In-House Binding Vs Paying a Print Shop

One of the ways in which you can take your business to the next level is to bring the capability to bind your own documents, presentations and proposals on-site and in-house. There are many advantages to this when it comes to convenience and flexibility, quality control, and saving time, but one advantage that is often overlooked is that of the money you will save–and fairly quickly–over using a printer or other office services shop. Here in this article we will crunch some numbers and find out just exactly how much you and your business can save by having your own binding machine on site. Since there are so many methods and machines out there to choose from, for the purposes of this article, we will concentrate on comb binding (easily the most common and cheapest method) and three Fellowes Machines: The Starlet, The Pulsar, and The Quasar E.

1. The Starlet: At a cost of around $84, the Starlet is Fellowes least expensive comb-binding machine. Designed for occasional use, this would be the perfect machine for a home or a small office. The money you can save is significant. For one hundred booklets or documents, you can expect to pay an office services shop around $350 to bind 100 documents. If you decide to do the job yourself you can bind those same documents for almost half the price including the purchase of the binding machine. The cost will vary slightly depending on the style of cover that you choose for the back of your document. However, you should easily be able to save $100-$200 on the project. Plus, you will have a binding machine that you can use to create documents and presentations in the future.
2. For a small office with moderate use, the Fellowes machine you would be looking at is the Pulsar. This machine features vertical punching, and depending on if you purchase the Pulsar or the Pulsar E, you can have manual or electric punching options. Either way, your savings over a print shop will be significant, right off the bat. For two hundred documents, an office services shop will charge you over $700. If you choose to bind your documents yourself with the Pulsar machine, depending on the type of cover that you use, the project will run you in the neighborhood of $422-$500. That includes the $229.95 cost of the Pulsar binding machine.
3. If you have a large office, and you will be using your binding machine on a daily or weekly basis, the comb binder that Fellowes recommends is the Quasar E. This machine has a list price of $549.95. The potential savings for binding your own documents with the Quasar-E are huge. A print shop or bindery will charge you around $1,500 for a run of 400 documents. The cost to bind those same documents yourself including the cost of a brand new Quasar E will be between $935 to $1190. That is a savings of $300-$500. Plus you will own the machine.

The numbers above were obtained from a survey of leading office services shops in 2009 and are based on buying both the machines and the supplies at list price. If you shop carefully, you should be able to save even more money by binding your own documents. The ability to do your own binding is not only convenient, it is extremely cost-effective. Why would you want to keep paying a print shop, with all the waiting and uncertainty, when you can quickly and easily do the job yourself?