With the cost of everything rising right now, business owners are delving deep into their finances to identify areas they can cut back. Many organisations have already taken the first steps toward reducing printing costs in several ways.
Here we cover nine proven ways to reduce your printing-related costs while still getting the most out of your printer.
1: Review your current output
Monitoring your printing activity can help you identify high output and unnecessary print areas. When you know how much you are using and where, you can implement cost-saving, waste-reducing strategies to combat excessive use.
2: Update your drivers
Your printer driver tells your printer precisely what to print and how to print it. An out-of-date printer driver may not correctly translate instructions from your computer, which may lead to alignment and print quality issues, meaning you must reprint your job, which is essentially money in the bin.
3: Use smart software solutions
There are several software solutions out there that are designed to reduce your office’s print costs using innovative tools and careful monitoring.
One of the great features of our cloud print solution is the ‘secure print release’ function. This works by holding the print job at the printer until the print job owner has attended to the printer and scanned a QR code to release it. This means print jobs are no longer carelessly sent to the printer and left in the printer tray.
Although this will carry an initial cost, you will save more money in the long run by eliminating print waste.
4: Upgrade your printers
Are you struggling to get hold of your printer’s compatible cartridges? Or maybe they’re becoming super expensive? This could be down to the age of your device. As printers age, demand for consumables decreases, meaning prices skyrocket or production ceases completely.
If you’re experiencing this, investing in a modern device where consumables are cheaper and more easily obtained might be a good idea.
5: Get rid of redundant devices
Are you guilty of running multiple printers that get barely any use? It’s time to get rid of them. Not only are they eating away at your expense with costly ink and toner, but they are consuming excess energy that could be used elsewhere.
6: Implement smart printing practices
Making small changes to how you print is proven to cut costs and reduce output significantly. Here is a list of smart printing practices for everyday printing that will reduce your overall printing costs:
- Print in black-and-white where possible
- Print on both sides of the paper
- Reduce your font size
- Print in draft quality to print faster and use less ink
- Increase margins to reduce total page count
- Use economic, ink-saving fonts such as Times, Courier, or Garamond
- Save to PDF instead of print, when applicable
- Scan-to-email instead of copying a printed document
7: Consolidate your devices
Gone are the days of running a separate printer, copier, and scanner all in one office. It’s time to consolidate your devices into one single solution. Thanks to the ever-evolving world of technology, you can now get devices that scan, copy, print, and even staple and fold booklets. Explore our range of all-in-one devices here.
8: Send your printer to sleep
It’s no secret that energy prices are scarily high right now, so we must pay attention to our printer’s energy input as well as its output.
Like most other office devices, printers consume energy when running. You can stop this by setting your device to sleep when not in use or during the weekends. A good practice is to let it sleep after 15 minutes of non-use.
Quickly browsing your device’s manual will tell you how to set your printer to sleep mode.
9: Use a Managed Print Service
A managed print service is a proven way to reduce overall print spend. Not only does a managed print service consolidate all printer-associated costs into one manageable monthly payment, but you also won’t have to pay for repairs, servicing, or bulk consumable orders.
Curious how much your business can save on print costs by working with an MPS provider? Our blog post details the extensive benefits here [link when live].
If you want to speak to us about one of our services or a new device for your business, please contact us here.