6 Critical Things you can do Now to Reduce Print Costs
So now that you have a high-tech/high-speed office printer, the trend these days is to help the environment by printing less. A bit ironic isn’t it? Even in the age of paper conservation, the cost of paper still becomes a concern when you have multiple employees and no printing policy. The more you print, the more you use your printer. The more you use your printer, the sooner you’ll have to make a printer repair.
There are so many ways that paper gets wasted in the modern office, and here’s what you can do about it:
1. Make sure you print what you intend to print
Double-check to see what you’re actually printing. How many times have you printed off a single-page e-mail, only to instead get 5-10 pages and then half of those pages have two lines of text! It’s not always clear what you’re printing. When you press “print,” and the print dialog comes up, double-check to see what you’re actually printing.
2. Consider using PDFs instead
It’s so much more paper efficient (and easier) to do things electronically. You probably own a smartphone and tablet PC, so viewing these documents are quite simple. Use an electronic PDF instead of its paper counterpart and you will actually need far less paper these days.
3. Use double-sided printing when possible
Called “duplex printing,” print on both sides of any piece of paper. You can also make this the default printing setting. You can either do that yourself or have your outsourced IT vendor show you how. Most major office printers have this feature, smaller office printers, may not.
4. Send your invoices and financial statements Electronically
Not only do you save on paper, but you also save on labor costs by not having these documents assembled and mailed. Your customers likely expect electronic delivery anyway.
5. Format documents for more efficient printing
Using a smaller font with a thinner typeface will save you ink as well as decrease the number of pages to be printed. If you can shrink the spacing between lines without sacrificing readability this is good practice. Increasing the width of your margins will save space and paper too.
6. Create a company-wide policy and reinforce desirable behavior
You are the boss so whatever you decide to do to conserve printing and paper, make sure everyone in your organization knows about it. People won’t necessarily change their habits just to save paper and money so you and your staff will have to be militant to make certain your new guidelines are followed. Even better, provide an incentive for reducing paper usage. A friendly competition between departments with the winner being the group that uses the least paper. The reward can be whatever they want, but you get the idea.
Following these tips will help you use less paper and save more money, all the while helping the environment. You’ll also reduce the wear and tear on your printer, an added bonus which results in fewer printer problems later on down the line.
Now go enjoy your newfound savings!
Author Byline
Robert A. Martin is the President of Great Lakes Computer Bob has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Akron. He joined the company in 1995 and has held multiple positions including Large Account Sales, Sales Manager, VP of Operations, and now serves as President. Although he oversees all operations, Bob’s primary focus is in the areas of sales development, strategic direction, government sales and large account management. Bob lives in Avon, Ohio, is married and the father of two, and is an avid outdoorsman. Bob is the author of Great Lakes Tips on Tech Blog
