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Leasing, Renting or Buying? When you look at purchasing larger items of office equipment or furniture, one of the biggest factors is usually price. If you are buying several items together the costs can run into many thousands of pounds. If this is too much to pay in one go, then leasing or renting equipment could provide a solution:
Advantages of Leasing / Renting (i) No Lump Payment If you purchase large office equipment and furniture, you can end up with a huge lump sum bill. By leasing you can pay small monthly payments without losing out on quality equipment. In some cases, you may be able to afford much better equipment by leasing, as you do not have to pay the full price upfront.
(ii) Short Term Use
If you need a piece of office equipment for a short while, then buying it may be a waste of money. By short-term leasing or renting you can get full use of the equipment for the time you need it, without having to fund the full cost, and without needing to find a buyer afterwards or have the equipment left doing nothing. (iii) Credit It is easier for a business to get credit for leasing than for other finance to buy a product. As the leasing company / finance company retains ownership of the equipment, the need for other security is much lower; meaning acceptance rates are higher.
Disadvantages of Leasing / Renting (i) No Ownership By leasing, you never actually own the equipment. It remains the property of the leasing company. This means that when the lease ends, the item is returned no matter how much you have paid for the use of it. You are also unable to gain extra money from selling the product when you look to change it. (ii) Long Term Cost If you plan to use an item for a number of years, then the cost of a lease or rental can be considerably higher than that of purchasing the item. As you do not own the item, you will need to remain paying to use it, even after you have paid enough money to cover the cost of the equipment. Although paying upfront can mean a large payment, it allows you to sell the item at any point if you wish to replace or upgrade it. Cancelling a lease contract can be very expensive, and may mean you have to use insufficient equipment until the lease ends because you cannot upgrade. (iii) Repairs Even though the equipment you lease is never actually owned by you, you are still responsible for the repairs and maintenance (including the cost) of most items. This can (depending on the item) be very expensive, especially if you are not going to be able to use or sell the item once past the lease date. (iv) Image Is your office going to be visited by customers or clients? If so, then the look and quality of your equipment and furniture is likely to be of much more importance to you. When deciding on what equipment to buy for your office, you need to be careful not to overspend on lavish but needless furniture, but also not to under-spend on cheap and poor quality equipment that will give out a bad image to your customers.
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