It's Green and Sexy: Going Paperless with Document Storage Solutions

Between doctors’ offices and freelance business consultants, every small business owner should really look into the possibilities of looking for a document storage company. Perhaps second only to investing on a decent wireless network for a small office, every business owner should find someone who’ll store their documents for safe storage and back up.

            In this post, I’ll be outlining the benefits and costs of document storage, what it typically includes and how it can affect your company’s potential for growth and change.

            Here are my thoughts on document storage and why every business should invest in them:

A paperless office is the future.

            When the wireless revolution became the vogue a few years, our family business (then under the guidance of my elder sisters) immediately shifted towards less networking cables.

We figured that a clutter-free environment fostered productivity (and up to a point, prosperity). Our parents didn’t want to make that change. They figured it was a largely unnecessary expense on our web development company.

            Looking back, it was probably one of the smartest moves we ever made. We enjoyed a working atmosphere that felt really lighter, unencumbered and refreshing to begin with.

            Document storage offers the same functionality to business owners. You get roughly the same value – you’re saving plenty of precious space and real estate. You’re also fostering a more environmentally responsible choice.

Mind you, not every client will appreciate that but if you’re offering green solutions at roughly the same price as other competing brands and business, there’s a good chance you’ll land more contracts, moving forward.

Filing becomes a thing of the past.

            Believe it or not, there are people whose boats float with the thought of filing. Yes, I’m talking about the seemingly endless, screamingly inane acts of shuffling documents, tagging them with specific codes or colors and tucking them away on large aluminum cabinets. I should know; I’m married to one.

            Some of the best document storage companies do offer digitizing your files and records as part of the suite of services they offer. While not all of them do this for free, some of them can even help you choose a filing system for your digital content.

            In our business, there was a time when the office will be one seething mass of chaos and confusion when such and such receipts can’t be located especially around tax season. We all counted on my wife to handle the filing for all of us.

            Now that we’ve successfully migrated all of our content in nice digital files, in spreadsheets and scanned copies, locating a receipt is as easy as pulling up a search query. Looking for tax write-offs is as easy as sorting all digital copies via color and tags. It’s especially on these days when we feel that records management is well worth the investment. We know we’re saving (and by extension, making more) money this way.

            If I’m honest, this is one of the most important aspects of document storage for all of us. More than the secure backups and perhaps more than restoring our databases from a specific time and date; it’s that part where we’re all organized and we’re able to stay on top of our workloads that makes records management worth the sticker price.

            Have you tried document storage before? Has it helped your business grow? Share your tips or ask your questions in the comments below.

Becci Thomas is a programmer and troubleshooter for a web hosting company his parents put up right around the time when laptops were actually called luggables. He also writes for Records Management one of the country’s leading providers for document storage solutions in the UK.