Office Furniture

What Office Furniture Do You Need?

If you haven’t got an office and you’re starting to think about what office furniture to buy, stop. Just hold on for a minute because you are wasting your time and money. Buying office furniture should never come first, you should decide first if you want a serviced office or a normal standard office space. A serviced office generally comes fully equipped, from desk to chairs. Office space is normally  . . well . . just space to be honest, and in this case you will need to furnish it. Back to my point, first you need to decide upon what type of office you after and once you have decided which type of office you are going to go for, then you should start thinking about what office furniture you need and where to buy it from.

Must Have Office Furniture

Every office pretty much has the same furniture, like filing cabinets, desks, chairs, lamps etc. Some people make mistakes and furnish their offices like their homes, this is wrong unless you are making an home office then you can probably get away with it. I’m going to make a list of office furniture you should have, in your office you should have the following things:

• 2 Desks (Even if you’re a one man band, you should always have 2 desks)
• 2 or more chairs (1 for you and for the guest)
• Filing cabinet (preferably a side desk one and a big long one)
• Whiteboard (This should come under stationary, due to it’s size I feel it should be mentioned)
• Lights (A desk lamp and corner stand lamp)
• Shelves (Not really needed, but it gives a good touch to the office)

That is a basic list of office furniture you should have, some things might not be necessary like shelves for example, but the majority of it is a must have. By this stage you’ve obviously chose a normal office space because serviced offices would normally be fully furnished. I would first make a list of all the office furniture you need and then go shopping.

Where to Buy Office Furniture

Now you have a list of all the furniture you need, next is the fun part which is buying it all! I’m going to let you in on a few money saving tips, as we all know all this furniture can build up a hefty price list and when you’re starting up you want to keep overheads to a minimum. Always ask the owner of the office space whether they have any office furniture you can use or buy or lease from them. Most of the times, previous businesses who have left the premises leave behind office furniture because it’s costs to get them removed, you can find yourself lucky sometimes. My next money saving tip is, why not buy second hand? That’s right, second hand office furniture is almost half the price of new and is an excellent way to keep overhead costs down when starting up.

I must mention at this point that some serviced offices don’t have all the office furniture I mentioned. When choosing a serviced office, it is wise to know what you will be getting in terms of furniture. Many companies don’t tell you normally until you ask.

Now you have all your office furniture, you might want to read about the must have Office Stationary.