Do you remember the time when your company was a freshly brewed startup? The time when you used to keep an account for every dollar you spent? A time when even the tiniest of expenses wouldn’t be overlooked by you or your partners.
Such careful expenditure along with smart economic solutions to problems raised your company to the status it is now. However, as your company expanded you started overlooking minor expenses such as that of office supplies. You may not realize it, however, in the long run, these expenses do add up and one day it would come to you that you could have saved greatly on this expenditure and invested the extra money somewhere better.
Why wait for that one day? Why not start controlling these expenses right now? Probably it isn’t too late. Therefore, if you wish to save some extra money on your office supplies here are 7 ways to do it.
1. Do Bulk Shopping
Anything bought in bulk will be cheaper than the cost of a single product. You can always buy pens, notepads, paperweight, stapler pins etc. in bulk and keep it in safe storage, as they will be required every day till the day your company exists. You may not believe it, however, buying in bulk often gives you around 50 percent of discount on the products and calculating at the end of the year you will have saved thousands of dollars on your office supplies.
2. Partner with Your Supplier
Numerous office product suppliers have loyalty programs designed, and even offer additional discounts on products for their frequent customers. Therefore either you can partner with a bulk supplier and sign a contract stating the monthly requirement of products and cost you will pay him. Or you can keep shopping with the same supplier for a while and he will eventually start offering you discounts provided he sees you as a longtime customer.
3. Have Stationary Stations
Instead of giving every individual a stapler, puncher etc., have in your office a common stationary station from where employees can use these supplies and later put them back. This thing can even continue with items such as a pencil, eraser etc. where these employees instead of storing a whole pack of pens, can use a pen from this station when required and put it back. If things become crowded you can, of course, have multiple stations made.
4. Search for Free Stuff and Learn to Reuse
If you search thoroughly you will find plenty of stuff which other people have discarded and are available for sale at a very low price. You may find accounting software which is available at a heavy discount or other software like antivirus, windows license etc. which you don’t need to purchase at full price.
Similarly, you will find used office supplies such as printed papers with a single used side which you can reuse from the other end to print memos etc. This way you wouldn’t be wasting resources which are already available in your office and hence save on costs of purchasing office items. To learn about items which you can recycle within your office go through this article published by American Express.
5. Try and Go Generic
Buying generic products often tends to save you plenty of money while providing you the similar level of function as the branded products. Nobody judges you by the quality of pen you keep in your office hence go for a less expensive set of ball pens instead of buying a bundle of ink pens which cost you significantly more. But before buying generic products in bulk do test a sample to verify if the quality is good and the product is durable or else you may be forced to spend even more getting a new one every time.
6. Printer Cartridge Accounts for A Significant Cost
You may not notice however your printer cartridge does account for a substantial amount of your office supply bills. With thousands of documents being printed daily this cartridge needs a replacement every now and then. Instead of always buying fresh new cartridges purchase remanufactured ones which in some cases will cost you 70% less than the new ones.
7. Have A Supply Gatekeeper
67% of employees, according to a research conducted have a habit of taking office supplies home. They sometimes do it intentionally while sometimes unknowingly, however, it never comes back to the office leaving with you an empty stationery station in the long run. Have an employee keep a check on the items which are present on the stationary station you just made and make it a habit only to have few items available on the counter. Every item should be accounted for and a new package of items must only be opened after confirmation from your end.
Adopting these 7 tips you may not see a huge benefit in short run, however, take into consideration the cost of these products in long run and you will see how great your savings have turned into.
