[Kristian Traylor]

anyone out there know what I can expect to spend on monthly office supplies?

[Chrissy Scivicque]

I think it totally depends on the size of your office and the level at which you are using products. In my last job, we only had a staff of 8 but we spent a ton on supplies because we printed and mailed a huge amount (that means more paper, more toner, more postage, more envelopes, more staples etc). We also had quite a few people in the office who traveled regularly so that meant laptops, laptop cases, blackberries, etc.

It's hard to guess what the average spend will be until you've seen the level of activity and monitored it for a few months. The best way to curb spending is to:

a) go paperless as much as possible (this might mean a higher initial cost as you'll need to put the infrastructure in place by purchasing scanners and storage programs but will be well worth it in the long run); and

(b) enlist the help of everyone in the office to not be wasteful. You'd be surprised how much money goes down the drain from people printing carelessly, taking home post-it pads, requesting unnecessary materials etc. Ask everyone to help keep spending down.

[Robert Ball]

Great tips Chrissy. When starting out, there is going to be some upfront costs that you have to make (staplers, staples, pens, etc.) - too bad there isn't an easy site that sells used ones - anyone know of one?). A couple of ways to save: first, spend a little and get a few white boards - great discussion promoters and you end up saving a lot as so much of what is talked about gets erased anyway; and second, buy a black & white printer (either as your only printer or as a secondary one) - we use the black and white for about 90% of our printing needs and the print in color only when we need to (on the inexpensive color printer that came with my laptop purchase!). If we need major color printing, we head down to the local office supply place near our office and pay by the copy. I know this won't scale, but it's a great efficiency tool when you are just getting started.

[Kristian Traylor]

good advice...what about printers? I have a brother 8440 (fax, copier, printer)...I love it, but not sure if it is appropriate for company setting.Should I go with a "commercial" grade printer will a good quality printer I get from a Staples/OfficeMax be acceptable?

[blabreche]

Our office purchased a HP3800n last year for our staff of 7. It is a color laser model, but we usually just print in black & white to save on toner. I believe it is classified as a "small business" printer, but it handles an impressive amount of work (we do large mailings several times a year and each letter has to be printed individually).

[Kristian Traylor]

Thanks for the reply! Do you like the HP? How much did it cost? Also, how much is the toner?

Thanks for the advice!

[blabreche]

We do like it - it prints quickly & the maintenance (changing toner, etc.) is a snap. I think we paid about $2000 for it, including the extra paper tray (for legal) & a set of toner cartridges. With our business account at Staples, we pay approx. $100 for black toner & a little more for each of the 3 color ones, but only go through about 1 black cartridge every 2 or 3 months (color even longer). Here is HP's info sheet: HP Color LaserJet 3800 Printer series models

[synclair]

The main idea is that pennies add up into dollars quickly.

First, I agree that to save on office supplies in an office is to discourage hoarding. Every office has at least one person who feels the need to store a whole box of pens in their desk instead of taking one or two at a time.

Ten years ago I joined an engineering firm as the Business Manager. During the two-week vacation of one of the engineers, I had to dig through her desk to find a file. I also found boxes of dividers, file folders, and pens. She must have had $200 of supplies that were not being used in her desk. Shortly after that, I had everyone clean out their desk, keeping only a few pens, pencils, file folders, etc. I returned nearly $1000 worth of supplies to Office Depot (I am forever grateful to our account manager for agreeing to take so much stuff back). We also ended up with many opened boxes of just about any other supply you can think of. Because of all the opened boxes of labels, when I left five years later, they still had not run out.

To make the point about alternate uses for the money, I used some of the money we got back to have a "fancy" catered lunch brought in for the whole office and manicurist brought in for the administrative staff. The rest went to upgrade software that the staff had been requesting. The exercise made everyone far more aware of how those pennies add up.

On my current team (different organization), we frequently have conference calls where a PowerPoint presentation is sent out in advance. If it can't be simply put on a screen, I have designated one person in charge of printing it out for all the attendees. That way I can have it printed duplex with multiple slides per page, and in black and white. This has reduced our printing costs significantly. In the past there were always several people who would print it in color, single-sided, with one slide per page.

We also spent more money to buy a high quality multi-function black and white printer, while spending less on a color printer. We outsource large color jobs too. Also, we spent money to give everyone a PDF creator and training on using it. This cuts down on what I call nuisance printing. Now for example, if in the past I would need to print a copy of an email request and then scan it to be attached to a customer order to be put into our implementation system, now I can generate the PDF and attach it that way. No paper copy has to be generated at all.

Good luck!

[Jodith]

When you are ordering office equipment, you want to consider not just the cost of the equipment but the cost of maintaining it. Buying a cheap printer might be inexpensive up front but if the cost of toner/ink is high, or if it will wear out too fast, in the long run it will cost you quite a bit more.

Before you start looking for a piece of equipment, think about how you are going to use it. If you are buying an all in one (copier, printer, fax), consider if you'll need a flatbed scanner. Will you be scanning items that are too stiff to go through the scanner, like magazine articles or IDs? In that case, you'll want a flatbed. If all you're going to be copying are correspondence, then a feed scanner will suit. Will you be faxing many multiple page documents (more than 3 or 4 pages at a time)? Then consider getting a fax with faster faxing speed and a large amount of fax memory. If you'll mostly fax short documents and faxing less frequently, you can make do with a slower faxing speed and less fax memory. If you are running a lot of print jobs (especially for marketing type items), you'll probably want a laser over an inkjet for the higher quality and speed. If you are just doing occasional business letters, then an inkjet may fill you needs.

Next think about how many copies/prints you are going to be making in a month. If you are a truly new business, this might be hard to estimate, but if you are already set up and looking to upgrade equipment, keep a tally of all the use in a month.

Now that you have an idea of how much work the machine will be doing and an idea of the type of function you need, start looking at machines. The best bet is to go to a site like Staples of Office Depot or even New Egg and see what they have. Glance through them to find ones you think might be appropriate. Look for things like, maximum monthly run total. Remember though that this is a maximum amount. If you run at maximum all the time, you'll wear out your machine early. You'll want to be running at well below maximum.

Once you find a machine that you think will fill your copying needs without dieing a quick death, look at the cost of toner/ink cartridges. Look at how many pages on average each cartridge will provide. Use your monthly estimated copy/print run to get an idea of the monthly cost of maintaining the machine. You may find that a more expensive machine will pay for itself within a year through lower maintenance costs.

When it comes to ordering office supplies. let me tell you, companies want your money! Don't be afraid to explore around. Go to competitors, show them what you are currently buying and what you are spending, and let them see if they can beat the cost. Go back and forth until you find the absolutely lowest prices you can get. I dropped our costs significantly last year by 1) switching to a competitor and) using more generic (non-name brand) supplies. We currently use Staples, and so far no one else has been able to compete with them for our small business budget. However, I have found that Office Depot tends to give better prices on large items like filing cabinets and furniture and electronics. That is just our experience, though. It will depend on your contract and your location.

[trnnbrn97]

On a similar topic, does anyone have any suggestions or ideas for an office supply policy? Is there any way to keep people ordering items out of the catalog like they are on a shopping spree?