When you’re starting a business or looking for ways to cut expenses, you know how important it is to stick to your budget. However, at the same time, you need to focus on productivity so that your business continues to bring in revenue. The following office hacks will help you meet both goals simultaneously. Each hack takes under an hour to complete and costs under $100 to make happen.
1.Instead of spending a lot of money on a whiteboard, grab a smooth body panel from an old appliance that’s not repairable. Make sure it’s a smooth one or you’ll end up with marker stuck in the textured areas. Bonus: It’s also magnetic, allowing you to really customize it to meet your needs. If you can’t find a panel, grab a can of blackboard or whiteboard paint and paint a section of wall to make your board, then use decorative duct tape to create a frame that covers the edge of the painted section.
2.Use binder clips for everything. They’re great for cord control, keeping the ends of your charging cables at the edge of your desk, phone stand, hanger or any other of dozens of uses people have found for these handy and inexpensive office supplies.
3.Make your own desk. If you need to add desk space, grab a couple short bookcases and plop a piece of plywood or old countertop on the top. Bonus: The bookshelves give you plenty of storage space while the slightly deeper top gives you a little more desktop real estate to put to use. Add a few hanging baskets to hold your power strip, office essentials and personal items without losing storage or desktop space.
4.Create your own drawer organizer to keep things organized. Muffin tins, cut-down cereal boxes, toilet paper rolls set on end for cord control, small jars for office supplies.
5.Clean your keyboard using a piece of clear tape or a sticky note to grab the debris that’s too far down to otherwise reach. Bonus: No cranky coworkers who can’t hear over the sound of the mini-vacuum or the canned air.
6.Does your laptop get so hot sitting on your desk that you’re waiting for it to explode? Cut the bottom half of a couple egg cartons and elevate it, allowing plenty of airflow for effective cooling and to prevent overheating.
7.Can’t quite hear your phone’s speaker but don’t want to put on headphones? Put it in an empty plastic cup. The cone shape acts like a speaker. To really pump up the jams, cut a round circle out of the side of two cups, then insert a toilet paper roll, one cup on each end. Add a little tape to hold it in place and a cutout for your phone to sit in the paper roll and now you have two free speakers instead of one.
8.Take advantage of business productivity apps. There are many cross-platform apps used for organizing accounting, project ideas, paperwork, notes, research and to-do lists, among others. With the prevalence of smartphones, multi-purpose machines and online faxing services, there’s no reason to spend a lot of money on a fax machine and an additional phone line. There are a huge number of ebook readers that help you catch up on the latest trends and business techniques without cluttering your office.
9.Instead of investing serious cash in a network rack, set up your router, backup drives and similar components in a set of stackable letter trays. You can use binder clips for cord control on the back.
10.Ditch the fax machine and phone bill. Faxing is still necessary at times, however with advanced technology you can get the same security and fax through the cloud. It’s a simple, economic solution to save hundreds of dollars. Onlinefaxes is one of the best in the industry and has proven time and time again to help leaders cut cost and increase productivity.
By keeping these hacks in mind for your office, you’ll be able to save both time and money while still making your office more efficient and productive. Try one or more of these tips today to find out just how well your office can run without investing a lot of time and resources.
Written by Leah Faul, Marketing Director of OnlineFaxes.com a strong believer in social entrepreneurship, increasing your productivity through technology and content marketing.
