Are you like us and always searching for ways to save money?

Although drastic cost cutting measures should never be the first course of action. In the first instance, it’s much wiser to look at the little things to see how you can become more financially responsible.

Yes we know, rationing pencils is not going bring your organisation out of debt. But you’d be surprised how quickly small ticket items can add up.

Office supplies have many small ticket items, but over the course of a year they all add up to a significant cost, running into the £100’s for smaller organisations & up to 10’s of thousands for the larger 1’s.

So to help you save money (£100’s or even £1,000’s) on your office supplies, here’s our top tips just for you:

Switch to own brands

Instead of purchasing name brand supplies like Elba or Rexel, consider purchasing own brand products instead. As example we provide 5 Star, Office Style and even a small unbranded selection that come in a simple white box.

And we can confirm, many of our own brand & unbranded products offer the same level of quality as their name brand counterparts but without the higher price.

It is also fair of us to point out the potential pitfalls too…

Sometimes generic brands really cheap in terms of quality, so make sure you take the time to re-evaluate your choice. If the new packing tape costs only 75% of the branded product, but is so cheaply made that you have to use twice as much to complete the job, then the switch wasn’t worth it and it didn’t save money.

But hopefully, your supplier is experienced enough to guide you away from any products that just don’t come up to the required quality standard, as we do.

Build a relationship with 1 great supplier

The saying goes ‘don’t put all your eggs in 1 basket’ and under normal circumstances we would agree. But not with office supplies, if your primary goal is to save your business money.

Our advice is to select a local office supplies business that you feel comfortable with and can trust. But has the capability to provide you with everything you need in the delivery time period you are happy with.

Once you have chosen someone you feel comfortable with, negotiate with them on price. But you will only get the best price, if you are honest with them too, which means giving them a full list of all the office supplies you purchase each year and committing to buy everything through them if the right price structure can be agreed.

1 word of warning though, many unscrupulous office supplies organisations will price a small selection of your most common items really cheap, but then charge you extortionately on the higher value less common items. Meaning overall you will end up paying more than you should for your full basket of products.

When negotiating your prices, our advice is to choose a supplier who’s willing to offer a flat margin structure on all the products they sell, like we do. This also tells you they have nothing to hide, will be openly honest with you and help you save money.

Negotiate a volume based loyalty discount

A good office supplies organisation will offer some kind of reward program that can prove quite valuable to you and save money. Usually the program aims to promote loyalty among customers by rewarding them with points or a percentage rebate of their total purchases.

If you have a large office supplies spend, it would make sense to agree an annual financial target with your 1 chosen supplier, based on everything that you buy.

Lets say (over the course of a year) you might spend £10,000 on everything you need. Your agreement might be (if you hit this number) your supplier will give you a 10% rebate on everything at the end of the year. This works really well for both you and your supplier, as your supplier believes you will do your best to spend everything with them and if you do, at the end of the year, you will feel great, as you’ll receive £1,000 (or more) back in a cash rebate.

Just to summarise…

Office supplies (although a seemingly small portion of your budget) can become very expensive rather quickly. However, by switching to own brands when appropriate, choosing the right supplier, negotiating the right pricing structure and agreeing a rewards program that benefits you both. You can help your business save more money than you might have first thought.