When your company is first starting up, you may conjure up some images of your employees sitting in some modern, Google-inspired offices where everything is sleek, white, and brand-spanking new, playing ping pong while new sales numbers are constantly being updated on a whiteboard in the front of the room. As you actually review the costs associated with opening this business up and buying everything you’ll actually need, you’re probably going to be rubbing your eyes in amazement as your costs start racking up instead and your initial capital begins to take a beating.
So, your dream of the space age office may need to make a couple of compromises in order to survive the initial months or even years of low sales and reduced expectations. The question is, do you compromise on the furniture your employees utilize, possibly reducing their comfort, morale, and productivity?
To answer this question, we’ll examine the pros and cons of investing in new vs. used office furniture to see if it’s worth it to your company to save some much needed capital on your equipment.
NEW Furniture
New furniture comes with a number of both tangible and intangible benefits. Not only is it physically pristine, coming right off the assembly line, but it also presents some of the biggest advancements in ergonomic designs, making it as comfortable as possible for your employees. It also typically comes with a warranty to ensure that you get the mileage promised by the manufacturer or seller.
In terms of intangible benefits, the ‘newness’ provides a bolstering of the morale of your employees, as they perceive the quality of the equipment to be a sign that the company is doing well. This same effect applies to visiting customers and guests – projecting an image of strength can often make the difference in whether or not a sale goes through
The only major con for new furniture is the price – it can cost thousands upon thousands of dollars to fully equip your office with new furniture, and this expense may not be necessary or possible for your new company.
USED Furniture
Used furniture has a couple of benefits outside of costing a fraction of the price of new furniture. For one thing, it is much, much healthier for the environment – instead of these pieces going into a landfill or the ocean, they’re fixed up and sitting pretty in your office. If you’re a firm that prides itself on being eco-friendly and green, buying used is almost a requirement!
A couple problems with used office furniture is the lack of quality and the useful life of those pieces that you buy – oftentimes, used equipment is scuffed, stained, or otherwise imperfect and the lifetime of those pieces is lower than that of new products. Used furniture is often sold without a warranty and can’t be customized to fit your needs.
With these things in mind, it can be a difficult choice – cost savings vs. possible drops in morale, lost sales and a less attractive working environment. That is, unless you find a used furniture dealer that can buck all the rules and negate every one of these cons!
That’s where our spotlighted company comes into the mix: Creative Office Designs of southern California provides not only excellent quality used office equipment, it does so with a warranty attached and with the promise of an expert office design consultant to ensure that your office equipment is customized to your exact needs and specifications. Whether you’re looking for used cubicles for your open office space or some fancier décor for your corner office, Creative Office Designs will make sure every dollar you spend is used to its fullest extent.
Don’t waste more of your precious startup funds impersonating a Silicon Valley tech giant by buying new office furniture – get the same effect with quality used goods from Creative Office Designs instead.
Creative Office Designs
(714) 328-7627
5230 Pacific Concourse Dr #105, Los Angeles, CA 90045, United States