5 Smart Ways to Cut on Office Supply Costs

If you own a business, it is likely that you are enjoying the freedom it gives you because you are the one who has control over your business and employees. However, running your own business also comes with a huge responsibility. You need to find ways to spend less while making more at the same time. As you know, cutting costs can be challenging. But here are some ideas on how you can save on business overhead using coupons, discounts, and freebies, which you can get from various online discount stores.

1. Take advantage of reward savings cards

When you shop at some of the biggest office and school supplies store, you may sign up for their reward savings cards for free. With these cards, you can earn points for every purchase that you make, and you may redeem those points for discounts. You can also receive discount coupons from these stores.

2. Do your shopping online

There are so many online discount stores where you can find all the office supplies you need. Many stores even offer free shipping if you spend a particular amount on your purchase. If you are too busy to check out several online office supplies stores, you might as well go to Mintprice.com. By shopping through this site, you can get all the supplies you need from a variety of online discount stores. Mintprice will be the one to find what you need all over the web, and they make sure they get you the cheapest items out there. This is without a doubt the most convenient way you can shop for office supplies online.

3. Check out discount warehouse stores

Warehouse stores always offer some of the best prices for school and office supplies. They usually offer the best deals for various items, so it is a good idea to check out their offering every once in a while.

4. Buy in bulk

Buying in bulk has always been one of the ways you can save on school and office supplies. Make it a habit to do an inventory of your office materials so you could know until when they will last. This way, you would know which items can be purchased in bulk, and which ones are better off purchased in smaller quantities.

5. Take advantage of freebies

Many office supplies stores offer free items for particular purchases. For instance, you can get a free ream of paper for purchasing printer ink. In most cases, you just need to sign up for a store’s rewards card program to avail such free items. There are several online discount stores that also give away free office items for huge purchases. These are the deals you definitely shouldn’t miss!

Tips for Preventing Workplace Stress

If you’re so focused on your job and career that you’ve already forgotten how to have fun, chances are you are under a lot of stress. While there is nothing wrong with being a hard-worker (to the point that you spend your break time looking for cheap office and school supplies online), there is just no way you should take your work-life balance for granted. Our goal in this post is to share with you some tips and ideas on how you may stay away from too much stress from work. 

1. Have a good breakfast

The best way to start your day is to have some good breakfast. When you’ve got so much to do at work, you need lots of energy to get you through the day, and this is what breakfast can give you.

2. Find time to do some walking

Sitting for several hours straight will not only put a strain on your back and body, but can also affect your mood. By walking even just for 10 minutes every 2 hours will boost your energy and uplift your mood.

3. Listen to music

Music has an amazing ability to make you feel good about yourself and everything around you. Good music will also uplift your mood, and can also help you relax your muscles. If you get easily distracted when you play music while working, you may instead listen to a few songs during your break time.

4. Get some healthy snacks

Food plays a huge role in reducing your stress levels throughout the day. Not only will food make you feel satisfied, it can make you more energetic and productive at work. There are lots of stress relieving recipes you can get online, so you’d better try some of them.

5. Get more organized

Stress can also be a result of the condition of your surroundings. If your desk is messy and so disorganized, it would be hard for you to concentrate and get the things that you need. This can surely add up to your stress at work. Thus, you should get the right materials from a discount office supply store so you could keep your things more organized. Mintprice.com is a good place to find the cheapest office supplies online so you’d better check it out.

6. Prioritize work effectively

It is important that you prioritize work properly so you can avoid cramming at the end of the day just to finish whatever tasks need to be done. You should focus on finishing the most important tasks, and save the less important ones, like ordering printing supplies online, for later in the day. This way, you can spend enough time and energy on things that matter more.

Reduce Business Energy Costs with These Easy Tips

As an entrepreneur, for sure you know how challenging it is to keep your business competitive and profitable. Apart from the business strategies you need to come up with, you also have to find ways to keep up with the increasing costs of running your business – employee salaries, rental space, production costs, business supplies and even energy costs.

If you want to reduce your business expenditures, you might as well look into how you can save on your energy costs. Many business owners just don’t realize how much unnecessary costs they are spending on their constant consumption of energy.

Follow these tips on how to promote energy conservation at work:

1. Get your energy consumption audited. There are many energy audit companies you can choose from that can perform the audit for your business. They will be able to help you identify which areas of your business you can trim down energy usage. They may also give you tips on how to use energy efficiently.

2. Go for CFL’s instead of fluorescent light bulbs. CFL runs longer and consumes less energy. Although they cost a bit higher than regular bulbs, you can enjoy huge savings in the long run because they are more energy efficient.

3. Do not ignore your office computers’ hibernation features. Desktops and laptops are designed with ‘hibernate’ feature to allow users to save on power consumption while at the same time keeping the existing work on the computer. Encourage your employees to switch to hibernate mode during breaks.

4. Limit paper usage. Make it an office policy to print only when needed. With this, you will see a huge decrease in the amount of paper and ink used in your office. Also, this can help reduce power consumption because the office printer will not be running all day.  Encourage your employees to share files electronically instead. As a result, you won’t have to regularly go to office supplies stores to replenish your paper and ink supplies.

5. Inspect the workplace and look for places where air may leak. Even the smallest openings in your doors or windows can cause your business to spend more on cooling and heating. Make sure every corner in your office is sealed to eliminate drafts that may cause air to leak.

6. Let your workers work from home on certain days of the week. Allowing employees to work from home every now and then has been proven to be effective in boosting employee engagement. But this is also a good way for your business to cut on energy costs.

7. Invest in energy-efficient office equipment. The best way to reduce energy consumption is to use energy-efficient machines and equipment. You can use Mintprice.com to find the cheapest but quality office equipment from various office supplies and stationery stores online.

Easy Steps to Reduce Your Office Expenses

In a highly competitive marketplace like we have today, it is just natural for businesses to try to cut costs and reduce unnecessary expenditures. Since cutting costs on labor, operations, and large equipment may have a negative impact on the productivity of the business overall, the cost cutbacks should be applied somewhere else, particularly the office expenses. With the existence of online discount stores, it has become easier for businesses and companies to lower office expenses.

Apart from purchasing wholesale office supplies in an attempt to cut costs, there are a few changes to the standard operations in your business you can make to scale back your expenses. They are the following:

Step 1

Consider installing motion-sensitive lights in certain parts of the office, like the restroom to reduce unnecessary power expenditures. You should also remind all employees to make sure all unused lights and other equipment are turned off before leaving the office.

Step 2

It is also worth considering finding a replacement for landline phones. There are a number of alternatives right now, specifically VOIP services. You may use Skype and other services to serve as the means of communication within your office.

Step 3

Get rid of paper already. In today’s world, it is too easy already to edit, exchange and collaborate on documents electronically or digitally. There is no need for your office to print thousands of documents each month just to keep the business running. You can do all that through cloud sharing. Going paperless spares you from the costs of paper, toner cartridge, printer, and other copier expenses.

Step 4

Employ temporary staff. If your business has its own high and low seasons, it is a good strategy to hire temporary staff during your peak season. This will allow you to avoid the overhead costs that come with hiring permanent employees.

Step 5

Reduce business travel costs. Travel costs can take up a huge part of your budget, that’s for sure. And so, you have to look for other alternatives, particular those technology-based solutions. For instance, you can use video conferencing instead of in-face meetings, so you can avoid spending thousands of dollars for your travel.

Step 6

Negotiate with your office or school supplies store. If you are a repeat customer of a particular office supplier, then you should take advantage of some benefits they offer their loyal customers. Perhaps you can ask for a discount on shipping or delivery, or price reduction on major items. This is exactly how you may benefit from Mintprice.com. 

Mintprice.com is the only office supplies comparison site in the UK, which allows you to get all your office needs at the cheapest prices. Mintprice will find all the online discount stores where you can buy each of the office items you need.

5 Tips to Feng Shui Your Own Workspace

Are you always excited to come to work? Do you often find yourself complaining about how exhausted you are at the end of each day? These are just some of the many questions you need to resolve if you feel like your productivity level is going down. If there’s one thing you should do to increase your productivity, that is to make some changes in your workspace. Investing in your own comfortable executive office desk, for instance, is a good first step. 

Here are some feng-shui tips to improve your office environment:

1. Always watch your back!

If someone wants to harm you, the easiest way is to hit you from behind. Thus, you need to have good back support where you are seated. If your job requires you to sit at your desk the entire day, be sure there is a wall behind you.

2. Sitting facing a wall is not a good idea.

Placing your desk somewhere that faces a wall means you are letting something or someone block your promotion. If it is impossible for you to move your desk, then you could at least hang a picture of scenery that features an open field. This will symbolize your bright future. This picture will also block the negative effects of facing the wall.

3. Stay away from a confrontational seating arrangement.

In any workplace, it is important that work desks and task chairs of employees are not directly facing one another. According to feng-shui experts, facing someone all the time can cause confrontational energies to rise between the two people. 

4. Get the right chair.

Clearly, the quality of desk and chair you are using has an effect on the quality of your work. Organizations know this, and so they provide their workers with office chairs cheap that are ergonomic as well.

Since you have to sit on your office chair for a long time, your chair has to be ergonomically designed to protect you from neck and back strain. You may use Mintprice.com to find a well designed ergonomic chair that will allow you to sit for long periods of time without getting uncomfortable or tired.

5. Keep your office free from clutter.

The easiest way to reduce your efficiency at work is to have a cluttered workspace. If you want to be more effective at work, you should make it a habit to clear clutter from your desk every day. This way, your surroundings will be organized, and so is your mind.

When it comes to designing or even organizing your executive office desk and your workspace itself, there are several things to consider. But what’s important is for you to have a work environment that will not distract you, and will instead motivate you to do your best at work.

How to Organize Your Workspace to Be More Productive at Work

Your environment at work definitely affects the way you work. When your workspace is messy, cluttered, or distracting, your performance at work will certainly be affected in a negative way. A well organized office, on the other hand, has a lot of benefits. When your computer furniture is neat and clutter-free, you can have a feeling of competence and control, which then results to improved productivity.

If you’ve been working in a cubicle that’s so disorganized and simply chaotic, it’s time you did something t improve your work environment! Here’s how you could get started:

Find time for a clean-up!

There’s no way you can create a productive workspace unless you find time to actually clean up your office. Depending on how disorganized your office is, it could take you hours or even the entire day to clean up your mess. 

Have a place for incoming junk.

There are basically three kinds of junk that flow into your office – important documents, your personal stuff, and trash. You need to have a space where you can put all these things. Ideally, you want it somewhere easily accessible in your office, such as to the right side of your door. If you’re working in a cubicle, you want it anywhere near the entrance.

Your desktop must be cleared from clutter.

Your desktop is the most important space in your office because it is where you actually do your work. Many people love to work in a messy desk, but according to studies, employees have a bigger chance of being productive when their desk is neat and organized. 

There are lots of different organizing tools you can use to keep your desk clutter-free. You may check out Mintprice.com to see your options, and also to find the cheapest office supplies and even equipment online.

Have two document trays on your office desk.

Even if you are working from home, it is likely that you deal with paperwork a lot. To keep your documents organized, it is a good idea to have two document trays on your desk – one for new documents, and the other one for documents you’ve opened and read already. This way, you will know which ones you should deal with right away, and which ones you have completed already. 

Paper trays should be located where you can access them easily. Put them close to your home office chairs so they can easily be reached.

Conclusion

A good work environment is one that doesn’t just have the right furniture, but also one that is properly organized. If you want to find the best office supplies or furniture online, read a couple of office chair reviews first before making any purchase. You should also check out the first and only office supplies comparison website, Mintprice.com.

10 Office Etiquette You Cannot Ignore

One of the easiest ways to get disliked by your boss and your colleagues at work is to forget that there are codes and even unwritten rules that you should abide by in the workplace. When you’re not careful enough, you could also risk getting opportunities to advance in your career simply because others are turned off by your unprofessionalism. What’s worse is that your simple mistake of using your coworker’s stationery supplies might be misinterpreted as being intentionally disrespectful.

It is, therefore, important that you be aware of office etiquette so you could be more likeable for your coworkers. 

Below are the basic office etiquette you should practice:

1. Avoid interrupting your colleagues. Interrupting someone while they are talking is a sign of being disrespectful and poor social skills as well.

2. Know when to stop. When a coworker starts to walk away while you are still talking, you should consider it a sign that you’ve been talking too much.

3. Don’t be loud. Nobody wants to share a cubicle with a person who seems to yell at the person on the phone. Being too loud is rude and intrusive.

4. Smelly food is not something you want to eat in your cube. Eating smelly food like buttered popcorn and tuna can be offensive to a coworker, so you might as well save them for snacks or dinner at home.

5. Don’t take all the credit to yourself. Taking all the credit for a successful project that was actually the result of collaboration will make you look greedy and self-indulgent.

6. Avoid using slang. When sending emails, make sure you write in a formal and professional manner. Even if you are merely requesting for additional paper supplies in your department, you shouldn’t use slang or text-speak.

7. Mind your office attire. If your company allows you to dress down on particular days, be sure to wear decent and professional clothes. The safest thing to do is remain traditional in your wardrobe.

8. Keep your things clean and organized. Your boss doesn’t have to remind you to clean your desk before you leave work. You can go to Mintprice.com to order cheap office organizing tools so your workspace will look attractive and dignified!

9. Always be on time. Being punctual says a lot a person’s values. When you consistently come to work or meetings late, you are basically saying that you don’t care at all.

10. Take care of company property. Everything you’re using at work is owned by your company, so you should use them properly and with respect. How you take care of even the most affordable office furniture shows how much you respect your work and your organization.