In August 2017 I ditched my problematic printer and switched to a paperless office.
What does ‘paperless’ mean?
According to paperlesslogo.com, you can qualify as paperless if any three of the following apply to your business:
- Formal communications are conducted via email/phone instead of posted letter.
- Invoices are sent via email or made available online without being printed.
- Payments are made online and not by cheque unless required.
- You do not use a fax machine.
- Filing is done on hard drives, servers or online and you do not use filing cabinets.
Source: www.paperlesslogo.com
In my business all of the above points apply. This allows me to display the ‘Proud to be Paperless’ logo in my website footer.
20 Steps to a paperless office
Here’s how I made the switch to a paperless office — and how you can too.
- I used Scanbot to convert my existing paper documents into digital PDFs.
- I shredded and recycled all my existing paper documents.
- I don’t print anything now unless an outside authority insists upon it and the printout is for their records — not mine.
- I don’t keep my computer connected to the printer, so I can’t print anything accidentally.
- I have switched to online banking.
- I have made it easy for clients to pay me via BACS, rather than using cheques.
- I have devised an effective digital filing system for my client projects and accounts.
- I have created a digital copywriting brief that clients can complete in Word and submit via email.
- I use multiple desktops and swipe between them when referring to different sources of information, rather than using printouts.
- I bookmark websites in my browser when I want to refer to them again, rather than printing off the pages.
- I choose digital formats, such as ebooks and online articles, when researching, rather than buying paper versions.
- I communicate by email, phone or social media — never by post or fax.
- I edit client documents in Google Docs rather than marking the changes on paper.
- I share large files using the Google Drive rather than printing them out.
- I send out client projects as PDFs or Word files.
- I quote and invoice using PDFs attached to email.
- I either take my laptop to meetings or a reusable notepad, where you can erase your notes with a hairdryer and reuse all the pages
- I scanned my signature so I have the capability to sign documents online, though I have found these are not always accepted.
- I reuse envelopes.
- And if I absolutely have to print something:
- I print onto 80gsm paper as lower grades tend to jam the printer and consequently create more waste
- I use the economy, fast-draft ink setting
- I am selective and only print the required pages of the document, even if this takes a little longer
- I view a print preview before I print to make sure I get it right first time.
About the author
I’m Jenny Lucas, a UK copywriter, based in Leicester.
I became a copywriter in 2005 after six years working in design and marketing.
I started my freelance copywriting business alongside my full time job in 2011 and, in 2017, I decided to give up having a day job and freelance full time.
Today I’m a generalist copywriter who specialises in conceptual copywriting and SEO copy for the web.
Image by Krzysztof Kamil from Pixabay