Do you own or manage an office-based business? You might work in law, finance, consultancy or other professional services. Whatever your focus, there’s much to consider with running or managing a business. You’ve got to ensure that you’re generating revenue (and profit), keeping your staff happy, keeping your customers satisfied and complying with all relevant laws and policies. It can be a one-way ticket to success with significant earning potential when done right.
Yet there’s so much to manage in an office that some business owners hire managers specifically to deal with all the minutiae of keeping an office running. Part of that detail is ensuring that the printers and scanners function well and that staff use them efficiently. This helpful article will share eight tips for more efficient office printing, so your business can save money, ink and paper. If you’re looking for the best booklet printing online print safari is the right place to be. Read on to discover more.
Invest in the Right Machines
Investing in the best professional office printers is part of ensuring efficient office printing. These are often large, bulky machines that can print and scan rapidly to ensure your business runs smoothly. This type of hardware is your best bet if you have medium to large office premises. You don’t want a small, consumer printer that will take ages to print and consume expensive ink at a rapid rate. Part of a successful business strategy is making sound investments, and a professional printer is just that.
Monitor Printer Resource Consumption
Printers are resource-hungry machines. They consume power, toner and bandwidth if connected to your wifi systems, which they should be for ease of use. All these things cost money or data, and as a savvy business owner, you need to monitor resource consumption across all systems and functions. Keep an eye on how much resources your printer consumes, and if it gets out of hand, you can support your team to modify their printer usage, which our following tips will cover.
Encourage Staff to Go Digital
If you have ongoing projects or work that require lots of documentation, such as reports, summaries, briefing papers or operations manuals, encourage your staff to use digital documents during the project to cut down on printing. They can use their computers or tablet devices to read PDF files just as easily as paper, which will conserve lots of paper and toner, saving the business money.
Preference Black and White
You should tell your staff to use black and white printing as the first option unless they absolutely require colour. You can even set your printers’ to use grayscale as a default, so staff must manually choose the colour option. Colour printing should only be used when necessary, such as when providing a hard copy report to a client or in materials designed to drum up business, such as proposals or bids.
Set Up Pull Printing
Pull printing is when staff must swipe a card or fob against a reader attached to the printer to release their jobs from the print queue. This system tends to make printing more efficient, as staff are less likely to print lots of documents, which means having to swipe for access. This can make staff think twice about printing something as an extra step is involved. It also ensures the confidentiality of documents, as sensitive data isn’t sitting in the print tray, waiting for anyone to read it out of curiosity.
Discourage Personal Printing
Some staff will take advantage of the printing facilities in an office to print personal documents, such as banking statements, applications for products and services or other miscellaneous personal items. This is a waste of company resources and should be actively discouraged. You could create a workplace policy that states that personal printing is prohibited and will result in an official warning if they are discovered doing this. This should discourage the personal usage of your printers and save money.
You Can Save Money on Paper
The type of paper you use can impact your bottom line. Paper isn’t expensive, but this cost can add up quickly for an office that prints a lot. You should find the right balance between affordable paper and quality paper. Some office supplies providers can offer discounts if you buy paper in bulk, alongside other office supplies. This could be an excellent way to save some money and create efficiencies.
Have Your Printer Serviced Regularly
Printers are complex pieces of hardware with lots of moving parts. Like all machines, they require regular maintenance and servicing. Your printer supplier should be able to offer maintenance and repair services should they be required. Keep your printer functioning in top shape by servicing it according to the manufacturer’s recommendations.
A Print Savvy Summary
This helpful article has shared eight tips for more efficient office printing. Implement these strategies to conserve resources, reduce waste and streamline your printing.
