-friendly can actually help to cut costs.

For example, by having your old ink cartridges refilled rather than purchasing new ones you are not only halting the flow of non-biodegradable cartridges to the landfill, but you are also cutting your own costs by not paying full-whack for new cartridges.

You can make similar savings by limiting your use of paper. A wallet and environmentally-friendly way to do this is to set all of your printers to duplex mode. In duplex mode, your printer will print on both sides of a sheet of paper, allowing you to print just as much with half the paper consumption.

Educate your Employees

Bad printing practices can cost your business thousands without you even realising it. You’d be surprised how soon the odd unnecessary print-out here and occasional misprint there can surmount to budget-worrying figures.

To combat these sorts of mistakes, take the time to educate your employees on the best printing practices. Encourage them to seek methods other than printing to share documents (especially internal memos). Teach them how to switch to draft mode for internal documents where presentation isn’t a key consideration. Most importantly of all, make sure that your staff are checking their documents before they hit print - misprints are a serious drain on printing supplies!

Changing the way your office approaches printing isn’t difficult and can potentially save you hundreds of pounds every year. For more information on Cartridge World’s business direct service, visit the Business Direct section of this site.