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Reducing Costs in Office Supplies

by Azlan Irda

Everyone needs office supplies, from the parish of a small town to the largest conglomerate in the land. Transactions on a daily basis allow for tons of paper, pens, pencils, staples, and lots more of other office items to be consumed in billions of offices all across the globe. Costs from purchasing office supplies could account up to 40% of an office's operational expenses, on the average. More often than not, companies spend 20% more than they really have to.

Profits decrease when a company wastes resources. A company that could earn $150,000 in revenues might be losing up to 25% of potential income because of unnecessary spending on office supplies. Experienced businessmen know that it's easier to reduce expenses than to increase profits. If your profit margin is 5%, you can double your company's profit by reducing expenses in that same amount. A lot of companies are now becoming aware of this fact, and a lot more are also starting to take measures to curb overspending on office supplies.

I wrote this article to present some practical and effective steps to reduce expenses on office supplies. By following these steps, your operational costs will be reduced significantly and your revenue start to grow.

1. Inventory all the office supplies that you have in the office right now and put them in specially designated areas where people can easily find them when needed.

2. Recycle. Binders, folders, or even notepads from last year can be used again or salvaged with a little creativity and resourcefulness.

3. Collect them all. You can get a lot of office goodies from all those seminars, conferences, and expositions that you have to attend. You can stash them all and use them at the office.

4. Buy your office supplies in bulk. Office supply stores can give a large discount if you buy in bulk from them. Buy enough supplies to last an entire year. If this proves to be too difficult, gather your friends, co-workers and associates who need the same supplies that you need.

5. Learn when to buy. Stores have peak seasons and off seasons. Usually, office supply stores will offer discounts, rebates or sales on school and office supplies during summer, so try to stock up on what you need before you have to pay full price.

6. Go online. The information highway is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so go ahead and use it. You may find the best prices for your office budget. Most online stores have detailed pricing and delivery information available on their websites.

A lot of times we can reduce costs by just using common sense and diligence. It doesn't take an expert to discover ways to reduce operating costs. I hope that this article has provided you with useful information about cutting costs and saving money by buying and using office supplies wisely.

Azlan Irda is the co-founder of http://www.aamofficesupply.com which provides an extensive selection of high quality office supplies at affordable prices. Find out how you can save money and get the best, high-quality items when you buy staples office supplies.

Published March 14th, 2007

Filed in Ecommerce