THE LEASE

May as well go with the biggest expense first, and for the most part, it will be the biggest expense by far. However the cost can vary greatly depending upon the location that you choose. I have found that in the local area near where i am now that a 55sqm office, can be leased for $1,300 per month plus tax and outgoings. All up this comes in at about $20,460 for one year. This is located in a area just south of Brisbane, if you were to look at leasing a similar property in Brisbane it self you would be looking at closer to $40,000 per year.

THE FURNITURE

At a minimum for an office you would want to have an area that at least resembles a reception area, whether you actually decide to have a receptionist or not, the area allows for a separation of your work area and where clients may enter your business. For your office, you would look to have a desk, maybe a bookcase, and a sideboard, which can act as storage and a place for your printer, fax machine etc, plus a chair for yourself and 2 or 3 chairs for visitors. Purchasing these items alone from a office furniture store would come close to $3,000.

For the reception area, a reception desk a chair behind and a maybe again 2 or 3 chairs for waiting visitors, plus coffee table which you could hold a more casual meeting with your client at. Again a conservative estimate for this would come in close to another $3,000. Which would give you a total of close to $6,000 for furniture.

THE TECHNOLOGY

Really this is an area that having an office means you need to do a bit extra then you may otherwise. Just like with the furniture you need to prepare for future needs, even if it is just for one additional person. So your basic needs would be 2 x computers, a Colour Laser Printer (or mono laser printer, and colour ink jet), a fax machine, a basic phone system, external network drive for backup, and an ADSL router. You could replace the 2 computers with laptops, however this would not really cause much saving. Your total cost is likely to be around $1200 x 2 for computer, $400 for printer/s, $400 for fax machine, $1,000+ for a basic phone system, $200 external network drive, and $100 for ADSL router. For a total of $4,500.

THE SERVICES

There are a few services that you need to have if you have a office, these generally all cost money and will quickly add up over a year.

- Telephone : It is a good idea to get at least 2 lines, so that you can be on a call and another call can still come in, additionally a separate fax line also ensures that faxes can get through without being affected by other calls. While two lines may be suitable it really depends upon how many calls you get. The costs associated with phone lines can vary greatly depending on the level of service and additional features that are enabled, however i would estimate a minimum of $50 per line, for someone who makes a low volume of outbound calls and faxes.

- ADSL Broadband : A fairly standard business grade ADSL service can be connected for about $100 per month.

All up even for these basic two services you are looking at around $250 per month or $3,000 per year.

JUST THE BASICS

So really this is just the basics that you need for setting up an office and when you put it all together for just the first year it does quickly add up

Lease $20,460 + Furniture $6,000 + Technology $4,500 + Services $3,000 = $33,960. This assumes that you are not considering also employing someone for reception, which if you do happen to get busy is almost a necessity with an office, if you plan to be in and out during the day. You are probably looking at a minimum of $40,000 a year for a receptionist when taking into account the expenses associated with employing someone.

THE CONCLUSION

While some businesses literally may need an office because the clients do visit them more often, especially if you are selling to retail customers. The general cost of having an office is quite high, considering that you need to make this money as profit above the expense of product before you actually make any money for yourself. While it will get a little better in the second year when you don’t have to purchase new furniture or technology, there are other costs that just happen to come up, like the almost constant need for stationary supplies, printer toner, and other supplies that you don’t expect.

While most of the exsisting reasons for taking a abck-up are very much valid, there some additional reasons as well. One good example is with laptops, while they are an item that is designed to be moved around, the more they are moved, and esspecially if they are not moved carefully they have a higher chance of failing, which could end up in lost data. Another thing is theft, while you don’t like to think that it may happen, and the chances are it wont, there is always that possibility.

So what and how should you backup. The most important things that you should be backing up is any documents, accounting files, presentations, email, or other business related files. There is often little need to backup program files and windows files, as these are easy enough to replace later on.

The frequency with which you backup your information is entirely up to yourself, if you are working on and changing these files every day and downloading email and creating purchase orders, and invoices for clients. Then i would suggest backing up at a minimum the changed files each day. A quick and easy way may be to just store everything in a folder maybe labeled Business Data in your documents folder and then back-up that folder each day.

When backing up your data it is worth considering which is going to be the best option. While a USB memory stick may seem like a good option, you really need to use something a little more permanent. For small amounts of data or if you want to keep your back-ups seperate on a daily basis then a CD may be the best option. However if you need to back-up more then 700MB a day then you would be better looking at something like a an external hard drive.

Particular back-up meathod’s and the good and bad of the different meathods will be discussed a little later on, but please just remember to keep back-ups. In some cases the data you back-up and having a working back-up of the data could make or break your business.

THE MODEM

While the modem is often supplied by the ISP who you connect with, they sometimes have different options. The most common type of modem is an external USB modem, this is usually the best option as it gives you the most flexibility primarily because it can be connected to any computer. Some ISP’s offer a PCMCIA or Smartcard modem, however this limit’s you to using this connection with your Laptop computer.

THE PLAN

Most ISP’s offer a number of different options for connecting. Mostly these plans are based on the amount of data you download (eg viewing webpages, downloading email, etc.). Download limits can vary greatly from one ISP to another, anywhere from 100MB to 6GB. As such prices can vary greatly. Unlike ADSL the speed’s are generally the same and are more likely to vary depending on your connection location then the plan that you choose.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

The first thing that is worth checking is what the coverage is like around your area, or more so the locations that you intend to use the mobile broadband. For the most part if you can give address to the salesperson they can usually show you coverage maps. The biggest consideration with coverage is roaming. While some ISP’s automatically enable romaing, other’s don’t, the costs associated with roaming can be quite high, so it is worth knowing what to expect before signing up.

THE PRICE

Really with mobile printers the biggest consideration is the price. Most commonly you will find that the cost is going to range somewhere between $400 and $500 for the printer. While this may not be a huge amount to pay for a printer, it does bring to mind the reasoning of is it worth the money for the amount i will use it. For example if you end up using the printer to print around 20 pages per month and kept it for three years. This would come down to a cost of over 50 cents per page just for the printer before you pay for ink or paper. While this may be worth it if by owning the printer you can greatly improve your business, if it is just for personal convenience is this maybe to higher price.

THE WEIGHT

Between the different models that are available there is some variance in the weight of the printers. The main variance lies in the range of 2kg to 2.5kg, while this is not a huge difference, it is even just worth knowing how much the printer weights if for nothing more then knowing what you are going to have to carry.

THE CARTRIDGES

After the purchase of the printer itself the next greatest expenses for any printer is often the print cartridges. Taking a few minutes to find out the number of pages you can expect to get from a cartridge compared to the cost of the cartridge can help you make a better buying decision up front. This however is something that it is worth considering when purchasing any printer be it mobile or not.

FINAL WORDS

Really as with any purchase it often just comes down to being an informed consumer, and really knowing the difference, between the options which may be available.

As such when you are working with no fixed office it is no surprise that a laptop is the obvious choice. IT combines a computer with a monitor and the accessories all in one neat package. However there are some considerations i think that need to be made before just going and buying the biggest and best you can afford. Not so much because you are unable to afford it but so that you can make an informed choice about a model that is not only going to meet your needs but also be practical for your day to day movements.

THE SCREEN

While you may not have much choice in the style of screen’s that are available on laptops. You do have a choice between different sizes. Making the correct choice about size of screen is a very important part of your overall decision. Getting a laptop with a screen that is small can be an annoyance, as you may find that you need to get closer to the screen to properly read what you need to. In contrast the bigger the screen is the heavier the laptop will be. While 15.4″ is almost the default screen size, 14.1″ can provide a good mid point with a reasonable size screen offset with a slightly lighter laptop.

THE WEIGHT

Weight is a very important consideration when purchasing a laptop. Often the weight is in direct proportion to the size of the screen. However this does not mean that the majority of the weight is in the screen itself. The larger the screen the more space is available so larger and sometimes slightly heavier parts are used in models with larger screen sizes. As mentioned above for screen size the ideal size is 14.1″ often between 2.1 and 2.3 kg. Where as a 17″ laptop can have a weight of above 3kg usually. However there are slight variations from model to model.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

One big thing to remember when purchasing a laptop is that it is just the start. There are a number of essential / optional accessories that many people like to add on. The obvious one is the Carry bag, if you are planning to work from many different places, then this can be the biggest consideration you need to be sure that the bag you have is going to be able to accommodate everything that you need. Other add-ons that can be helpful are things like cordless mouse, additional battery, car charger, and external hard drive.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

When looking for a laptop you need to think more about what you are going to be doing 95% of the time on it, rather then worrying about the 5% of the time that you may need to do something more advanced. If you worry about the more advanced things you often will end up paying more for a model with many features you rarely use or need.