Just because you’re an established company doesn’t mean you can’t bootstrap.
In the traditional sense of the word, bootstrapping has always been associated with startups. You go lean in the beginning until your business gets some consistent income and a critical mass of clients/users, then you start to spend money on things like upgraded office furniture, a swanky office space and more employees.
However, when used the right way and with the right philosophy, bootstrapping can be a great way to increase efficiency and reduce costs. One of the best ways to do that is by choosing used furniture for your office instead of new furniture.
Now, before you retreat amid flashbacks to your college years when you rounded up a combination of free curbside sofas and oddly-colored thrift store recliners, you’ve got to realize that The Office Planning Group’s used office furniture is well cared for. You won’t have to deal with unsightly stains and seat padding emerging through weak spots in worn-out fabric.
That’s just one of the advantages to buying used furniture from our New Orleans office. Here are some other reasons to consider us when buying used furniture.
Used Office Furniture is Cost Effective
This is perhaps the biggest benefit of buying used furniture. By our estimation, used furniture can save you 50% and 90% off the retail price for new items.
According to pricing-data site CostOwl, the average office desk costs anywhere between $200 and $2,000.
That’s a wide range of prices, so here’s a quick breakdown of how much you could expect to save by purchasing used furniture at an average of a 70% discount:
| New Desk Price | Used Desk Price | Money saved |
| $200 | $60 | $140 |
| $800 | $240 | $560 |
| $1,400 | $420 | $980 |
| $2,000 | $600 | $1,400 |
The beauty of this example is that you can purchase a used top-flight work desk for about the same price you could buy a new lower-end work desk.
The value here is tremendous. Here’s how we put it on the Used Furniture section of our website:
“If you are a small startup or looking to bootstrap your office furniture needs, buying used (slightly imperfect or even blemished) is a great way to save money and cheaply obtain the items you need to run your office. The used office furniture inventory we offer includes desks, chairs, modular systems, conference tables, file cabinets, and just about everything else imaginable for your office.”
Our Used Furniture is Personally Inspected for Quality
If you’re being smart about your used furniture purchase, then you’ll want to get the most quality out of what you’re spending your money on. There’s no sense on putting your on-hand cash toward something that will wear out or fall apart after a year.
We personally inspect every piece of used furniture that comes into our warehouse. Our criteria for our used inventory? We only sell what we’d use ourselves.
Here’s a quick list of some of the types of used furniture we sell:
- Desks
- Chairs
- Modular systems
- File cabinets
- Conference tables
Used Furniture Can Look Just as Good as New Furniture
We’ve spent decades in the New Orleans office furniture world and we’ve come across hundreds of businesses that purchased used office furniture for their offices.
As we brushed up on the advantages of used furniture, we ran across an excellent example in a back issue of the American Bar Association’s GP Solo newsletter, in which lawyers offer advice and narratives about starting their own practice.
Here’s what they said about buying used furniture for your law office:
“’Used furniture’ may conjure up images of old, scarred wooden desks and threadbare armchairs. In reality, most law office furniture is usually indistinguishable from new. Firms move, reorganize, and merge, leaving behind desks, shelves, and other items that have no place in the design of the new or remodeled offices. So, don’t let negative images get in the way of great deals.”
We think the ABA brings up a good point here. Many times, the used furniture you buy is virtually indistinguishable from new furniture.
Considering that a $100,000 of new furniture could cost you anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 used, the money you save can be put toward another salary for a year, bonuses or other upgrades to your office.
Contact Us with Your Questions About Used Office Furniture
Though we’ve mentioned New Orleans a few times in this post, we offer our used furniture services throughout all of Louisiana.
