Business mentor: How to prune the expense of office supplies

Q. The administration end of our business, dealing with suppliers etc, is so costly and time-consuming that it often takes our focus away from servicing our customers. Do you have any helpful hints?

A. Mike Wiggins, director of Icon Business Solutions, replies:

The supplies that you use in the office can add up to a substantial amount of your operating costs.

They are often a necessity but few businesses look at the cost of them and at the time and money spent ordering them.

Boise, one of New Zealand's largest suppliers to the office, have been asked to run a seminar at the Business Expo to be held at the Auckland Showgrounds from April 29 to May 1.

The seminar by Scott Russ, of Boise, includes a brief to provide 10 Easy Steps to Reducing Your Office Supplies Bill 10 per cent.

Here is a preview of the seminar and action points you may like to consider immediately:

1. Do you know how much you spend a year?

Compile last year's invoices. Include all office products, computer consumables including ink and toner cartridges, copy paper, cafe and cleaning requirements, packaging and capital items such as office furniture and business machines.

2. Determine how many suppliers you used to purchase the above items.

Consider all the different suppliers you receive invoices from in an average month.

Include transactions for coffee and tea at your local supermarket that you may draw petty cash for or pay by credit card.

3. Ask yourself how often you place an order - twice-weekly, weekly, fortnightly?

Do you have a process in your office where people compile a shopping list and an order is placed once a week?

Do you place many orders for urgent requirements?

4. What is the process your office uses to place orders?

Here is where the real time savings can come in. Is it the job of one person in the office to gather everyone's needs and then compile an order, or do people have to get their needs into a central point on a specific day?

Does the person phone the order through or fax the order?

Do you use the internet to place an order?

What happens to items that are not available at the time of ordering? Do they arrive on another invoice?

5. Receipting and processing invoices/statements.

This is still a cost associated with your office supplies. How many of these does your office person check, process and pay each month?

The cost of office supplies does not just start and end at the unit cost of, say, a ream of photocopy paper.

It is all the associated expenses and time that make the total cost substantial to your business.

By identifying smarter ways of ordering you can reduce both time and money, resulting in more efficiency for your business.

You will have more time to do more productive tasks within your business, such as focusing on sales.

For more information and tips on how to reduce your office supplies bill, attend the seminar at the Business Expo.

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