Small business owners always have to keep an eye on costs, especially if they have fluctuating income, so they try to keep fixed overheads to a minimum. However, on some occasions the addition of a small fixed monthly cost for a vital service can improve both the efficiency and the profitability of a small business.
On the whole, any employer that runs a business with less than one to five employees expects them to multi-task. In addition to their main role within the business, small business employees also have to turn their hand to other activities to help the business run smoothly and ultimately thrive.
Such additional duties may include ad-hoc driving, occasional labouring and more regularly, doing the daily post – both incoming and outgoing. For many small businesses that activity includes going to the post office on a daily basis, taking the mail with them. Some items will have stamps affixed at the business premises, but larger items will need to be weighed and stamped at the post office.
A lot of that fuss could be avoided by using a franking machine within the office. New machines are easy to use and often include digital scales that instantly calculate postage costs. Credit for postal costs can be bought either online or over the phone for most franking machines allowing the business owner to accurately monitor the amount being spent on postage, and also alleviate the need for an employee to take petty cash with them to the post office to cover postage costs.
In addition to the ease of use, discounted postage is also a benefit of using
postage meters; the amount of discount is usually proportional to usage. So, busier offices buying more mail credit would normally enjoy bigger savings on their annual postage costs. However, businesses using franked mail will save at least 3p on First Class letters, 5p on Second Class letters and even bigger savings on large letters and packets.
The image of a small business can also be improved overnight by adopting the use of a franking machine. Next to the franking information and postage cost is a space in which can appear the business logo or even a campaign or sales slogan, making outgoing mail a free sales tool.
It certainly doesn’t have to be an expensive solution as personal postage meters can be leased from less than £20 per month. Add in the savings on discounted postage and staff time, and many small business owners find that a postage meter pays for itself in a very short time.
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Adam Singleton writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.
