It was legendary business theorist Peter Drucker who first said, “Do what you do best and outsource the rest.” And he was a pretty smart guy all round, so his views are not to be dismissed lightly.

It’s a principle that applies to pretty much every business, from start up to multinational. It can save time, money and get better results, and once you adopt the principle you’ll find more and more places it can be profitably applied.

So here are some things we think you could legitimately be outsourcing:

Organising receipts

Receipts – vital little scraps of paper that prove to the tax man that you’ve spent the money you say you have. You keep meaning to sort them out, but they aways end up piling up in your wallet until you can’t actually close it. Or crumpled up in a shoe box somewhere. Or lost. Enough is enough. You need a book keeper. Ideally before you get audited.

Finding documents

No one wants to go in the archive room because it’s dusty and it smells funny. Also, they don’t know where anything is. And frankly, why are you wasting £150 an hour sending highly skilled engineers into questionably safe spaces to find paperwork anyway? It’s time to get yourself an offsite storage facility with barcoding and super fast document delivery services. As it happens, we know just the people (hint: it’s us).

Driving around

No really, hear us out. How much time do you spend stuck in traffic going to meetings and such like? If you could spend that time sitting on a bus or a train or in a taxi actually getting work done, wouldn’t the cost of the fare be less than what you’d achieve? Hm? Think about it. It’s not free when you do something yourself – not if you earn a salary.

Fixing computers

Seriously, this is definitely something you need help with. Bob the sales guy might reckon he’s a dab hand at the old “switch it off and switch it on again” but these days businesses are so tech reliant. Can you afford to have your systems go down? A monthly support contract will almost certainly save you money in the long run. And frustration. And possibly having to spend time in prison after accidentally hitting a passing stranger with a flying laptop.

Your weaknesses

By which we mean, if you’re not great at something then get someone else to do it. So if you’re not especially good with words then get someone in to write your blog for you. If you can’t design for toffee, hire a designer. If you make a terrible cup of coffee, get an intern (kidding!!). Be honest with yourself, and stick within your personal ‘zone of genius’. Your business will thank you for it.

If you need help with document storage – or indeed document scanning, secure data destruction or any of the other services we offer – get in touch today for a quote. You might be surprised at how cost effective it is to outsource some of the jobs you’ve been trying to do in-house all this time.

We’re feeling a bit nostalgic this month, and all because we’re celebrating a very important anniversary: it’s been five years since we moved in to our beloved HQ. Now that might not seem all that exciting to you; an office is an office, right? Well, not as far as we’re concerned. This is our home and we love it. So here are some things you might not know about Scan Film or Store HQ.

It’s in Bridgwater

Bridgwater may not quite have the prestige of Bristol or Exeter, but it is very well located just off J23 of the M5 in easy reach of both. If you’ve not been to these parts before, Bridgwater is a market town on the edge of the Somerset Levels, and is probably most famous for it’s annual Guy Fawkes Carnival, of which Scan Film or Store are a very proud sponsor.

It’s really pretty big

With 2,000 square feet of office space and 9,000 square feet of racking, our little base is actually not so little. Which is a good thing, given that one of the reasons we’re here is to provide storage space for our many clients.

It was purpose built to our specifications

Oh yes, none of this off-the-shelf nonsense for us. We went bespoke when we commissioned our building. Not because we were trying to be flash. It’s just that a dedicated storage unit like ours has particular needs – like down beams that are linked to piles driven into the ground, to support the weight of all the documents we store. The whole floor actually had to be especially designed to take the weight of the paper, and the eaves are 8m high to accommodate the racking.

We’ve got a smashing local

Just over the other side of the motorway is The Puriton Inn, which is where we head if one of the team has a birthday, if we sign a good contract, or if we just can’t face eating soggy ham salad sandwiches again. It does huge portions of homemade food and has one of the best dessert selections in the South West.

It has a great view of Hinkley Point

Being within a stone’s throw of the new power point may or may not strike you as a good thing, but it’s certainly been interesting to watch the infamous project progress. Sadly, we don’t get a discount on our energy bill just because we’re neighbours.

We can watch the elver fishermen at work

For a three month period between mid-February and mid-May, the local river becomes a prime spot for elver fishing. Personally we’re not big fans of baby eels as a food source, but it’s fun to see the fishermen at work in their waders and nets.

If you’d like to see our offices for yourself, why not call us to arrange to drop in and say hello? We’ll give you the tour, a nice cup of tea and maybe even a biscuit if you’re lucky.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could buy time? Imagine being able to stroll into Tesco Express and pick up a jar – or a tube or a roll – of time, just to tide you over when things got a bit busy.

Sadly, buying time isn’t yet possible (we’re sure someone somewhere is working on it). But saving time, now that is possible. Not in a piggy bank, of course. You have to use it in the same sort of linear fashion as everyone else… oh, you know what we mean!

Anyway, here are our top tips for saving time at work.

1) Stop multitasking

You may be very proud of your ability to write an email while having a Skype call, eating a donut and tidying your stationery drawer, but it’s not doing you any favours when it comes to efficiency. Studies have shown that batch tasking – doing a series of similar tasks consecutively – is a much better way to get stuff done, so block out your time, get your head down and power through.

2) Manage your notifications

Did you read our recent post about New Year’s resolutions every business owner should make? If so, you’ll know that the fact that our electronic devices are so keen to tell us what’s going on means we can spend our entire lives fielding notifications. If you’re going to stop multitasking, you’ll need to make sure that you’re not getting interrupted every five seconds by a ping from Facebook, LinkedIn or your email.

3) Digitise your archives

How many hours have you spent scrabbling around in the archive room looking for paperwork you can’t even remember seeing, let alone filing? Wouldn’t it be so much easier if you could get hold of it at the touch of a button? Going digital by using a document scanning service (ahem, like ours) is a huge time saver, plus you’ll save on storage space too, so it’s a double win.

4) Have standing meetings

This isn’t a joke, promise. No one likes standing up for too long, right? So by banning chairs from your meetings you’ll reduce unnecessary chitter chatter, and everyone will get straight to the point. Result? Shorter meetings and more time for you to get on with other stuff.

5) Work to your personal rhythms

Without getting too science professor on you, there are these things called Circadian Rhythms, which basically control how we feel and behave within a 24 hour period. Listen to your body, work out when you’re most productive – maybe first thing in the morning or just after lunch – and try to do your most complex work then. You’ll zoom through it much faster than if you try when you’re feeling sluggish and no use for anything except drinking tea and possibly doing a gentle Sudoku.

6) Embrace ‘good enough’

This is one for all you perfectionists. You know that report you pretty much finished last week but have been tweaking ever since? SEND IT RIGHT NOW! It may not be perfect, but it is 99% there and that is good enough. So stop wasting time and move on to the next task. (Caveat: Good enough really isn’t good enough if you’re a brain surgeon or bomb disposal officer – in that case, you really need to aim for perfection, ok?)

7) Delegate

Do you really have to do everything on your to do list yourself? Is there someone else who can do some of it? Someone who, dare we say it, can do it quicker and even (gasp) better? Play to your strengths. If that means hiring in outside help – be it someone to handle your blogging or your event planning – you’ll probably find that the cost savings associated with you freeing up your own time will cover it.

8) Get IT support

Speaking of outsourcing… Did you know that the average business person working 40 hours a week spends 22 minutes a day sorting out computer issues? That’s 88 hours a year! Just think what you could do with that time if you had a dedicated techie to work out why all your emails since August have disappeared, rather than trying to do it yourself.

9) Say no

Of course, the very simplest way to save time is to be really, really stingy about how you spend it. Get into the habit of saying, “I’ll just check my schedule” when people ask if you can do something or invite you to an event. That way, you don’t have to say no to their face and you can work out a really great excuse if you don’t want to accept.

Good luck, and if there’s anything we can do to help (hint: number 3 is a bit of a specialism of ours) then do get in touch.

Have you ever thought about whether choosing local businesses as suppliers can benefit your own business?

There’s something about the start of a new year that makes us a little bit philosophical. Perhaps it’s the feeling of new beginnings, that sense of starting afresh with a blank slate, ready for the next 12 months of adventure. Or it could, admittedly, be too much Christmas pudding and sherry.

Either way, the thing we’ve been mulling over recently is the whole question of multinational vs independent local business.

Because as a local business ourselves, we’re really rather proud about how much small businesses contribute to the local economy.

Over 99% of business in the UK are classed as small (in other words, with less than 49 staff) which is quite something when you think about it. In fact, around 76% of businesses don’t employ anyone at all aside from the owner, which means that even the really tiny sole trader business are absolutely vital.

Sadly the multinational conglomerates, with their endless pots of cash, can buy the kind of marketing that often overshadows the humble local business. Which is a shame, because we really believe there are some sound reasons why choosing a local business can actually be good for your own business.

Here are three of them:

1) You’ll benefit from easy access

As a time-pushed business owner, you don’t want to be trekking up to London to meet your accountant or getting on a plane to sit down with your marketing agency, right? Being able to get face-to-face with your suppliers quickly and easily is definitely a bonus of choosing a local business. It’s also better for the environment, whether you’re looking at your own transport or that of any goods being shipped. And in the case of document storage – our particular passion, in case you’d missed that – it’s an awful lot easier to access your files quickly if they’re nearby in the South West rather than up north somewhere.

2) You’ll build important networks

There’s nothing like a local business community. So many small businesses live and die by referrals they get from people they’ve met at local networking events, exhibitions, conferences and the like. By choosing to work with other small, local businesses, you’ll almost certainly find your services being used in return. It’s a symbiotic relationship that can only be good for the economy and for everybody’s bottom line.

3) You’ll discover great quality

Bigger doesn’t always mean better. Just because a company has fancy offices in London, New York and Singapore, doesn’t mean they’re actually going to produce work that’s of a better quality than Nearby & Sons down the road. Local businesses are often started by very passionate, very skilled people who genuinely want to help their clients and build something they can be proud of. There’s more accountability, more personal pride and often more attention to detail.

And of course, there’s the feel good factor of knowing that you’re contributing to the local economy, and stopping the world descending into a bland monopoly of faceless corporations. You can’t really beat that, can you?

Gosh, where did the time go? It feels like we were just enjoying Wimbledon the other week. And yet here we are, about to dive into a whole new year. Which can only mean one thing: it’s New Year’s resolution time. If you’re a business owner, we’ve had a few ideas about what you could tackle in 2018 that will actually benefit you and your business. Let us know if you think of anything else.

New Year’s Resolution #01: Set a vision for the year

First things first: there is no point setting yourself a bunch of arbitrary goals if you don’t know where you’re going. And don’t just say ‘forward’ or something silly like that. You know as well as we do that setting a strong vision at the beginning of the year will motivate not just you but your entire team. So give it some thought. And don’t forget to tell the rest of them or they’ll get very lost indeed.

New Year’s Resolution #02: Declutter

You know you’ve been putting it off. That storage room is a hazard to anyone who dares venture beyond the first stack of archive boxes. It’s time to decide what can be destroyed, what can be scanned, and what can be stored off site. Don’t wait until spring. You’re a business leader – be ahead of your time! Get it done now. You’ll feel smug when March rolls around.

New Year’s Resolution #03: Turn off all IT notifications

You know what it’s like when you’re just getting your head around the latest P&L forecast, and suddenly: ping! You’ve got an email. It’s from Susan in HR, and judging by the shouty capital letters in the subject line she doesn’t sound pleased. Notifications are the enemy of productivity. Turn them off. That means social media too. If Susan needs you that urgently, she can come and talk to you in person.

New Year’s Resolution #04: Start taking a lunch break

We don’t mean to sound like your mum, but are you getting enough rest? And decent food? You won’t be particularly productive if you’re running on empty you know. And no, coffee doesn’t count. Get a sandwich into you! And go eat it outside. We don’t care if it’s cold, that’s what coats are for – you need a screen break.

New Year’s Resolution #05: Introduce flexible working

This is super trendy at the moment, so if you’re looking for good boss bonus points then this is the way to go. It’s actually a win-win staffing strategy too. Your team will be less stressed and more productive if they can work hours that suit them better, and you’ll attract more (and potentially better) candidates when hiring. Plus it’s an excuse to knock off early on a Friday, which is always nice.

New Year’s Resolution #06: Go paperless

Another worthy cause, and a tick on the environmental responsibility checklist. Again though, this is not just about looking good. Going paperless – by switching to a digital filing system, for example (less-than-subtle plug: we can help with this) – will actually save you time and money. So everyone is happy. Except maybe your stationery supplier.

New Year’s Resolution #07: Learn to delegate

Finishing with a corker, aren’t we? No matter how big your team, there are probably jobs you do that someone else could do just as well, right? Perhaps even better? Sitting at your desk until 8pm every evening doesn’t make you successful, you know. It makes you tired. And grumpy. Just ask your PA.

If you’ve got a goal for 2018 that we can help with, drop us line. Or come and see us. We might even let you have some of our left over Quality Street. See you soon!

We work with some brilliant clients and we like to think they’re all pretty happy with the work we do for them. But every now and then we get a testimonial through that really warms our hearts. And this time of year seems to generate an influx of them for some reason.

Whatever the case, we thought you might like to find out why some of our favourite clients enjoy working with us and how we’ve managed to solve their particular challenges. We think you’ll rather enjoy these…

Document storage – Chris Cringle (aka Santa Claus, aka Father Christmas), founding director, North Pole Enterprises

“I was absolutely drowning in paperwork when someone suggested I give the team at Scan Film or Store a ring. The North Pole might be pretty roomy, but if you think about how long I’ve been in this game, you can imagine that even the most extensive headquarters might get a little crowded. The elves were getting fed up of rooting around in the archives to find historic Naughty & Nice lists, and I was worried that before long we’d lose one of them to a toppling box of candy cane receipts.

“The Scan Film or Store team came out to take a look around, and promptly provided me with a very reasonable quote for document storage. They helped us getting everything packed, and even brought their own sturdy boxes. Now they’re tucked away safely in the company’s Bridgwater warehouse, cleverly barcoded so if I should happen to need a copy of my sleigh MOT certificate, they can quickly find it and get it sent over. I can’t recommend them highly enough. They’re definitely going to be getting an extra special gift in their Christmas stockings this year.”

Document scanning – Ebenezer Scrooge, credit broker, Past Present & Future Ltd

“I’ve always found the idea of paying out for off site storage space an utter waste of money. I’ve got a perfectly good office, after all, and if Cratchit can’t find anything then it’s his fault for being a useless clerk. Though I shouldn’t be too hard on him, as it was he who brought Scan Film or Store to my attention.

“This rather remarkable group of people took one look at my archive – most of which I don’t actually need in its original form, as it turns out – and told me I could reduce it all via document scanning to digital files which would take up no room at all. Even though there was an initial outlay, I am forced to admit that it’s been well worth it. Not only is it much easier to keep a close eye on who owes me what now that I can access their files at the touch of a button, I’m also cashing in on that extra space by renting it out to local business folk. And Cratchit complains a lot less.”

Data conversion – The Snowman, holiday rep, Scandi Travel Inc

“I’ve done an awful lot of travelling in my life, mainly around northern Europe – Norway, Iceland, that sort of place. Anywhere with snow, I guess. It’s the cold I really like. You can’t beat that frosty air, the nip at your nose. The only thing I enjoy as much as a holiday is photography. From stunning snowscapes to family gatherings, I’ll snap pretty much anything.

“Of course, I’ve been doing this for long enough now that a lot of my collection isn’t easily accessible. It’s hard to find a proper slide projector these days. That’s why I was so pleased when my friend Chris referred me to Scan Film or Store. In no time at all they were able to transfer all my old analogue travel slides and even Christmas home movies into digital format thanks to their data conversion services. The other snowmen and snowwomen are going to be thrilled when I fire up the laptop at this year’s Christmas gathering!”

Gosh, it makes us quite emotional reading back over those lovely testimonials. Because we really do love to help our clients achieve their goals, no matter what they are. If there’s anything we can do to help you achieve yours, do let us know. In the meantime, happy Christmas!

You’ll hopefully know by now that document scanning is basically the reason we get up in the morning. But we’re happy to admit that you don’t always need a local team of experts on hand to service your every document scanning need.

Sometimes, for example, you might simply want to scan something with your phone. Like a receipt. Or a signature. Or a secret blueprint of an underground lair. In which case, you probably need an app. Actually scratch that – you do need an app. One of these, in fact.

Scanning app #1: CamScanner

We love a PDF. The portable document format, as we’ve said before, is the most accessible file format around. If you have a document you want to share or store electronically, just stick it in a scanner, convert it to a PDF and you’re good to go. But what if you don’t have a handy full size scanner to… well, to hand? No problem. CamScanner is a nifty mobile scanner that uses your built in smart phone camera to scan everything from receipts to white board discussions, with built in OCR (that’s optimised character recognition, for those who aren’t regular readers) in the paid for version. Mark up your scanned document, email it, fax it, print it out or collaborate by inviting colleagues and friends to view and comment. No wonder CamScanner was voted the best app of 2014 and gets a reported 50,000 sign ups a day.

Use it for: scanning receipts so you don’t end up with a wallet bulging with scrappy bits of faded paper that even your book keeper can’t read.

Scanning app #2: Adobe Fill & Sign

Signing a form isn’t all that challenging. Assuming you can hold a pen and give it a good squiggle in a relatively consistent manner, you probably won’t have any trouble. But what if you’ve been sent a form electronically and need to sign and return it quick smart, without relying on finding a printer and a super fast carrier pigeon? That’s when you need the Adobe Fill & Sign tool, which works with any form, from a paper permission slip to a digital health intake. You can even use it on a photo of a form taken with your smart phone. The app gives you options to save, share and send completed forms too, and stores them securely in the Adobe Document Cloud so they’re always at your fingertips. What’s more, the autofill function means you can save data securely for next time, allowing you to just drag and drop information on future forms.

Use it for: Getting the permission slip for your daughter’s school trip sorted before the 3pm cut off, thereby avoiding a half term full of bitter teenage tears.

Scanning app #3: Scannable by Evernote

This is one for the iPhone and iPad users (sorry, Android folk), and especially those of you who couldn’t live without Evernote to organise your extremely busy lives. Scannable by Evernote has all the functionality you’d want in a scanner, and a whole lot more. Not only can it instantly scan business cards, sketches, and even multipage documents, the app will automatically store the resulting electronic documents in your Evernote account. It will crop any images to remove the background, and enhance the text to make it more readable too. And best of all, it’s totally free, with no paid for upgrade version.

Use it for: Scanning business cards so the contact information is automatically lifted and added to your contact card.

If you have small batches of documents to scan for a particular purpose, these apps really will make life just that little bit easier. And, of course, when it comes to the big jobs, you’ve always got us.

To discuss your document scanning requirements, just get in touch and one of the team will be happy to talk you through your options.

One thing we’re particularly proud of here at Scan Film or Store is the relationships we build with our clients. Many of them stay with us for years, and we get to know them pretty well. Which is nice.

David Wilson Homes is one such client. They first came to us in 2012, to help them reassess the way they stored their archives. They’d been housing them in an off-site unit that was some distance from their offices, which means accessibility was an issue.

After asking lots of not-especially-interesting questions about their specific requirements, we were able to recommend our scanning service, giving them digital records they could not only access whenever they wanted, but saving them money on physical storage.

From sample scanning to staff training

The first thing we did was take a sample away and cost up their options. Then we had a meeting to discuss things like indexing, and the pros and cons of more vs less detailed indexing. We always to replicate our client’s existing filing system, you see, so they can find their electronic copies very easily indeed. Admittedly, it probably wasn’t the most exhilarating meeting they’d ever sat through, but they were very happy to have the choices laid out clearly and simply so they could make a sensible decision.

Once the decisions had been made, we got started with the scanning. There were around 90,000 documents in that first batch, but thankfully our trusty machines don’t tire or get paper cuts, so it all worked out very nicely indeed.

And then all that was left to do was to train up the David Wilson Homes staff so they’d feel really confident using their new online filing system – which was designed to match their physical archives to save too much confusion. And we’re pleased to report that the team were so pleased with the new system that they’ve been sending us batches of invoices and other files ever since.

Lovely words about our scanning skills

Of course, it’s easy enough to say why we think our clients are happy with our service – but far better to ask them to say it for us. Here’s what Maria Tyley, Divisional Accountant at David Wilson Homes, thought about the whole experience (and yes, we’re still blushing):

“It’s so much easier since we got our new system set up. Whereas before we’d go, ‘Oh I need that invoice!’ and then we’d have to go and get it from the storage, now within minutes I can load the hard drive up and we’ve got the information.

“The Scan Film or Store team are experts on what they do and the quality of what I get back is very good. If we need to print copies off for audit, they’re clear enough for that. Their speed and their return of information is excellent too. We’ve just sent them another 25,000 invoices to do within the last week and I know that within a few weeks it will all be done. And they’re very competitive in the market.

“I have to say they are amazing people. Mark keeps in contact with me but not in a pushy way – he genuinely cares. And if I need anything, I can email him and within hours he’s back to me with the information I need. The whole team is very good at keeping their clients happy. They’re just nice people to have working alongside you, and they really know their business.”

Well, you can imagine how happy it made us to hear that. After all, it’s our clients that make our business. Without them we’d just be sitting around staring longingly at our high tech scanning equipment and drinking far too much tea.

We’d love to help you like we’ve helped Maria and the rest of the team at David Wilson Homes. So if you have any storage or scanning needs – or data destruction, microfiche conversion or CD duplication, for that matter – drop us a line to see how we can help.

Paper. It’s pretty simple, as technology goes. Sure, you can get it in different sizes and colours and textures, with lines or without, sturdy or flimsy enough to see through. But essentially, it’s bits of flat stuff that you can write or draw on. Not especially complex.

And yet it’s so important. Even in these digital days, as we try and reduce the number of trees we need to cut down, we still use 12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard every year. Without it, we wouldn’t have magazines and till receipts and books and toilet paper (perish the thought!).

So how much do you actually know about this stuff that you probably use every day? We’re willing to put good money on the fact that you’ll learn at least one thing from this blog post. Which, at the very least, will stand you in good stead next time you’re at a pub quiz.

Historical paper facts

1) Paper is thought to have been invented around 100AD by the Chinese, although it was supposedly kept secret for a number of years. The Chinese are also credited with the first paper currency and the first toilet paper.

2) The English word paper is derived from papyrus, a material which predates paper and was originally used in Egypt thousands of years BC.

3) The first newspaper was printed in Venice in 1556. The monthly publication was available to buy for one Venetian coin called a gazetta, hence the word gazette can now be used to refer to a newspaper.

Record breaking paper facts*

*As authenticated by Guinness World Records!

4) The furthest a paper aeroplane has flown is 69.14m. The plane was made using just one sheet of A4 paper, and was designed by John M Collins and launched by Jo Ayoob in North Highland, California in 2012.

5) The largest building made entirely from paper was 6.4m tall, with a base that measured 15.2m by 17.9m. It was constructed in the form of a traditional Thai house and manufactured using nothing but corrugated paper by Kwag Hua Industries, who unveiled it in Bangkok in October 2003.

6) The biggest roll of toilet paper ever made was 2.97m in diameter and stood 2.59m high. It was made in August 2011 by Charmin in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, and was later sent to a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum.

Current paper facts

7) It is possible to do a degree in Paper Science. If you’re interested in analysing the factors that influence pore size distribution or modelling shrinkage during manufacture, this is definitely the course for you. Probably don’t try and explain your choice down the pub though.

8) The average person in the UK gets through 38kg of newspapers a year. Most of which is probably due to excessive consumption of fish and chips (we may have made this last bit up).

9) The amount of paper used in the UK each year takes the equivalent of a woodland the size of Wales to make. Which is a great reason for working towards a paperless office.

Office paper facts

10) The average office worker uses around 10,000 sheets of photocopy paper every year, according to Xerox. That’s the equivalent of four boxes, which works out to about £50. Multiply that across your entire company and you can see where the cost saving potential lies!

11) A standard three drawer filing cabinet, which takes up around 4 square foot of office space, can hold around 9,000 sheets of paper. According to a report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the costs associated with buying the cabinet and maintaining the space add up to about £1,500 a year.

12) There is way more to measuring quantities of paper than you’d imagine. For example, 25 sheets of paper = one quire. 20 quires = one ream. Two reams = one bundle. And five bundles = one bale. Try asking your stationery supplier how much a quire of A4 costs next time they ring – that should stump them!

So, there we go. Consider yourself well and truly informed about paper.

If you’d like any help tackling your own paper related issues, whether you could use some extra storage, want to explore the idea of going digital, or need to securely destroy sensitive documents, do get in touch.