A successful office management is a cornerstone of every successful business operation. First of all, doing this properly can increase productivity of your staff many times over, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Everyone knows that running an office, costs quite a bit and this is not something that you can easy fit in your budget. In fact, excessive spending when it comes to your office supplies is something that can ruin your business before it even gets a fighting chance. Because of this, read these tips on how to save some serious money on office supplies and save your business.
Open Source Software
In the past, when speaking about tools of the trade, what we usually had in mind was some complex machinery, but today, more often than not, this phrase stands for software. Because of this, software is one of the most important issues that you will have to deal with when it comes to saving money. Sure, there are some must have platforms like MS Office, but even they have an open source alternative like Open Office. Now, it is true that most people claim that MS Office has a better performance, but when you take into consideration that Open Office and all of its features are completely free, it is clear that cost effectiveness goes in its favor. Because of this, do some research on other open source software for your office and in this way make all the difference in your budget.
Saving on Consumables
Next item on the list is how to save on consumables. Namely, there is a statistic that an average office worker prints up to 10,000 sheets of paper a year. Even though this may sound alarming from ecological standpoint, it doesn’t get any better when you look at it financially either. So, in order to remedy this difficult situation, you might want to consider switching to recycled paper (a clear win-win scenario) and even finding a cheaper source of Ricoh ink. Finally, you can even learn how to refill ink cartridges on your own and in this way really make all the difference. What you will need to be able to do this are nothing more than a simple kit and a brief YouTube tutorial.
Greener Appliances
Not everything in your office is strictly work related, and even with this in mind, you might want to think about what else could you do to save some more. First off, seeing how there are so many electrical appliances in every office, it is quite probable that a large portion of your budget will be allocated to electric bill alone. For this reason, you might want to think about ways in which you can change all of this. One of the things you can do is go and set your printer, office computers and all the other hardware that has that option to a power saving mode. However, you can even go a bit further and buy some “greener” appliances like power saving electric cooler and espresso machine for your office kitchen or cafeteria.
Energy Efficiency
In the end, it is important to mention that in order to be more financially sustainable, more and more modern homes are flirting with the idea of zero energy. Sure, it might not be practical for your office to install its own solar panels, but reducing your energy spending can be a huge asset. Proper insulation, quality double-glazing windows and above all proper energy-saving plan can do wonders here. As a final touch, replacing your regular iridescent light bulbs with LED ones can make be a huge step.
As you can see, where there is will there is always a way and running your office with a bit more financial awareness is not that hard. All you need to do is look for an alternative free software, be careful about your consumables and of course go green. By making your office planet friendly, you will make it budget friendly as well. This notion alone is something that is nearly impossible to top.