Office Supplies: Time To Rethink Your Strategy?

Although the UK is officially out of recession, the poor state of the economy in recent years has taken it’s toll on many businesses - especially small businesses without years of financial success behind them. While some have unfortunately ceased trading, there are plenty of small businesses still fighting to survive in the face of adverse economic conditions through rapid cost-cutting.

Cost-cutting is an unfortunate but necessary reality in a weak economy; everyone from the NHS, the Metropolitan Police and big name printer manufacturers such as Kodak and Lexmark are having to implement drastic measures in order to secure the future of their businesses.

However, it’s not always necessary to take the kind of huge, business-altering measures such as job cutting and withdrawing from certain markets. With a few small cuts here and there, businesses can keep themselves afloat without having to compromise too heavily on the way they operate.

One area in which big savings can be made with minimal impact is the office supplies budget. Although it could be argued that with the advent and widespread adoption of digital sharing that offices are printing less than ever, printing costs still eat up a significant chunk of the average office budget. Paper, ink cartridges, printer maintenance...all add up in the long run and may be costing you more than you think.

If you’ve noticed that your printing supplies costs are making up a large proportion of your expenses, then it may be time to rethink your strategy.

Change Your Supplier

Many businesses swear by using supplies manufactured by the same company that constructed their printer. It’s perfectly understandable; they built the hardware, so surely they will understand more than anyone how to get the best quality and value out of it? To an extent, that is true. Unfortunately, OEM supplies also happen to be the most expensive.

By making the switch to remanufactured toner cartridges or compatible ink cartridges, businesses can save themselves a lot of money. Quality needn’t be a concern either; non-OEM cartridges often produce results comparable or even exactly the same as their OEM equivalents.

It’s not just costs that are important to businesses in the 21st century, however. Environmental concerns are also a key consideration, with many offices racing to ‘go green’. An excellent way to do this is to recycle your old office ink cartridges. The prospect of doing this may sound unappealing - lugging a bag of cartridges down to a recycling bin - but in reality, it couldn’t be easier. Cartridge World offers to pick up your old cartridges and deliver you a refreshed set, so you can do your bit for the environment without even having to leave the office!

Educate Your Staff

A great deal of the expenses associated with office printing can be attributed to careless or bad printing practises on the part of your staff. Whether it’s an over-zealous document hoarder who requires absolutely everything in a physical format or the intern that just can’t quite seem to get that word doc properly aligned, there are plenty of potential drains on vital printing resources.

Combat this by educating your staff in good printing practices. Encourage them to only print when it’s completely necessary - if there’s another way they can share information, then encourage your employees to take this route. Similarly, tell your employees to preview all their documents before they hit print. It may take up a little bit more of their time trying to align a certain paragraph perfectly and achieving the optimum print setup, but it’s worth it to save on ink and paper costs.

Business owners can also play their part in altering printing practises. Set your office printers to duplex mode, which makes use of both sides. Limit printing on certain days of the week. Encourage your staff to use their printers at home for non-essential documents that they still want a physical copy of.

By taking some of the steps above, you should find that you end up saving quite a significant amount of money, freeing up funds for other areas of your business. For more information on Cartridge World’s business offerings, take a look at the business direct section of the site.