Of all the overheads to creep up on companies, print costs are often the priciest.
From buying paper and replenishing ink to running the machine itself, companies of all shapes and sizes – including business centres, workspace clients and startups – shell out a small fortune in printing costs year in, year out.
If you’re often taken aback by the price of printing, or if you’re looking to improve the efficiency of your business centre printing service, here are 8 simple steps to help reduce your office printing costs. You may also want to share some of these tips with your clients.
1. Use Duplex Printing
For those not familiar with duplex printing, the premise is simple: instead of printing on one side of a page, you print on two. In days gone by, duplex printing was a pain to set up, as paper had to be manually swapped and re-inserted into the machine. Now however, most modern business printers feature duplex functionality, making it easy to save money and do your bit for the environment in the process.
2. Rethink Your Font
When flicking through fonts, you’re probably not making your choice based on what’s the cheapest option. But your favourite font could be costing you a fortune in additional print costs. Why? Heavy, chunky fonts require more ink to reproduce – thus costing you more long-term. If you’re really scrimping and saving, try a different font such as Century Gothic, or try the innovative EcoFont program – it puts tiny holes in typefaces, so that when you print, you use less ink.
3. Don’t Outsource – Invest!
Many customer-facing brands rely on professional print services to produce high-quality marketing materials, but naturally, this often costs the earth. Invest in a top of the range printer however, and you can produce your own brochures, flyers and posters for a fraction of the cost. Sure, a high-performance machine could cost a pretty penny initially, but it will prove a worthwhile investment long-term.
4. Encourage a Digital-Only Office
Heard of the cloud? Today, cloud technology is making waves in the business world; enabling colleagues to share all manner of admin, documents and other business paraphernalia via wireless-enabled devices. What does that mean for your business? It means you can save a fortune on printing costs by stepping closer to the paperless office and adopting a digital-only workplace – good, eh?
5. Switch to Third-Party Cartridges
A vast majority of consumers believe OEM (original equipment manufacturer) ink and toner cartridges are the only compatible option for their machine – but they’re wrong. There exists a third-party cartridge for literally every printer brand and model, many of which can be purchased for a fraction of the cost of an OEM equivalent from sites like Printhead.
6. Make More Room with Margins
Take a look at your most recent Word document – what do you see? White space, that’s what. Word documents are notorious for the amount of white – and entirely usable – space they leave on a page. So the next time you’re writing or editing a document, adjust the margins to fit more words on a page. Without detracting from the look of the document, this trick can help you save paper, which will in turn help you save cash.
7. Keep it Clean
Like any well-used machine, printers need regular maintenance to ensure they’re working at their best. Whilst cleaning your printer frequently will prevent blotches and imperfections ruining perfectly decent paper, it’ll also guarantee printer efficiency. Clogged print-heads or poor cartridge movement could lead to ink wastage, which means more trips to the shop for new ink and more money down the drain.
Take a look at this guide to cleaning a laser printer – and here’s a guide to cleaning an inkjet printer.
8. Use an Energy Efficient Printer
If your workhorse printer is looking a little tired, give it an early retirement and replace it with a high-performance, more eco-friendly machine. Modern printers are fitted with no-end of gadgetry to help them become more energy-efficient – which will not only save the environment, but your wallet too. When deciding on a new office printer, opt for one that’s emblazoned with the Energy Star logo.
