AUTHOR: Richard D Ferris - AmcAppraisalsinc.com - Servicing all of Lake, Orange, Osceola, Polk, and Seminole Counties. Also servicing Deltona, Deland, and Orange City in Volusia County. - Phone 877-789-5249 or email me: [email protected]
Today is a good day in my office! It marks the 5th year of being totally paperless! And that means, I can finally get rid of the LAST box of paper files taking up a significant corner of my garage! You know the feeling!
As appraisers, we garner a wall full of boxes, legal size file cabinets, creative storage solutions, etc, etc! And we have to after all - since we have to maintain our files for at least 5 years. And that means every time I moved in the last 12 years, I hauled boxes and boxes of paper files from one storage location to the next! Yet as of today, I officially have 5 years of digital files stored on a hard drive and various back up services!
Let me show you what it took for me to make the switch:
If you have not yet taken the plunge into the paperless office, let me tell you first off - I feel your pain! When I first decided - I waded into the water. I still drew field sketches on a clipboard and scanned the notes into my computer. I still printed a full copy of the final report and stuck it into a legal sized Manila folder. Little by little, I took steps to eliminate paper...which really meant I had to eliminate my fear of being without a physical file.
One of the ways I accomplished this was with an online fax service - Efax.com Efax has a print driver which allows one to print anything, from any source, to a digital file. The one aspect I found that needed to change, however, was my habit of workflow. I've produced two short videos demonstrating my Efax and Digital Workfile workflow. These videos will also be available in the Paperless Office Video section of the Appraisal Scoop blog. 
Going paperless was a significant change for my office. But the benefits have been rewarding!
My first steps included getting a toll free "virtual" number. I incorporated a virtual fax number instead of the dedicated fax line. Rather than printing orders, I now manage them through my appraisal software and Outlook. The main benefit is now having all of my files (for the last 5 years at least) truly digital and accessible on my hard drive (or web backup sites). And rather than fear of change - I now have greater peace of mind as I have continued to move all of my office operations to "virtual platforms". My entire office is now contained in a laptop and a backpack!
Making the move to being paperless though takes dedication. I found that I needed to be willing to change the flow of my work, how I began orders, how I stored files, ways I organized my data and most importantly - being disciplined to back up data!
But let me encourage you - being paperless is the key to being mobile. And being mobile means you can truly operate anywhere, anytime! This brings great freedom for me to work from any place I can access the Internet - which maximizes time and makes me more efficient (and more profitable!) And in th end, the costs to maintain a virtual office are far, far less than the cost to switch over!
Whether you plunge in, or wade in - you will find the paperless world to be a magnificent investment of your time and resources! I am not much of an environmentalist - but it does make me feel good that I actually use less than 5 reams of paper a year now! And most of that is for personal and not business use!
AUTHOR: Richard D Ferris - AmcAppraisalsinc.com - Servicing all of Lake, Orange, Osceola, Polk, and Seminole Counties. Also servicing Deltona, Deland, and Orange City in Volusia County. - Phone 877-789-5249 or email me: [email protected]
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