Budgeting for an Office upgrade in difficult times!

Whether you are relocating, expanding or simply upgrading your office space, your budget will be your first consideration. Whilst this appears to be simply a matter of listing your requirements and costing these, estimating your budget accurately can be challenging, and hidden costs along the way can quickly cause an over-spend. With the wide range of office furniture styles and brands available, it can be confusing and frustrating trying to identify where you will get the 'best bang for your buck'. Here are some 'Handy Hints' that can impact your budget.

1. Scoping your needs

This will give you a clear understanding of your requirements and enable you to start costing the project for your budget. The project may include desking, privacy screens, seating, storage reception , visitor and staff area products and could also include the need to integrate some existing office furniture that you may want to retain. Matching colour and style will be important. The team at Office Products Online has 22 years experience in designing and delivering affordable Office Fit outs. We have experienced staff who can come on site, review your specific requirements including understanding workflow processes and the impact this may have on layout, measure up for appropriate layout options and provide you with pricing and completely obligation free Floorplans and 3D Drawings for your review. We have many satisfied customers who have willingly expressed their positive feedback on the level of support and service they have received from us. When Office Products Online is accepted as your office furniture supplier our team will manage the delivery of all office furniture products, complete the installation, remove all packaging and debris from site, carry out Quality Control checks - and then manage any Warranty issues for the life of the Warranty.

2. Workspace layout 

Your workspace layout can have a significant impact on your office furniture selection - and the cost. Whether your workspace is open plan with individual desks or pods of desks, or whether your workspace is individual offices, will determine the most appropriate workstation and privacy screen products you will require. Shared desk pods, where indvidual have their own desk space, but the frame of the desk is configured in one piece. These desk pods have become popular in recent times, as they are less expensive than separate indiovidual desks.  The 'working' culture of your business can also influence the office furniture products you will purchase. Do you have formal meeting rooms or staff break-out areas? Do you have formal Data Projector presentations to customers and staff, or do you use Whiteboard or Noticeboards for communication? Do you have central storage areas or do staff have their own Cupboards and Bookcases? Do you have some staff working from home for periods of time - and share an office desk at your office? These factors will influence your buying decisison - and will determine how effective and productive your workforce is. Office Products Online offers cost effective solutions for all of these scenarios - and the benefit to our customers are the discounts achieved from purchasing a wider range of products from the one source. Volume discounts!

4. Decor compatibility and customisation

The look, style and finish is also an important factor in any office fit-out - and this can impact your budget. It is important thay your office furniture supplier understands how you want your 'new office' to look and what your expectation is for the durability of the furniture. Office Products Online has available the widest range of fabric options for seating and privacy screens, and a huge range of colour options for desk colours. We will make available swatches of the colours that match or contrast your decor and some furniture items (desks, cupboards, bookcases, pigeonhole units etc. can also be customised to meet your specific space or operational requirements. Office Products Online does have access to Showrooms in some centres, for viewing to check the decor compatibility of furniture items. 

6. Furniture with flexibility

Having furniture that is multi-purpose (or modular) can save you on costs in the future. In recent times, having desks and tables that are mobile or have a flip top have become very popular, as they can quickly be relocated or reconfigured to suit changing needs. Many height adjustable desks also have telescopic beams, so if needs change and the size of the desktop needs to be reduced or increased. The beam can be adjusted to cater for a different sized desktop. This means that only the desktop needs to be replaced - not the costly height adjustable frame. To have office furniture that can fit into any office setup is a very good investment. 

7. Storage

The biggest mistake that many business owners when carrying out an office fit-out is to underestimate how much storage space is required - including provision for growth in the future. The type of storage required (centralised 'v' localised) will impact your office furniture costs. One of Office Products Online's obligation free service is a Storage Audit. This will include reviewing existing paper-based records to identify what records can be archived to bulk or off-site storage, what records can be destroyed - and what records need to be 'close at hand' for workflow processes. Some records can be electronically stored (with no need keep a hard copy and this will significantly minimises the need to take up more floor space thatn is necessary. Here is more information on our Storage Audit Service. Office Products Online has available a huge range of very affordable Filing Cabinets, Lockable Cupboards, Bulk Shelving and Mobile Shelving Systems to cater for all storage requirements - and many of these products can be customised to suit specific space requirements

8. Warranty

Here lies one of the biggest hidden costs. Office furniture products that have limited or short term warranties (i.e. anything less than 5 years), can potentially become a cost liability. The cheapest is not always best and the purchasing 'trick' is to balance cost 'v' quality - and often the product has a low sell price - but the quality is still there. This is reflected in the Warranty.  Many of our product Warranties are 10-15 years. When you check out the price tags on these products you will realise that they represent 'value for money'. If you're looking to relocate, expand or upgrade your office contact us now on 0-800-535-029 for an obligation free quotation of your requirements