Going Paperless: A Method for Going Easy on Your Wallet, Budget, and Bottom Line

Editor’s Note: Our theme for this month focuses on topics that make things easier for you when it comes to your pest control business. We chose to re-share this particular blog on taking your pest control office the paperless route in an effort to relieve the strain that the cost of paper can add to your company budget.

Running a pest control office has MANY expenses.

Payroll, chemical costs, and equipment are all significant factors affecting your bottom line, but the cost of paper is often overlooked. Most companies are SHOCKED to see what they are actually spending on paper. It is estimated that a 5% decrease in operating expenses results in the same effect as a 30% increase in sales. Eliminating paper costs is the best thing you can do for your pest control office right now.

Cost Breakdown

The amount of money that your company can possibly save by going paperless will be directly related to the costs you’re currently paying for managing paper. If you are looking for a quick summary, look no further. The most common sources of paper costs include service notifications, billing invoices/statements, and service agreements. Each has an associated paper/ink cost and labor cost. Labor costs include the time required to fill out a document as well as enter it into your existing software.

Total Paper Costs Per 1,000 Customers Per Year: $5,740

Assumptions:

• Each customer will receive an average of 5 services per year (4 quarterly and a re-service or standalone service).

• Envelope cost: $.07, Paper/Ink Sheet: $.09, Stamp: $.49

• Average of 2 statements per customer per year required to collect the balance

• Number of agreements based on signing up 30% more customers each year to keep up with attrition and slight growth

Paper Clutter and Storage

In addition to being expensive and inconvenient, paper is also messy. There is nothing more depressing than walking into work in the morning and seeing a stack of paper on your desk. Especially in field service industries, invoices get dirty, matted, crumpled up, and covered in chemicals. Storing these documents (as often required by law) can be expensive, take up space, and be hard to manage. Eliminating paper from your office will immediately improve your working environment by decluttering the workspace.

Effective Use of Resources

While yes, you can use employees or even yourself to do data entry or even stuff envelopes, the truth of the matter is that there are many more effective uses of time for employees than dealing with paper. Eliminating paper allows you to focus your time and energy on improving customer service, calling new leads, and collecting money. It also improves morale as employees no longer have to spend their time on mundane tasks. And these are all wins for your business from the inside out.

Partnering with the right company not only eases your paperless transition but also adds to your company’s bottom line. An effective platform will make the need for paper copies redundant, possibly saving your company hundreds to thousands of dollars per month. Just think, billing no longer would require paper nor personnel to send or process bills, saving you even more in both office supplies and labor and, as such, easing your bottom line.