Effective Ways to Go Green and Maximize Office Expense

One of the most popular tag line is to "Go Green" and how beneficial it is to our lives, our businesses, and even to our planet. But unless you have taken the steps to implement the green revolution to your business, the entire act of going green may seem to be overwhelming or even impossible.

Don't worry because all you need to do is check out these simple yet effective ways on how you can smoothly direct your small business down to the "greener path."

Use recycled paper around the office.

The first step for many businesses is switching paper types. Purchasing recycled paper is as simple as heading to your local office supply store. Every major paper manufacturer offers recycled paper in a variety of sizes and uses. There’s no drop-off in quality, no major price differences, and it saves trees, water, energy, and space in your local landfill.

Reduce the paper clutter.

Alleviating paper clutter can mean many things to you depending on the size of your company, but here are a few easy tasks to complete that will make a difference.

Mailing Lists
Your company probably receives more junk mail than you realize. Some of it is unsolicited and that’s hard to manage, but plenty of it comes from mailing lists you’ve joined. Remove your company from as many non-essential mailing lists as possible and you’ll see a noticeable reduction in wasted paper from the mail.

Digital Subscriptions
Most companies today offer paperless solutions for their various correspondences. Banks, utilities, service providers, government agencies, newspapers, and trade magazines all offer email or web-based alternatives to traditional mailings. Switch to as many of these paperless solutions as possible and enjoy further reductions in the amount of needless paper in your mailbox.

Reuse Printer Paper
There will always be a need for scrap paper, so don’t throw paper away. Reusing pages that only have printing on one side is an excellent repurposing of a product. Printing double-sided documents whenever possible is also an excellent way to get the most out of your paper supply.

Use recycled printer ink cartridges and recycle old ones.

If you have to buy ink for several printers it can become quite expensive. Recycled ink and ink cartridges have gained prominence in the workplace and offer businesses a legitimate way to save real money. Savings can be as much 70 percent versus traditional ink cartridges.

Office supply stores and printer manufacturers offer rebate programs and other incentives to recycle used cartridges and purchase recycled inks. And you’ll never have to wonder if there are cartridges available for your specific printers. Recycled ink cartridge manufacturers offer solutions for every ink-jet and laser printer in use today.

Make the switch to energy-saving light bulbs.

This is one those “green” initiatives we hear a lot about but might not fully realize the full impact the right kinds of lighting products can have on your bottom line. Traditional light bulbs are horribly inefficient compared to today’s energy-saving bulbs.

LED Bulbs
These bulbs are ten times more efficient than incandescent bulbs. This translates to getting the same amount of illumination at a tenth the cost. The tradeoff for this type of technology comes in the up-front price. LED bulbs run approximately $35 per bulb, which can certainly add up to a substantial amount at one time. However, these bulbs also last 40-50 years before they need to be replaced, so that means they’re about $0.70-$0.88 per year.

Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL)
These bulbs are roughly seven times more efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs and come in at a fraction of the price of LED bulbs. At roughly $4 per bulb, the ten-year lifespan comes to just $0.40 per year.

The savings on monthly utilities alone makes switching to the most energy-efficient bulbs and lamps you can afford a savvy financial move and a great way to green-up your company.

Start carpooling or using public transit.

Many companies offer employee incentives to carpool and to take advantage of public transportations. Preferred parking spaces are often an excellent incentive for employees to carpool, but there’s no limit on what a company can do to encourage participation in this type of program.

Public transportation companies also have incentives for businesses to participate in their clean air programs. These typically include discounted transit passes and some form of recognition for its participants.

There are countless ways you can take your company in a green direction; the trick is to just get started. Hopefully these ideas will get you moving in the direction you always wanted to take but weren’t sure if there was really a difference to be made.

Finding Online Resources that Can Help You Maintain Your Computer

Technology has come a long way in the last 10 years alone (imagine what computers and maintaining it was like in 1997). But like all machines, things can still go wrong. And though it’s nice to have a dependable computer tech support company to lean on and be subscribed to, it’s good to search for online resources from time to time just to learn about minor or general computer maintenance.

First, it’s so easy to search for online resources that can help you maintain your computer. All you need is to search on Google (or any other search engine you’re using) by typing key words such as “online resources computer maintenance” or “online computer maintenance tips.” However, if you want to go direct to the really helpful sites without doing generic searches, here are our suggestions.

Official sites of your computer’s OS

One of the best ways to get help and advice for computer maintenance is to go directly to the company’s official site, depending on whether you’re using a Mac or a Microsoft computer. Apple’s official site has its Apple Support Communities that give free advice in troubleshooting your Mac computer and other software or hardware issues. You can also engage in a live chat with an Apple technician. The Microsoft official website also has a Microsoft Community for free troubleshooting advice. You can search by category or you can post and an accredited expert will assist you.

Official apps and manufacturer’s sites

If you’re having trouble with apps like Firefox, SmartThings, and Spotify, you can simply search for the manufacturer’s websites themselves. They often have official wikis, support forums, and even telephone numbers so you can call their technical support.

Supportrix knowledge base

Supportrix is known worldwide for its outstanding and superb technical support services and they can handle a wide variety of issues such as virus removal and security, PC tune-up and repair, networking issues, data recovery, and the like. But it’s no surprise that they have a knowledgebase of technical articles arranged in categories that you can select in order to search for tips and advice on computer maintenance and other issues.

YouTube

Naturally, if you can’t find what you’re looking for in article format, then you can always search the world’s largest cache of roughly 85 million videos. You’re bound to find videos that discuss about computer maintenance and other issues, usually posted by those who have experienced the same problems. You can even find videos from the official manufacturers as well.

Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites aren’t just for chatting, posting photos, and reading all that fake news (kidding), because you can find the official pages of manufacturers on social media. Also, like in Facebook, there are also third-party communities that you can join that provide free tips and advice on computer maintenance and other issues. You can also use Twitter to contact official companies so as to get a faster and accurate response.

4 Useful Tips for New Business Owners to Succeed in a Tech-Centric Generation

Not many people know that small businesses have large impact on the economy and job market. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), there are 28 million small businesses in America, accounting for 54 percent of all U.S. sales. While we may not initially think of small businesses as large employers, they actually make up 55 percent of all U.S. jobs.

Thankfully, with advances in technology, small businesses today have access to tools that can help streamline operations and enhance productivity, without spending a lot. With new and more efficient capabilities in technology, even the smallest of businesses can compete with large enterprises.

Technology can project a larger image

If a small business is just starting out and operating out of a basement or a small rented space, portraying the business as legitimate and larger than it really is, can be vital to its success. Your online presence is important so invest in a website, social media outlets, and other online profiles like Yelp, Google and industry-specific sites where customers may find you, intentionally or unintentionally. Make sure your business message is clearly defined, your branding and logo is consistent, and most importantly, your information is up-to-date and accurate. Make sure customers can find you everywhere they search and that contacting you is easy.

Technology enables collaboration with everyone

Many small business owners struggle with communicating with both employees in the field and customers as well. Regardless of the type of business, there are cloud-based communications and collaboration tools, customer relationship management software and project management tools available that will not only allow you to work and manage your staff remotely, but enable your employees to work from anywhere, from any device efficiently. This flexibility will enable more workers to be effective without requiring the high price tag of rent, and allow you to expand your business, without the overhead costs.

Technology will advertise the business

Small businesses can take advantage of all the free ways to advertise. This is the beauty of technology today with the Internet such as having an online presence. The business website and social media are obviously great free ways to advertise and promote specials, discounts, and upcoming events. But it’s not limited to just these because when you collaborate with customers on, say Twitter, you can actually advertise the business. You can also try texting and e-mail advertising if you have leads from your customers.

Technology for operations and finance

Now, you can use technology to help manage your money instead of just using paper and calculator.

§  Project cash flow

Using software ensures that you’ll have the money on hand to pay your workers and other expenses when bills come due. That means you can stay on top of the cash flow.

§  Keep financial books and records

Being in business requires you to keep track of income, expenses, and other items so you can analyze how your business is doing. It’s also mandatory for tax purposes; you need these records to prepare your returns and back up positions you take on these returns.

§  Invoice customers

Unless your customers pay on the spot with cash, checks, credit/debit cards, or electronic payments, you must send bills for the money they owe. Viewing outstanding invoices can help you monitor collections to ensure that all your customers pay and do not become delinquent.