We get it – you’re the Do It Yourself type. You like to mow your lawn, do your own taxes, brew tea. You might even like to do rehab projects around the house. But when it comes to shredding documents with personal information, trust us when we say it makes more sense to leave this activity to the professionals.
Time is Money
You know this argument, right? We win it every time. “Really? You charge $X per hour for your services? And you just bought a home office shredder that chops up to a whopping 18 sheets of paper in a single pass?”
Seriously. Think about it. It doesn’t make sense if you are considering dedicating countless hours for several weekends in a row to shred all those boxes of documents in your basement.
Power, Durability and Cost
A home office shredder has serious limits. Even the manufacturers state it in their manuals. “Rest the machine after 30 minutes of use.”
And about that whopping 18 sheets of paper in a single pass? A professional shredder can handle 100s and 100s of sheets in an hour.
So much for efficiency.
There is also the issue of home office shredder burnout. Typically, after a few months of excessive use, these machines burn out and have to be replaced. By the time you’ve purchased your second home office shredder, you’re losing money. Professional shredding is a better buy. For instance, at Paper Tiger, we hold a Shred Fest on the second Saturday each month and charge only $3 to shred a copy paper-sized box of documents. Imagine the value for companies that have large quantities of papers to shred.
Define Security, Please
If you’re new to the idea of outsourcing document shredding, you might be wary. What are they really doing with your documents behind closed doors? Are they protected until the moment they hit the shredder?
You should be concerned about the shredding company you choose. After all, if you don’t properly shred documents according to the law, your company is opening itself up to the possibility of big problems. A professional shredding company – at least one that is a AAA Certified member of the National Association for Information Destruction like Paper Tiger – offers more security, privacy and confidentiality than you likely have in your office or home.
Also be aware of what goes on when office supply stores offer shredding services. In a word? Nothing. All they do is collect sensitive documents from hundreds of customers, and when the pile is too big, they contact a document shredding company like Paper Tiger to pick up the papers and shred them.
If you only need to shred a handful of documents once or twice a month, a home office shredder is probably right for you. Otherwise, it could be a while before you accumulate even one box of papers to take to a professional shredding company. And unless you have these documents locked away until you’re ready to have them shredded, you are putting your company – and the livelihood of all employees — at risk.
Paper Tiger Document Solutions has been an NAID AAA Certified member since 2013. We handle residential and commercial shredding throughout the Chicago area and northeastern Wisconsin.
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