What’s the cost of printing a page?
If you Google the average price to print a page, you’ll see results range from $0.10 to $1.50 per page.
Why such a huge difference? And what if your agency uses carbon copy pages?
Well, there’s that saying, “the devil is in the details…”
It’s the same with paper.
The 9 Real Costs of Paper
1. Supplies & Materials (This Week)
2. Labor Costs
3. Service Costs
4. Time Inefficiency
5. Storage Costs
6. Compliance & Security Costs
7. Opportunity Costs
8. Disaster Recovery
9. Client Impact
For the next several weeks, we’re going to deep dive into the 9 real costs of paper.
This week, we’re looking at supplies and materials.
The Cost of Supplies & Materials
1. Paper
The cost of the paper itself is just the beginning. Some people are OK with the cheapest paper they can find at Office Depot, and that’s fine. But many agencies use Regular purchases of high-quality paper for record-keeping.
The cheapest sheet of printer paper from Office Depot is $12.49 per ream before tax, which makes it 2.5 cents per sheet.
Depending on your vendor, a standardized 2-part carbon copy could be around $0.25 per “page.”
If a 50 client agency uses one carbon copy page per client per day, then they’re spending ~$4,562.50 just in paper for DSPs!
(50 Clients X 365 Days X $0.25 = $4,562.50 in in-home paper)
And this obviously doesn’t include the environmental impact of using so much paper…
2. Ink and Toner
With paper, there’s a constant need for ink and toner. Even if you use carbon copy pages, administrators and supervisors are still printing regular pages too.
Inkjets are often cheaper than laser machines, but the ink is far more expensive per page than toner.
But agencies are often printing a lot, scanning a lot, and might even be faxing.
The cheapest Lexmark all-in-one color laser printer intended for business use at Office Depot was over $5,000.
3. Filing Cabinets and Storage
With all this paper comes the need for serious storage.
Boxes are cheaper than filing cabinets but they’re not easy to use unless you don’t ever want to pull files out.
But they still take up lots of space.
This means paying for office space that you wouldn’t otherwise want or need.
4. Maintenance of Office Equipment
All these printers and copiers require maintenance. While most forego regular maintenance, they inevitably require service. And depending on what needs attention, the price could be as little as a $100 call-out fee or much more for parts.