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Buying Office Equipment Although office supplies and consumables are available from a large range of dedicated companies, many items of office equipment are available through hundreds of general and specialist retailers (E.g.: Computers, telephones and faxes). This means you have a much wider choice, and prices can often be considerably more competitive. There is no need to limit your search to office or business related shops, as you may be able to find a better deal elsewhere. With long-term equipment, it is essential to make sure that you are getting the right features for the cost. A cheap PC may look like a good deal, but is a more expensive model better value (E.g.: 20% more cost for 60% more power); and can the cheap PC do everything you need it to?
Buying Office Furniture
There are two ways to buy office furniture, as ready-made boxed units, or as custom made products designed to exactly match the needs of your business.
Furniture that is ready-made is considerably cheaper than custom made furniture, and can be purchased quickly and easily from many different companies. Custom made furniture involves not only the cost of the materials, but also of the planning and manufacturing. As the items are not mass produced, the construction of each unit is normally very expensive. There is little reason for most small businesses to look at custom-made furniture unless they either; have a specific need which is not catered for by ready-made products (E.g.: A reception desk that needs to fit in a specific oddly shaped space); or are looking for branded or distinctive matching furniture to convey a professional, 'big business' look to their office.
Keeping Control of Your Supplies As office consumables and supplies can encompass hundreds of items, of which there may be hundreds of each, it can be confusing knowing what supplies are remaining and what products need reordering. Effective management of your supplies can help ensure that you never run out of a crucial item, as well as keeping costs at a steady level. It makes sense to have a system for reordering consumable supplies. Keeping a check on the items you order and the numbers that remain will help you to ensure that a product is ordered before it runs out. E.g.: If you order ten boxes of an item, when there are two boxes remaining, you know to order another ten. This makes sure there is always stock of the item.
Many office supply companies have bulk buy discounts, so there is a temptation to order hundreds of every item to get it at a discount. However, it is normally better to order an item four times at full price, than to order thirty to get 20% off. A discount is good, but the supplies must be needed; there is no point getting discount on items that are going to end up sat on a shelf gathering dust. This is particularly important when the items are large, and there is no room to store several of them, or when the items are not replaced very often (E.g.: A large photocopier toner unit) and the items will not end up being used for months or years, and could be damaged or in poor condition when they are eventually used. Using a purchasing company can help keep your supplies managed effectively. They can look at your average usage, and give you an idea of when you will need to reorder, and how much of an item you should buy each time.
Staff Re-ordering Many companies allow their staff to re-order supplies as needed. This can save time, and help make sure there is always stock of an item left. However, you need a lot of trust in your employees to allow them to order supplies freely.
Although the vast majority of employees are trustworthy, there is a minority that may try to take advantage of their ability to order supplies to keep items for themselves. A solution to this problem is to allow employees to request supplies, but require each order to be signed, logged, and sent by management. If the supplies are then checked and logged when they arrive, any discrepancies can then be checked quickly and traced back to a member of management and staff. This allows employees to re-order items, but limits the possibility of misuse. Another common solution is to let one or two members of staff have responsibility for ordering consumable supplies. This means that in the event of items going missing or not adding up, the order can always be traced back to a particular member of staff. Effectively managing supply ordering will also ensure that the same supplies are not ordered repeatedly, which may happen if five employees all place orders for an item low in stock before the first order arrives. Article Index
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