Pens, different types of paper, printers, inks, and other supplies are essential to keep an office—no matter the size—running smoothly. It’s hard to think of a four-corner office operating without those things.
If you’re a business operating in a physical office, you know how important office supplies are when accomplishing daily tasks. These tasks can range from you and your employees taking down notes while talking to someone over the phone to printing crucial documentation such as invoices and contracts.
The importance of office makes it easy for you to overlook how much they actually cost you each month. It’s possible that you’ll only realize how expensive they can get during annual accounting time, and by then, it will be too late.
But there’s always the next year to change how you spend on office supplies. Take a look at these tips we’ve compiled to help you save:
1. Take advantage of sales.
All year-round, it’s impossible for you not to spot a sale for the items your office needs. Granted, your office has a schedule for replenishing supplies, but it definitely won’t hurt your expenses to time them when discounts are all over stores.
Stores specializing in office supplies offer price cuts during certain parts of the year, and securing better deals when you buy higher quantities won’t be difficult.
Saving money on procuring office supplies will require you to keep watch of the promotions in the stores you trust. Subscribing to newsletters and marking your calendars for sales would definitely help.
2. Use open-source programs.
Open-source programs are free and are continuously getting improvement updates from community contributors that work together to release them and keep them operational. Instead of paying for a subscription to the pricey and well-known software you use for your business’ operations, you can look at the wide range of choices you have when it comes to open-source ones.
The most popular choices are Google Suite and LibreOffice for office programs, and for operating systems, you can use ones like Linux and Ubuntu. You can opt to pay for these services but spending money on them is most of the time optional and are for donations to developers and contributors to help them maintain the programs and keep them free for public use.
3. Buy in bulk.
You’ll be surprised by how much you’ll save if you buy your office supplies in bulk. Fortunately, tons of offline and online stores provide big discounts on products that are purchased in bulk. Buying your supplies from a single store, especially if you’ve been doing so for a long time, will also help you secure the best prices possible.
It helps to establish business relations with your suppliers. These relations will help you save thousands in office supplies yearly. If you’re looking for other supplies such as furniture, including necessities like recycling bins, you’ll save up if you buy more from a single supplier.
4. Opt for products that are easy to maintain.
Office supplies aren’t limited to pen and paper. They also include computers, printers, and furniture necessary to make an office operational and comfortable.
Buying these items is one thing, but opting for low-maintenance options will help you save a lot on maintenance and repair costs. For example, buying a printer that can run on bigger ink supplies that aren’t as pricey as cartridges is a practical choice. They’re also more durable and can be relied on to accomplish heavy tasks for hours.
5. Try different brands.
When it comes to office supplies, there are specific brands trusted by businesses, new and old. Most of the time, these brands are pricier than their less popular counterparts for the same performance and value. You’ll only be paying for the established brand name, which doesn’t matter when you’re actually using them inside your office. A popular brand doesn’t equate to a brand that produces products that last long.
So, it’s only practical to be on the lookout for other brands that can improve output and last longer. This applies in the case of small office supplies to big ones such as computers and projectors.
Is it really possible to save?
Saving in office supplies purchases would also require you to train yourself and your employees to be more aware of using office supplies properly. Conservation and recycling play key parts in saving, along with opting for brands and suppliers you’ve proven to be reliable.