Printing Postage from your Home or Business

There are many benefits to printing postage at home or at your own office, primarily including convenience and lower costs. The convenience factor kicks in when you have a busy day and don’t have the time to stop at the post office to either buy stamps or mail something. In fact, in that way, the convenience factor can also impact cost. You don’t have to pay for the gasoline to get you to the post office (with branches closing, this may become even more important in the future). Likewise if you’re preparing a business mailing, you don’t have to take time out of your business day just to buy postage.

source: stamps.com

The cost savings don’t end there, however. If you’re printing labels, you don’t need to get label templates so long as you have some clear packing tape. Or, even if you prefer labels, the cost is typically pretty low and they either come with computer templates or a number you can find online to download a template so that your postage labels line up perfectly, making it easy either way to create shipping labels. When it comes to stamps, you might need to go with a template for printing, but just as with labels, those can be rather low-cost.

Have you ever gone online to calculate postage and found out it’d cost a stamp and a half to mail a letter? You can’t very well take a pair of scissors to a stamp and expect that the post office will still consider it valid. This is where printing your own postage has buying pre-printed postage beat, hands down. You can print postage for any amount, allowing you to save money. Imagine your business was doing a mailing to one hundred addresses. That’s a savings of fifty stamps. Or, maybe you’re sending out invitations to an anniversary party for your parents to family and friends they’ve made over thirty years. That could be as many stamps saved.

source: nelsongemstones.com

So what do you need to know about printing your own postage? First and foremost, you need to know about different services that exist. There are services that will allow you to print just a single shipping label for the odds and ends mailings. If, however, you do a lot of mailing, you might consider a subscription service. These services allow you to buy credits and trade those in for postage as you need it.

You need to have the right materials as well. We mentioned templates earlier, but you’ll want to make sure that your printer is well maintained and that you have fresh printer ink or toner cartridges properly installed. If you are using a postage subscription service, you’ll need to register for an account-and either way, whether registering for a new subscription or buying postage ad hoc, you’ll need a payment method. Most companies will require a credit card.

Now that you’re ready to print postage from your home or business office, you’re ready to start saving money and time so that you can focus on serving clients and providing products and services.