Office Setup for Cheap

Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes

Usually when someone starts a business they spend too much money buying everything new. Realistically everyone knows you just started a business and unless you are interviewing the queen of England no one really cares. A great office is a functioning office, not a beautiful office. You can spend time making it beautiful when you get a lot of clients but in the mean time here’s exactly what I did to get my first in home office set up. Now some of these sites and angles I have updated to match what you can do today. But I’ll go through all that I did in order so you can see how it was done. Now this whole site is dedicated to me showing you how to get up on your own so don’t be surprised on how cheap I got it done with!

1. Computer – I just typed on Google build a computer and Manhattan and I got a whole list of places. I ended up going to a place on Madison avenue that the guy built me a computer for 200 bucks.  I still have that computer in my office today and it still works!
2. Monitor – I actually picked up a CRT off the street because people were throwing them away.
3. Software – My brother told me about so much freeware like OpenOffice.org (which is like Microsoft Office), Mozilla Thunderbird (same as Microsoft Inbox) that I didn’t have to pay anything for software.
4. Phones – At the time I used Vonage but if I could do it all over I’d use MagicJack! When I first started Vonage had the same technology as MagicJack and people were scared of it. Either way 40 bucks a year for phones is great!
5. Fax – At the time I went with Verizon which costs me like 100 bucks. A lot of my customers used MyFax to send me faxes and it worked. My company does a lot of faxing so I ended up staying with Verizon but I wished I would’ve switched.
6. Printer/Fax/Scanner – I ended up buying a HP LaserJet 3015 (now 3020 or 3030) for about 300 new (but you can buy them now for 150 refurbished) and years later it’s still working. In fact I have like 7 more for my employees and they keep on going.
7. Paper – I know they say to get certain type of paper but I bought the cheapest copy paper I could find. Paper is paper but I knew my printer would be able to take it since it was a 3 in 1!
8. Telephone – I used two house phones at first but later I bought a secondhand business phone for like 20 bucks!
9. Ink Cartridges – I have always and will always use the Ink places online that refill them and send them back to you. To pay for a HP ink cartridge cost me 20 bucks more than getting them online. Who knows what cheap ink looks like?
10. Staples, WhiteOut, Envelopes and etc – I bought everything from the 99 cent store. Who knows if you use quality staples or white out anyway! (Rubber-bands I got from the postman they usually have tons of them)

My company prints a lot of documents so I needed to make sure my money was spent on a quality printer. That’s why my printer was more expensive but it was 3 in 1 and I actually use all 3 in my business. My computer wasn’t expensive because the software I use is internet based so I just needed a good drone computer to log on.

EXTRA (When I left my house and got a office)

1. Furniture – First, I asked the property manager does he have any furniture that someone left behind. He said he had plenty so I had 4 desks and 4 chairs for FREE.
2. File Cabinets – Same as above, you’ll find if you move into a office building they have furniture in a storage room that they hold but know the renter is not coming back. So I had FREE furniture.
3. Plants, Pictures – I didn’t buy this stuff at all but as other offices closed I got their stuff for like 10 bucks because they didn’t want to move it.
4. Tables – I just pushed two desks together and turned them against the wall and they looked like tables to me!

To say I was cheap is a understatement but believe me when I tell you my company survived and survives because I don’t spend any money on things that are not necessary. As I got more money I bought more things like cubicles and the like now but I always found a way to buy them refurbished because who in the hell cares. Even my nice desks are from a movie lot here in LA that they gave to us for 50 bucks if we would come and pick their heavy asses up. We did and now I have some nice stuff. You wouldn’t think I pieced two offices together under 1000 dollars but I did!

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