Saving Money: Cutting printing costs by thousands (1)

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Saving Money Cutting printing costs by thousands
In an ever-challenging, competitive economy such
as ours, optimization and e?ciency are the names
of the game. Managing expenses and avoiding
unnecessary charges are essential to the
short-term sustainability of any
enterprise. One major o?ce expense that often
goes unnoticed is the cost of printing. Estimates
suggest that an average employee prints 1000
pages each year, with nearly a third of those
printing commands entirely avoidable. People
react to the above-mentioned scenario in one of
two ways. Either its ba?ement at the quantity of
paper used, or a dismissive attitude as the cost
of paper alone is not considered a big enough
expense head for a dedicated cost management
commitment. The real cost of excessive printing
paper in the workplace is more concerning than
just the price of a single ream. While the paper
is a major expense in and of itself, the cost of
toners and cartridges in a single year can easily
overshadow that of a new printer. Using cheaper
paper is often a go-to solution for small
companies looking to control expenses, however,
this can damage the life of a printer with
constant jams and streaking lines creating a
negative printing experience. The actual cost
of avoidable printing in the medium to long term
is a substantial overhead part of the income
statement that regularly frustrates even those
businesses with a low printing
requirement. Stuck? Here are a few solutions to
effectively cull costs in the short run
Thoroughly review your printing requirements
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Oftentimes, technology only returns an incomplete
result. We all have created a document, run it
through a word processing spelling and grammar
check, printed it, and submitted it to our line
managers, only to ?nd out that the spelling check
failed to detect a simple mistake. The
embarrassment and frustration at technologys
failure can be mitigated by giving the ?nal
draft a glance for any errors. This way, the
printing costs are bound to come down and more
e?cient utilization of resources is
achievable. Another issue is printing needs
during research. Printing documents directly from
the internet is a common trope in some
research-based sectors, speci?cally in the legal
and education niche. The selection criteria
for printing should remain stringent and only
those sections that are necessary are printed.
In case of help, users may turn to the print
preview function to pick out the sections
required for further consideration. Utilize
Email and Social media tools for updating
customers and stakeholders Many of our printing
needs revolve around the dissemination of
relevant information to third-party
stakeholders. Sending invoices to customers,
quotations to potential business partners, or
simply con?rmation of a draft for a contract
between two corporate entities, the average
company uses a lot of paper and ink to
communicate information which could just as
easily have been transferred via social media or
email. Whenever feasible, it is preferable to
utilize the medium of email to o?cially
share documents and information as it ultimately
helps in restricting the cost associated with
printing and paper. Modern cloud storage like
Google Drive and Dropbox are also a great
alternative for collaboration.
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Gone are the days where individuals completed
their part of a particular project and forwarded
it via print to someone else for
editing/expansion. Team collaboration in the
modern era necessitates the use of collaboration
tools such as cloud-based spreadsheets and word
editing documents. Con?gure Duplex
setting While Technology can be problematic
sometimes, generally it presents unique and
elegant solutions to the problems we face. Most
good-quality printers have the duplex option
inbuilt that allows users to print on both sides
of the paper. This also leads back to the
choice of your paper brand as choosing a low
price brand might end up saving you money in the
short run but it also limits the ability to
utilize duplex printing as the text becomes
illegible courtesy of the lower opacity of the
paper. By using duplex printing, users can cut
down expenses related to printer paper and limit
their ?ling needs Save on high toner
cartridges cost There are quite a few hacks that
can essentially cut down on your printing expense
by quite a substantial amount. Generally,
printing is not limited to only complete
o?ce documents. Oftentimes, we require
approvals of drafts before they can be presented
to the ?nal authority. In these instances,
rough drafts or incomplete documents can be
printed in a black and white-only feature
functionality that allows the user to cut down on
the color expenses.
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It is to be noted that color cartridges cost
almost 50 more than black toners and ink,
leading to potentially substantial savings if
using this strategy. Another easy way to limit
your expenses is to remove any diagrams,
pictures, or infographics while printing draft
documents. Images and tables are ink intensive
and can be a signi?cant contributor to the
monthly toner and cartridge expense. It might
also help to resize documents so that 2-4 pages
occupy a single page. This could further cut
costs and lead to a more organized approach
towards o?ce management.