TL;DR: All-in-one printer manufacturers compete with your business by betting against your success and penalizing you for growth. Get yourself a Print Partner who seeks triple wins – protecting your costs, scaling your business and putting you in sync with your customers’ vision of quality for the future.
In this time of massive change in workplace expectations, almost nothing goes as expected. At times, you may even find yourself partnering with someone seemingly innocuous, who is really a competitor.
Closeted competitors take on many forms. They often approach as the unobtrusively small and shiny, easy come easy go, budget-friendly helping hand during hard times.
Sharp business owners plan defensively, and learn to differentiate a Cost-Saving Print Partner from Closet Competitor by a competitor’s two consistent tells:
- They BET AGAINST Your Success.
- They PENALIZE Your Growth.
Get wise. Don’t allow your business to fall victim to a covert culprit of “leaky wallet syndrome” in the age of #workfromhome: All-in-one Desktop Printers.
All-In-One Printers: They are Betting Against Your Success.
Companies like Hewlett Packard, for example, know that investing in a consumer-grade printer makes perfect sense… if you’re not planning to stay in business more than a couple of years!
HP designs light-weight (35 lbs and under), desktop disposable all-in-one printers that deteriorate after 2-3 years of wear and tear (or 10,000 copies, whichever comes first). Consumer-grade printer providers believe that you’ll be either be: a) out of business in short order, or b) negligent in monitoring your true print costs. After all, 90% of businesses are unaware of what they could save by looking at a long-term solution (check out this Savings Calculator). (But surely you won’t do enough business to EVER need more than 10k copies?!)
Consider the HP Officejet 9025, released in 2019. The 9025 will yield about 1,700 pages of color and black and white pages per cartridge, and holds 500 sheets of paper. Total. And it will last about 2 years. With these short-sighted specs, HP succinctly summarizes it’s message to customers: your business is your business. They don’t pretend to care about your vision for success. In fact, they plan that you’ll never get there, or that you won’t suspect their cartridge costs, low capacity and lack of support make success harder than it has to be.
But, suppose your business is wildly successful, and you end up needing additional capacity? HP will gladly sell you another $329 all-in-one printer for $1,481 (that’s right – check the math!).
Your commercial-grade print partner, however, sees the bigger picture. As a result, things work out differently for cost-conscious #workfromhome warriors.
As your business grows, print needs increase, and your ability to deliver simply and quickly must scale. A commercial-grade Ricoh MP C305, will yield 16,000 (notice the extra ZERO!) without so much as a pause. Paper capacity is buyer’s choice, with options to include as little as 250 sheets (plus a 100 sheet by-pass tray) or up to 1,350 sheets.
Suppose a pandemic happens, and you are only half as successful in year one or two as you planned? It may surprise you that investing in a quality commercial machine can actually save you money in the (not-so) long run.
For a limited time, Copy Tech is offering lease-to-own Ricoh MP 301SPF Black and White Laser Multifunction Printer for only $25 per month, and Ricoh MP C305’s at just $35 per month.
These are 99 lb durable commercial desktop machines designed with your success in mind. “Toner and service included” means that with a one-time $99 delivery and install fee, you can be up and running today and saving between $542 – $782 within the first two years. Best of all, you will gain a partner who believes in your vision and supports your growth objectives.
Now, the average consumer machine typically costs between $200-$400 out of pocket. And may last a couple of years with moderate usage. A typical commercial machine, on the other hand, can cost upwards of $2,000, and last you up to 10+ years. As a business owner, you’re likely in it for the long-haul. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t benefit from immediate cost savings with a more reliable machine and support system.
In this age of home-based business, the seemingly low entry point to acquire a cheap consumer copier may make it a tempting purchase. But like any capital investment, the quality of the results you reap – in this case, quality print, toner yield, life span and maintenance or replacement costs – are directly proportional to the quality of the workhorse you are betting on.
All-In-One Printers Penalize You for Growth.
Speaking of consumer-grade cash guzzlers… When it comes to consumer-grade printers in a business setting, no good growth goes unpunished.
HP’s 9025 is a textbook lesson in planned obsolescence. As we mentioned, HP’s offering costs $329 and change up front. But what you don’t see are all of the injurious hidden costs associated with inkjet.
There’s the toner for $96 per refill, which an average small business would need to replace about 6 times per year. In it’s two year life span (for which, by the way, HP only includes a one-year limited hardware warranty) a new owner could spend roughly $1,192 just to satisfy their basic requirements of this ink-hungry fiend.
Think that’s a bit pricey, do you? What if we told you that although you’d be paying for 100% of that ink, you wouldn’t necessarily be getting it’s full utility? According to The American Consumer Institute, plenty of name-brand disposable cartridges leave an unfair percentage of residual ink inside. Meanwhile, the inkjet printer itself either pesters you to change the cartridge(s) or shuts down completely.
“I personally think that consumers are getting ripped off,” says Steve Pociask, president of the ACI. “In some cases, we found that [the price of] the printer could be 1/8 of the total cost of printing,” says Pociask. “Over the life of the printer — and by that I mean three years — you can easily spend $800 for the printer and ink.”
Thanks to the good people of ACI and others in research, customers have begun waking up to the endless supply burden consumer machines dish out. As a result, HP and others have begun to phase out discounts for printer models that are capable of using off-brand supplies. (Customers will still have an option to buy HP printers that can use third-party supplies – how generous! — but those printers will come with a higher price tag.)
We haven’t even touched on the proliferation of “instant ink” promotions that should make even the diehard inkjet aficionados a wee-bit skeptical. That’s a story for another day 😊 But if you’re curious, indulge here.
In a certain sense, the disposable all-in-one printer approach translates into an expendable relationship…
Hey! That sounds like the mindset of Competitor!
You Deserve Better.
In contrast, real print and office workflow partners protect your costs while providing scalable support to feed your business momentum. Partners recognize that it’s a win-win-win to help you pull through and come out on top. Protecting your costs, scaling your business and putting you in sync with your customers’ vision of quality for the future are Copy Tech’s top priorities.
With a Print Partner like Copy Tech:
- Business Owners benefit from a cost-effective, dependable office workflow (any size, anywhere). We can handle the changing demands of your growing enterprise.
- Your clientele benefits from your superior offering because you are fully focused on serving their needs (NOT babysitting the copy machine).
- Excellent resources abound locally and online. We give your business the support you deserve to thrive in a dynamic economy.
Are you partnering with a Competitor? They penalize your growth. They bet against your success. Don’t allow the distraction of a disposable all-in-one printers mindset creep into your business approach.
A-team players hire A-team partners. Let us know when you’re ready to get started!
WRITTEN BY CHRIS SCOWDEN
Chris Scowden is the husband to a wonderful wife, Michelle. Together they have 3 daughters, ages 13, 10, and 9. The Scowdens live in Prosper, TX and have been part of the Dallas community for over 20 years. Chris leads Copy Tech with over 25 years of Executive Leadership and Business Transformation experience. He is passionate about small business and believes it is the lifeblood of our country.
We are living through unprecedented times with a lot of uncertainty and fear in the world. Copy Tech supports your business in every way that we can. If you are navigating through the transition of working from home, let us know. We have partnered with Ring Central and our equipment suppliers to create solutions for working remotely. Contact [email protected] for more info.
