Top Ways To Cut Costs As A Small Business

By Author: Chris Haycox
Total Articles: 4762
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For all the adverts and new gadgets you'll read about for cutting your business costs, it all comes down to one direct and critical consideration: Streamlining Efficiency.

If your new service or equipment creates a heavier workload for your employees to handle your daily business, then not only do your hard costs increase, but time and staffing management inefficiency also increases. You need tools that will make your productivity faster, not more complicated.

NEW SHOULD DO MORE

Naturally you need to keep your company equipped with the latest technology that your clients expect. After all, you wouldn't still be using the Pony Express for your mailing needs - it served its purpose back in the old days, but you would never be able to meet your customers' needs with such a slow service today.

There's an old maxim "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." A small gain in physical speed is not always value for the money if it takes more effort to do the same task. If you're going to upgrade equipment, you need replacements which will do more in the same time you take to do the task now. Even more important, you ...
... want it to do more tasks in the same time.

Your in-office Fax System is the perfect example of lost efficiency. When a fax comes in, somebody needs to sort through the received documents, determine which person(s) or department(s) it needs to be handed off to, and delivered. If it needs to go to multiple recipients, you either need to take additional time making enough copies for each, or have the client send separate streams for each individual.

If that person happens to be away, the faxed documents can sit unattended for quite a while. If they're out of the office for an extended time, perhaps on the road doing outside sales calls, it can get tricky trying to get the urgent material into their hands in a timely matter. Sales orders could be lost if the client is made to wait; they need immediate attention. That's one of the main reasons they've faxed you the time sensitive documents right away.

Rather than using an outdated office machine, you should update to a dedicated outside faxing system. The client sends their fax the same way (you are provided with your own fax line number), but now the system will handle the transfer directly to the person it was intended for - even if they're not in the office. The full fax is delivered immediately to their email in a readable format from not just any computer terminal, but also right on their PDA or Smart Phone.

Your staff also has sending access from their computer or portable device through your fax number even though they aren't right in the office. When it's urgent they get time sensitive documents into their client's hand immediately, you can't afford lost time while your representative searches for a storefront fax service. Now they can get that fax sent and received no matter where they are.

ENOURMOUS COST SAVINGS

While an outside faxing system and service provides far greater versatility than an in-office machine, it also cuts your monthly budgeting costs to a small fraction: the monthly savings are huge!

Even if you have purchased the top-of-the-line quality office fax machine, it will still need regular servicing and maintenance. Replacement toner alone for companies with a heavy fax printout load adds heavily to the true cost per fax using a standard machine.

If your company deals with business outside your immediate local area, as most do, get ready for a shock: check with your accounting department, and ask to see your monthly on-going long-distance calls expenditure. No matter how great your phone company rates for long distance may seem, you are likely throwing away hundreds or thousands of dollars away every single month through all your out of town (or even Country) faxing.

When you start to factor in maintenance, parts and supplies, paper costs, long distance fees and charges, and even the monthly cost of your own office phone line for the fax machine; you start to get a picture of just how high your true costs for each fax has escalated. Can you really afford to be giving away your profits so readily?

Switching to a low monthly fee for fax services makes cost savings sense:

- Eliminates the up-front hard costs of purchasing a business level fax machine.

- Eliminates the monthly business phone line costs for your dedicated in-house fax line.

- Eliminates long-distance phone service charges. You can even offer a toll-free fax number at a fraction of the cost compared with local phone companies.

- Eliminates your fax machine maintenance, repairs, toner supply, and also reduces your printed paper costs.

- You don't require expensive software, hardware, or fax modems. You can also regain the office and room space your old machine previously required.

Still, the greatest cost saving factor remains in the simple fact: it costs less, does more, and increases your productivity. Your staff and offices now have streamlined efficiency!
About Author:
Metro Hi Speed is a leader in online fax solutions for any sized business. Less expensive and more reliable than traditional fax services - you'll enjoy the convenience and well as the cost. Visit us today at http://www.metrohispeed.com/ for more information on our small business and corporate fax solutions.