Running a small business? Here’s how to go paperless

May 16, 2013

For small businesses, every penny can make a difference. When Neal Frankle, the owner of Wealth Pilgrim, decided to make some administrative investments in his business, he went paperless. In an article for Business Insider, Frankle explains how to make similar changes and how it helped his bottom line.

First of all, he explains, any business can save money by going paperless. The average office worker uses 10,000 sheets per year, so between paper, printing and toner costs, an office can save money immediately. Additionally, the extra resources needed to maintain paper records, like filing cabinets, require extra labor and administrative costs.

"The cost of printing, copying, postage, storing and recycling can be 31 times greater than the price of paper," Frankle writes. "I never thought about the real cost of handling paper but I see the savings now that I never touch the stuff anymore."

To make the transition, Frankle suggests turning all incoming paper–like bills and reciepts–to an online or paperless function. Once less paper is coming in, the process of turning paper documents to digital files will be easier. Have vendors email or digitally fax documents to avoid having to scan more in the future.

After, small businesses can do document preparation in house, organizing papers and purging those that don't need to be scanned. Then, Frankle suggests recreating your physical folders into a digital filling system, once documents are scanned, there is a place for them to be found. 

He also suggests outsourcing the scanning process. Since investing in a professional scanner isn't always necessary for a business that won't be scanning many documents after the switch, outsourcing can help businesses achieve high-quality images while saving money.

Tab Service Company is a Chicago based company with over 53 years of experience as a data processing service provider.  We provide business with outsourcing solutions for document scanning services, data entry services and mailing/lettershop services.  As a SOC2-approved service organization, we apply industry-best practices to our approach with clients.