4 Ways To Cut Printing Expense

If you're reading this article, there's a good chance that you want to cut some costs. In today's economic climate, every dollar is important, and reducing business overhead can be almost as important as bringing in more revenue. Using the following guidelines, your business can drastically cut the amount it prints, which equals savings in ink and paper.


1. Ditch paper memos and handouts

This one should be obvious, but many companies still print ream after ream of paper containing one or two pieces of information that immediately get thrown away. Fortunately, most businesses now have e-mail, instant messaging, direct-connect enabled phones, and other means of communications that should render a memo obsolete. Imagine: instead of printing 10, 20, or even 100 copies of a memo and placing it in each employee's individual mailbox, simply sending out a company-wide email that employees can keep in their inbox and not have to worry about losing.

Handouts, as well, often don't last long after the conference or meeting in which they were handed out. Instead of giving each employee printed handouts for meetings, use a PowerPoint presentation (or, even better, design it with Open Office Impress, an open-source program with unrivaled program compatibility. Encourage employees to bring a notebook so they can take notes on the information that is relevant to them.


2. Paper Fax? Who still uses a paper fax???

In order to fax a document, you have to print it. In many cases, there is no need to keep a hard copy of the document being faxed out, other than a record of the fax. Imagine sending out invoices, purchase orders, expense reports, or all other faxed documents directly from a computer, electronically, without having to print the document first. Imagine receiving faxed documents in your email, printing only those that absolutely need a hard copy. For about the same price as a fax line, many companies such as E-Fax offer electronic faxing services. The savings in ink and toner can be enormous, especially for companies that typically receive and send faxes daily.

3. Genuine Toner = Genuine Waste!

Most consumers, when they buy a printer, are warned to use only "genuine" ink and toner products. Anything else, they're warned, will wreck their printer and void their warranty or extended coverage packages. Several landmark lawsuits later, the US courts have determined that printer manufacturers can't force customers to use their ink and toner; the stigma behind remanufactured or compatible products, however, has not gone away. Modern remanufactured and compatible ink and toner cartridges are a far cry from the "drill and fill" operations of past, with modern remanufacturing companies following a process not unlike OEM manufacturing, including rigorous inspection and testing of cartridges. Plus, and here's the dirty little secret that most consumers don't realize, most "genuine oem cartridges" have been recycled and resold as well! Why pay full price for a remanufactured cartridge marketed as new, when you can shop somewhere like Remark Imaging, which offers huge savings on remanufactured ink and toner cartridges, as well as OEM-compatible cartridges?

4. Going once, going twice, and... bought?

When a government agency decides they want to make a purchase, they usually solicit bids or organize a reverse auction, inviting vendors to compete for their business. Some corporations have taken advantage of similar services with huge benefits. Before buying ink, toner, or paper retail, solicit bids from many different vendors. Many companies will give HUGE DISCOUNTS for a 1 or 2 year contract. Utilizing reverse auction services is another great way to try to get better pricing from current vendors, as well as discovering new companies that may offer exactly what you're looking for.

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