Friday, September 3, 2010

How To Select Your Office Furniture

By Gordon Wallace

Perhaps you are starting a new business or upgrading your older office furniture, there are a few things to keep in mind while you shop. The large selection of furnishings and styles available will make finding furniture to fit your budget easy. Here are a few ideas and tips to help make selecting the furniture a good experience.

The first thing to do is make up a budget. Only businesses with large cash flows can afford to pay for all of their furnishings up front, so make a strict budget. List the items you need on paper along with the maximum price you are willing to pay for them and total it. Making a detailed budget to take shopping with you will ensure you don't overspend.

Shop at the reputable furniture supply stores in your area or ask other business owners to recommend a company for you. Referrals are always given by happy customers. Online stores should have a secure site and shopping cart. Look for a badge on the site that indicates they have some sort of certification for good business practice.

Everyone has different needs but the basic items needed to start are smaller items like chairs and desks. Desks come in a variety of styles like traditional, contemporary and classic, as well as different wood grains. Your personal preference for style will be the deciding factor, followed by price.

Chairs will be needed to accompany the desks and the basic styles with fabric upholstery cost approximately one hundred dollars. If you want chairs with many adjustable features, leather or ergonomic, expect to spend more like two to five hundred dollars. It is suggested that you go with a higher priced and more durable product as the chairs are used on a very regular basis and need to handle wear.

Perhaps specialized desks will be needed for your business, for instance drafting or computer related desks. Employees that do data entry or other computer tasks will need a computer desk that holds all the necessary equipment. It will also need to be comfortable for them to sit at for hours on end. Otherwise the risk of work related injuries and back pain will escalate.

All businesses will need some sort of storage like bookshelves and filing cabinets. The documents you put in them will decide the style or size of cabinets you need. Letter and legal sized documents will need a standard size cabinet. Larger ones like blueprints will need a special unit. Open shelving is adequate for things you need to reference often, such as binders and books.

Determining how you will pay for your purchase is the last step. Large or costly items will most likely need to be financed. Work out a monthly payment that will fit comfortably into your company budget and ask about warranties on the product.

Local office furniture shipping is usually free but out of town deliveries will probably have a shipping charge. Purchasing through online stores is a bit different. Reference the shipping policies for details on cost and time to deliver. Purchase sufficient insurance as you can never predict what will happen when the product is on its way to you.

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