Companies spend a lot on office costs and for some companies they can barely keep up with the expenses. Most companies’ dilemma is this: while they want to save up on their office’s expenses, they don’t want to sacrifice office productivity and the quality of work. Striking a balance between the two is difficult but essential.

There are actually many ways to achieve this. If you only know where to start, your company can easily be cost-effective, energy-efficient and highly productive all at once.

Earth-Friendly Ways

Aside from saving money, your company can also help the environment with these energy-efficient and earth-friendly tips:

  • Turn off lights and computers when not in use. Businesses should give a directive to their employees to turn off the office lights and computers at the end of the day, or when they are away from their desk for at least 30 minutes. You can also set timers for office equipment to automatically turn off at designated times.
  • Reduce or totally eliminate the use of paper. Go digital and avoid using paper in correspondence, memos, reports and most importantly in record keeping.
  • If going paperless is not on option there are several ways to still save energy in printing: track your company’s printing activities, set print quotas for every department, use black and white instead of coloured ink, and use double sided printing.
  • Make copies in batches. It takes energy to start up your photocopier every time you use it, doing it in one go will save you energy.
  • Reuse office supplies. Instead of using it once then throwing it into the trash bin, reuse office supplies like manila envelopes, mailing boxes and even bubble wrap. You can also set a clean-up day for everyone to sort through their office desks or workstation. Through this activity, forgotten or misplaced supplies will be unearthed and put back to use.
  • Recycle. Use paper from bad print jobs for notes and phone memos, refill used toner and ink cartridges, segregate your trash and take them to a recycling plant or donate used equipment to charity.

Make Use of Technology

Today, various technological advancements have been created to help companies in their day-to-day business. You can take advantage of these developments to help reduce your office costs.

  • Cut off your local phone service and use SKYPE. You can make use of lesser-cost or SKYPE free services, like WeChat or Google Voice, to make calls.
  • Reduce or eliminate out of town travels and use video conferencing for meetings. This will reduce expenses for airfare, hotel accommodation, and meal per diems.

Other Ways

There are many more ways to reduce office costs and these can be incorporated in all aspects of your business.

  • Marketing – Explore online marketing strategies for your business like social media and blogs. Also try tapping another company and sharing advertising costs with them in a campaign where both of you can benefit in.
  • Office Equipment and Furniture – Invest in good office equipment like good office desks and office workstations. Carefully select office equipment and furniture that will bring out employees’ creativity, that are not prone to injuries and that will promote overall good health. It is also good to choose durable and long-lasting equipment from trusted office furniture suppliers.
  • Business Processes – Review your company’s current business processes and evaluate which of the tasks are non-essential. Eliminate these unnecessary tasks for a reduced time, more efficient operation, and lesser labour expenses.

Running a business doesn’t have to eat up all of your finances. You just have to know how to effectively operate your business, from choosing the right furniture to the power-saving measures done daily. As long as you have this, you not only lessen your office cost but you appropriately allocate your money where it is rightly needed. – Authored by DEBRA WRIGHT