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Office Supplies & Equipment
Remanufactured printer cartridges.
Printer cartridges consume a significant portion of your office
supplies budget. Printers are designed to use ink –
manufacturers make higher margins on cartridges than the machines.
Remanufactured cartridges are manufactured to much tougher
standards than five or ten years ago. They are a great way
to save money.
Buy private label / store brand.
You can save 10-40% on office supplies by purchasing the private
label (a.k.a. store brand) options. The same company that
makes the branded products often manufactures these private
label versions. With their name on the product, retail giants
can’t sacrifice quality.
Choose suppliers wisely.
Buy from large discount office supply companies who can buy
in volume from manufacturers, allowing them to lower their
prices. All of the most widely used office supplies go on
sale. Buy in bulk if you can.
Reuse supplies. Don’t
toss out used binders, hanging folders, and file folders.
Recycle them.
Saving Energy
Turn off computers and printers.
Approximately 40-50% of all electricity used by electronic
devices is consumed when they’re not being used.
Energy saving power strips.
Purchase power strips that shut down when not in use.
Motion detector light switches.
Put motion detector light switches in rest rooms, closets,
copier rooms, and other rooms that get infrequent use.
Sleeping machines. Make
sure that you buy or lease copiers, printers, and computers
that go to sleep when not used for an extended period of time.
Use blinds on windows.
The sun generates a lot of heat. This is great in the winter
but bad in the summer. Open and close blinds to help control
your heating and cooling costs.
Temperature settings.
Turn down the temperature a few degrees in the winter and
up a few degrees in the summer. Employees will understand
in tough times.
Travel
Video or phone conferences.
Don’t travel if you can accomplish what you need to
get done over the phone or via video. Technology makes this
more economically feasible than ever before. The Internet
makes affordable communication possible.
Discount travel sites.
Use online discount travel sites rather than full service
travel agencies or even corporate travel accounts. I heard
of a person paying over $130 per day for a mid size car in
New York for a last minute trip. That same car would be a
fraction of that through www.priceline.com. You can get the
best deal the closer you get to your travel date.
Use public transportation.
Check out public transportation for your travel city. You
may find that you can get to your hotel or meeting place without
a rental car or taxi. I was able to get from the airport to
my hotel in Baltimore for $1.60 on the Metro.
Use hotel shuttles. You
can also get by in many places by using the hotel shuttle
from the airport.
Use taxicabs. This one
may sound odd as a money saver, but it makes sense when used
with some of the above options. It can be cheaper to use a
taxi once you get to your hotel than a rental car. Many hotels
will gouge you with parking fees to park your rental car.
Technology
Share printers and copiers.
Reduce the number of printers and copiers in your office.
If many of your machines spend most of the day idle, you probably
have more capacity than you need.
Lower phone costs. The
Internet provides lower cost options for phone service than
your local carrier. Companies like Vonage, Skype, and magicJack
provide cheap local and long distance service.
Internet faxing. Instead
of faxing over traditional fax machines, save money by faxing
over the Internet. Save the cost of toner, paper, and the
machine. Its simple – it works like email. Check out
www.myfax.com
VoIP options. Voice
Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gives small businesses great
phone options. You can get the big company phone system capabilities
on a small company budget from a wide variety of VoIP based
suppliers.
Low cost ISP’s.
Shop around for better deals on ISP’s. There are many
upstarts around that may meet your businesses needs for a
fraction of the cost.
Free software. Check
out Internet sites like www.download.com or Google for all
kinds of free software options. These can be a good choice
if your functionality needs are limited.
Employees
Four day work week.
Working four ten-hour days instead of five eight-hour days
can reduce expenses. Employees may also be more productive
and refreshed after three-day weekends. Employees may see
this as a perk, helping retention, which will be a necessary
focus again after the economy rebounds.
Outsource jobs. You
can reduce salary and benefits expenses by hiring help as
needed rather than employing a full-time person. This also
makes it easier to trim staff if times get even tougher.
Office sharing. Reduce
the amount of office space you need by having employees rotate
time in and out of the office. Employees can be more productive
working from home and you reduce your office space.
Telecommute. You can
reduce your office space needs even more significantly by
having employees work from home. Technology makes this more
possible than ever before.
Finances/Other
Negotiate with vendors.
Times are tough for most companies. Some companies will go
out of business. Other companies will change vendors to save
money. The vendors you are working with will want to keep
your business. Tell them that you need to save X amount of
money or you’ll be forced to shop around for a better
deal. Comparing prices is something you should do anyway on
a regular basis to keep vendors honest.
Check printing options.
Print your business checks and personal checks with a discount
house instead of your bank. Banks charge a premium for printing
checks.
Points or rebate based credit
cards. Make sure you’re getting something for
the purchases you charge on your credit cards. A lot of cards
offer points, miles, or cash back. Maximize what you can get.
Determine what will provide you the most value.
Business
Productivity Tools!
Ink
& Toner Cartridges!
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