Is it time to go paperless in your business?
The benefits of going paperless
Going paperless means not using paper documents in your business and using digital documents instead.
Going paperless has many benefits including:
- Saving time and boosting your business efficiency
- Reducing business costs
- Being more environmentally friendly
- Reducing human error for your business
- Saving space
- Helping with your emergency management.
How to go paperless
1. Check your businesses digital maturity
Start by identifying what your business is doing well and where you can improve when it comes to digital maturity. Use our free Digital Readiness Assessment Tool to help you. It takes about 10 minutes for you to complete, and we recommend using it once a year as a digital health check for your business.
2. Use digital tools and software that will benefit your business
Many digital tasks can be completed using easily accessible online software and tools. These include:
- Document management systems – for organising, storing and searching for digital files.
- Accounting systems – for storing and accessing all your financial details. This will make tax time so much easier. With a few clicks of a button, you can produce handy reports to help you complete your tax return.
- Customer relationships systems – for recording interactions between you and your prospective and existing customers.
- Learning management systems – for creating training courses, storing course information and delivering courses.
3. Get expert digital support
If you're a small business owner and not sure how to get started, you may be eligible for support from an expert from the Digital Solutions program. The program will work with you to adopt digital tools to save you time and money, and to help grow your business.
Learn about the Digital Solutions program.
Search for more experts to help you go digital.
4. Bring your staff along for the digital journey
If you have employees, then the transition to go paperless will have a better chance of success if you bring your staff along for the digital journey. You can do this by:
- Communicating to your staff how the new digital tools will help their work and benefit them.
- Involving staff in decision making about digital tools and software.
- Making sure your staff receive training in how to use your digital tools, before they need to use them.
- Easing staff into change gradually. Remember that going paperless is a journey, and people respond better to small changes over time.
5. Learn what other businesses have done
6. Understand rules for digital marketing
Marketing through printed materials, such as brochures, can be costly. You can save money by marketing through digital channels, such as emails, text messages and social media, but it's important that you understand the rules when sending electronic commercial messages to your customers.
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