Should You Buy or Rent Your Next Copier?

Every morning, there is always some sort of conundrum in the office. Jim is late to work again. Pam ate the last doughnut. You forgot to file those TPS reports. The worst part of it all? The fact that your companies copier, for reasons unbeknownst to you, is refusing to work in any way, shape, or form.

Now this begs the question of whether you should pull an Office Space and take the copier out for a good ol’ fashioned beat down OR…. just get a new copier all together. This also leads to the next question: Should you buy or rent your next copier?

Remember that there are pros and cons for each, so research is a good idea from the start. But, here are a few things to think about when it comes time to decide on leasing vs. owning a copier.

Owning
No matter what the case may be, you first need to decide what the needs are for your company. This will help you determine what type of copier you will need based on volume and use that can help cater its performance to your company’s specific needs.

If you can see your company using the copier for quite an extended period of time, it may be better to just go ahead and buy one. This however leads to looking into the budget. Should you have enough within the budget to justify a new copier, find a great deal and pull the trigger on it. Just make sure that you also look into the copier’s warranty and make sure you fully understand the events that could void the warranty. In the event that you have voided your warranty, you have just pretty much bought your company a brand new and extremely heavy paperweight.

Again, it all comes down to assessing what you need and how long you need it.

Renting
When you decide to rent your copier, you give yourself quite a bit more wiggle room in terms of long-term commitment (or lack thereof) as well as budget for those inevitably pesky repairs. Think about the idea of your copier becoming obsolete. We live in a world where a new smartphone or laptop comes out every week. Meaning that the state-of-the-art machine that you just walked out of the lot with yesterday is most likely already obsolete… or will be in a week or so.

This is exactly the same with copiers. These machines can depreciate in value very quickly and their lifespans are quite short. By leasing, you can give your company and budget some breathing room. Much like that of a car lease, renting your copier offers a much lower expenditure rate than buying a copier outright. Since these machines advance so rapidly you can also gain faster access to top quality copiers rather than being tied down to one that’s out of date.

When it comes down to it, there are several decisions that you’ll need to address for your company. What type of copier do we need? What are we going to be using it for? How ofter are we going to use it? How much ink will we be going through weekly? How long are we going to need this copier?

After answering these questions, you should then be able to decide very easily which option is best for you. Just remember, renting is usually easier and a lot less hassle to begin with. If you’re interested in either, get in touch with us today!