So, you want to redecorate your office --- preferably, without spending your employees' next bonus on office furniture. Fortunately, you have a few cost-saving options at your disposal --- you can look for sales, buy used, or lease office furniture. Yes, lease.
We've talked about the first two options at length; now it's time to examine the third option. Here's everything you need to know about office furniture leasing.
Benefits:
1. If you shop carefully, you can get a whole lot more bang for your buck when you lease office furniture instead of buying brand-new. Also, you'll have a chance to get trendier pieces, because you can rent new furnishings and swap them out as you see fit.
2. On a similar note, you'll never have to worry about getting bored with your office furniture down the road. Office furniture leasing releases you from the responsibility of choosing something that you'll want to look at for the next ten years.
3. When it does come time to swap in new furniture, you won't have to worry about selling, donating, or recycling your old items. Just send the old furniture back and bring in the new.
Drawbacks:
1. Office furniture leasing can be a good deal, but it can also wind up costing you more than you'd bargained for. Read the fine print on your rental contract before signing, in order to determine any additional charges for wear and tear and delayed returns.
2. Check the buyout price before you agree to terms. Sometimes, office furniture leasing companies charge a heftier fee for buying leased furniture than you might guess. It's better to know what you're getting into before you fall in love with your new furniture, only to discover that the cost of buying it is more than you would have budgeted for all-new furnishings in the first place.
3. Evaluate the quality of the office furniture just as carefully as you would equipment that you were considering for purchase. Shoddy workmanship on rented furniture can derail productivity just as surely as it would if you'd ponied up the cash to buy it outright. Not to mention how depressing it would be to go to the trouble of overhauling your office only to have it look shabbier than it did before the redecoration. Look for sturdiness, craftsmanship, and comfort, and you'll have a much better chance of making a decision that will stand the test of time. Even if that time is just the term of a lease.
Images: iStockphoto
