Sourcing equipment for a business is one of the most important phases of that initial start-up period. It’s also one of the most stressful, as there are countless little things that can go wrong. You’re going to have to invest a lot of your hard-earned capital in fixed assets, before your business makes a single sale. The very idea is nerve-wracking for obvious reasons! To help you out, here’s a brief guide to buying equipment for your start-up.
First of all, decide on the processes you should outsource. You’ve probably got some pretty big ideas for your first business premises, which may involve owning everything outright. Sure, it might be a big help to have your own postal franking machine you can use to stamp all of your outgoing mail. However, if you could save money by simply taking it to a post box, then you should probably do it. The first few months of any business are going to be characterised by some financial instability. Unless you’ve stumbled upon the new sliced bread, your profit margins are going to be slim and your resources fairly stretched. If you can save money by outsourcing some of your equipment needs, I highly recommend you do it.
The next thing you’re going to need to consider is whether you’ll be buying new or used equipment. In your idealised image of your business, you may have thought that you’d be buying everything new, and enjoying all the benefits that come with fresh, unused machinery. However, this isn’t going to be practical when you’re working within the limits of a start-up budget. When you buy used instead of new equipment, you can expect to save between 25 and 50 per cent on your start-up costs. Keep an eye out for opportunities to buy quality used items, and snap them up. Do remember to consider quality and reliability here though. I’m sure you don’t want to spend a small fortune on things like hydraulic hose repair.
Finally, before you buy a single piece of equipment, be sure to take some accurate measurements of the space you have on your premises. This will help you make purchasing decisions which are both practical and convenient for everyone working in the office. Sure, that photocopier with every additional feature you can name might be going for an absolute steal. However, if fitting it in your office means that everyone will have to side-step awkwardly around it, you’ll quickly end up regretting the buy. Before you settle on a single purchase, it’s integral that you get accurate measurements of the floor space you have in your office, and the ideal dimensions every piece of equipment has to meet. To make the whole process slightly easier, you may want to use a space planning tool. This will let you plan out the physical makeup of your office through one user-friendly interface.
You know your business better than anyone, so I can’t make your purchasing decisions for you. However, these tips should help you avoid any nasty surprises in the future.
This article was provided by ellie jo