If you have access to a printer, there’s a 95% probability that you print as you like with no restrictions. You decide how many prints you want to make, if they’re in black and white or color, or if you even need to print the document at all.

95% of office employees print every day with no print rules in place or a print policy to follow

Do you have a print policy in your office? If not, perhaps now is the time to consider a print assessment? This is a popular service that will provide you with a fact-based inventory of all your print devices and show you how much you’re really spending on office printing overall. Plus, you’ll get some suggestions on how to reduce waste and your carbon footprint. To calculate your savings potential, try this FREE Print Savings Estimator.

Office printing ranks among the TOP 4 business operating expenses (behind rent, payroll and utilities)

Here are three very common “out of control” office printing behaviors:

• Printing more than needed
• Printing in color when black and white is acceptable
• Placing used toner cartridges in the trash and not recycling them

Those unnecessary prints can impact your bottom line - From a cost perspective, think about it this way; every time you print a black and white letter size document on one side it typically costs between 3 - 8 cents per page. If you print just 10 pages on a small desktop laser printer or an expensive ink jet printer, those 10 prints would cost you up to 80 cents (10 prints X 8 cents) in black and white. One hundred of them would cost 8 dollars and every thousand would cost you 80 dollars. Multiply that 80 dollars by the number of people in your office who may just happen to print more than they need to. The fact is that most people print 30% more than they need to. Those extra prints can really add up over time!

Color is typically the worst area of out of control printing - The cost-per-page for color can be as low as a nickel and as high as a dollar – depending again on the type of printer. Smaller color printers tend to be VERY expensive to operate. Often the price of consumables for smaller desktop printers is exponentially more expensive than the cost to buy the printer hardware itself.  Unnecessarily printing in color, when black and white will do, can definitely cost you.

Landfills are littered with used print cartridges - Printing less means saving money. Reducing color volumes or printing color with “the right color printer” will save even more money. Recycling a used print cartridge may not save money, but it sure will help save our environment

If you think your current print environment may be a little out of control, maybe now is the time to evaluate and rethink your print strategy moving forward. With newer print tracking technology, it’s now easier than ever to assess, identify and calculate quick hit business opportunities.

Wondering what your savings potential could be? Try this FREE Print Savings Estimator!