Keeping Small Business Office Supplies Inexpensive

Written by Manager on August 1st, 2013. Posted in Business Budgets

When you’re starting a business out of thin air, you can be surprised how quickly the bills start to pile up. Small business office supplies can quickly get out of control if you don’t put safeguards in place to ensure that costs are kept low.

Paper and Printing

Computer companies tell you that the paper office is dead, but half a billion tons of paper are produced each year and quite a bit of it ends up in office printers and fax machines. Keep costs down by using double-sided printing and used engraved stationary and letterhead so that your company gets exposure along with information.

Writing Instruments

Pens and pencils make the world go round, and while they are pretty cheap you still have to portion out desk spaces and containers. You can get large quantities of pencils, pens, and markers for free from business conventions and expos, where salesmen will give out packages of dozens of samples with the company name printed on it.

Keep It Together

It’s tempting to buy a dozen staplers for an office, but staplers jam and staples are expensive. Instead, use the larger paper clips that are sturdy enough to hold together hundreds of pieces of paper but big enough to avoid being lost frequently. Color the clips a bright color so that they stand out.

Run Everything on Time

It’s recommended that even a small business issue employees with calendars and planners so that everyone can be on the same schedule. While there are digital versions of planners, it’s cheaper to purchase a few dozen paper copies than it is to purchase a computer and an Internet connection, so this is a money-saving endeavor in and of itself. Purchasing planners with pen attachments prevents the loss of some other office supplies.