Lower Your Printing Costs with These Four Tips

If you had a way to lower your costs in an area that clocks in as your third-highest business expense, would you do it? Of course, you would. For most businesses, this expense is printing. It's a necessary evil even in today's digitally-driven businesses, but there are some ways that you can lower your printing budget.

Here are some tips to get you started.

1. Change your printer settings: Sometimes the easiest fixes are the most obvious. Are your printer settings saving ink, paper, and energy? A few things to consider are whether your default printer settings are set to black-and-white, whether you could enable "draft" mode for day-to-day printing, and whether your printer has an energy-save mode that could reduce your power bill. You can also choose duplex printing—double-sided—as a default on your print driver to ensure that you lower the amount of paper your office uses.
2. Smart supply stocking: Too many businesses stock up on printing supplies that they don't end up using, whether because they bought too much or they end up phasing out a machine. Make sure you only purchase the supplies you'll use or consider simplifying supply ordering with managed print services , so you always have what you need on hand.
3. Implement common sense policies: Many employees aren't sure what's appropriate to print and what's not. Make sure that you have a common sense printing policy in place that makes it clear what kind of printing employees are allowed to do in the office, and that encourages everyone to think before they print.
4. Consolidate devices: Many companies choose multifunction printers to consolidate the many devices they have in their office, thus lowering their overall print environment expenses. A multifunction printer can reduce your costs while upping your productivity.

For more information about print management, contact us today.