Print is a major expense for many businesses, but are you spending more than you need to? With nearly 70% of all prints ending up in the recycling bin before day’s end, reducing your prints can help reduce paper waste and printing costs. Here’s how:
Reconsider Your Needs
The average employee prints over 10,000 sheets a year, but are they all necessary? By rethinking how work gets done, you can dramatically decrease the amount of printing your company does each year. Before printing, consider if that document can be shared digitally, and how many people actually need a printed copy.
Using digital forms and documents can further help reduce your costs by eliminating the time it takes to organize, store, and find physical documents. A lost paper document can cost hundreds of dollars in lost time; a digital document is safely and securely stored, and indexed for easy retrieval.
Change Your Settings
When you do have to print, it should be done mindfully. By changing your default settings, you can maximize your paper use with each print, reducing the numbers of sheets and amount of ink or toner you use. Consider:
- Reducing your font size
- Reducing your margin size
- Changing your font to one that uses less ink
- Printing in black and white
- Printing double-sided
Each of these changes can have an impact on your bottom line.
Reuse and Recycle
Don’t throw used paper in the trash! First see if you can reuse it, such as by using the back side as scrap paper. Then when you’re through, make sure it goes into the recycling bin to reduce your environmental impact.
Consult the Pros
A Managed Print Services provider can transform your print environment to help save you money. By doing a full assessment of your print environment, an MPS provider can help see where you may be wasting money and make personalized recommendations for your business. Upgrading printers, performing preventative maintenance, changing settings, automatic supply replenishment, and automating processes can all help improve your efficiency while reducing your print quantity and costs.
Printing is expensive, but there are ways to reduce your annual print costs. Simple things like changing your settings and being mindful of how much you really need to print can make a big difference in your bottom line. Ask us how our Managed Print experts can help reduce your costs!
