The Minimal Startup – Eliminating office furniture costs

Starting out a business? You don’t need asset costs like office furniture & appliances weighing you down. 

You’ve got the funding and the business plan is all set to roll. All you now need to do is get the office space and set things in motion. There’s just one catch – does it really make sense to spend upto Rs. 2-5Lac on office furniture, when your business has not even started making money yet?

It may sound trivial right now, but office furniture costs are a huge capital investment, especially for a bootstrapped start-up. Sure, you may think “We’re a cool startup and we won’t need to invest in expensive furniture because we can make do with bean bags instead”. The problem with that is, your business is going to be only as good as the shop front. Having investors and potential business partners seated across the Jenga pile on a bean bag doesn’t really sound like the ambience of a multi-million dollar deal.

Now, there are two solutions to fix this:

Buying office furniture & appliances

Let’s consider how much it’ll cost to furnish a small office for 10 people. You’ll need at least 15 chairs – one for each employee and 5 additional for meeting and conference rooms. Next up, you’ll need about 10 individual desks and at least 1 conference table. In addition to these, you’ll need about 4-5 filing cabinet, a refrigerator, a microwave oven, and maybe a couch for waiting guests. The cost for each of these will be roughly:

• Chairs: 15*2000
• Desks: 10*2000
• Conference Table: Rs.5000
• Refrigerator: Rs.15000
• Microwave oven: Rs.6000
• Filing cabinets: 2000*5
• Couch: Rs.25000

This brings your total cost to Rs. 1.1Lac, not to mention the maintenance charges you’ll end up paying on these things month after month for repairs and upkeep. This also doesn’t include the relocation costs you’ll incur when your team expands and you have to move to a new office.




While this cost is just the start, you’ll need to remember to keep adding up these costs as more people get on board. So if your start-up was to grow to 20 people in 6 months, you can expect these costs to double. Quite a lot of money for a bootstrapped company to do away with, unless there’s a better way. Luckily for you, there is one!

Go asset light & furnish your office by renting

While business 101 may have taught you to maximise your assets, adding on depreciating assets like furniture and appliances at a huge capital costs are only going to add to your losses in the long run. Moreover, you wouldn’t want your dream start-up to ever be bound by how many chairs you can afford to buy.

In the age of minimalism, it makes sense to direct your investment into something that offers the maximum return. Furnishing your office, while being crucial for any new business, is bad investment due to the long term cost of maintenance, the rapid depreciation rate of the assets and the missed opportunity cost. After all, you can invest the same amount of money to ensure you have the best employee or buying ad space that will increase awareness about your company.

Renting is a simple alternative that reduces your upfront costs while ensuring that your employees are comfortable. RentoMojo’s office furniture rentals start at just Rs. 89/month and come with quality assurance and a bunch of free services.

For starters, you get free relocation and swap options, which means that as your business needs evolve, you can easily shift to a bigger office and upgrade to furniture that suits your requirements. There’s also free maintenance which further brings down your long term costs and eliminates hassles.

You can choose from over office chair rentals, tables, desks, appliances and even storage solutions. RentoMojo also allows you to cancel your subscription at any time, without any extra charges. For your business, this means more flexibility and freedom to concentrate just on creating the next-big-thing.

Ribhu, a RentoMojo customer, shares how he furnished his small office space by renting and gained big of benefits.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=TVcFt2WWnAk

So, instead of focusing on how to get the cheapest table for your startup office, you can now put your mind to making your business a successful one. Share this read with all your budding entrepreneur friends and maybe, just maybe, they might find this so helpful, that you’ll get some early stocks!