It seems like common sense, but many home-based businesses don’t actually have all of the tools they need. One of the things often lacking in a home office is the proper set of printing tools. While you might think you can get away with the usual consumer-grade setup, you’re going to find (quickly) that commercial printers are a better bang for your money. Here’s the major tools you’ll probably need:
A Dedicated Printer
In a world dominated by multi-function printers, why would you want a dedicated printer? You’ve probably heard the phrase, “jack of all trades, master of none,” right? There’s some truth to that statement – especially when it comes to quality output.
With a dedicated printer, the machine can focus on doing just one thing really well – printing. You’re often not limited by footprint either, because dedicated machines are designed to take up as much space as is needed to get the job done.
Contrast that with multi-function printers. Their job is to combine multiple devices into one while keeping the overall size down. The result is a machine that doesn’t do any task superbly and just manages to get by. Samsung is one of the major manufactures for mono-function printers, but there are many other companies in this space that are putting out high-quality machines too.
Basically, you want to focus on the resolution capabilities, the pages per minutes output, and the ink or toner reserve capacity. Generally, the bigger, the better.
Software
The printer software you need depends largely on the type of business you run. If you do a lot of spreadsheets, you’ll need software that can integrate pages from multiple programs into one. For example, if you have a Powerpoint graph, an Excel or spreadsheet-based graph, and a text-driven analysis, you’ll want something that can pull all this information together and print it so that everything has a sense of cohesiveness.
If you’re the type of business owner who wants control over the business card production, you’ll need a print tool that can handle this. If you print a lot of photographs (i.e. you’re a professional photographer), make sure your software has extensive editing tools. If you do a lot of graphic design work, blueprints, or other technical schematics, your software will probably be industry-specific or custom-made.
It still needs to interact with your printer, however, and the two programs need to communicate so that what you see on the screen is what you get when it’s printed. Don’t take that for granted – it doesn’t always happen.
Apps
Mobile sales applications are great if you do business on the road or if you have a transaction scheme that necessitates a decentralized sales process. For example, if you go to trade shows, mobile applications will allow you to make the sale, and print a receipt without ever having to set foot back in the office. Apps that are capable of communicating with your printer at the office are getting to be pretty common – as are mobile sales solutions. All you have to do is find one that you personally like and find easy to use.
Michael Holmes has run a home office for over 5 years. He enjoys sharing his insights and ideas online.
