Advantages of Office Furniture Liquidators for Sellers and Buyers

Offices and businesses own a large amount of furniture in the form of cubicles, desks, chairs, sofas etc and they cost a lot of money. After sometimes, the company may decide to remove the existing furniture and replace it with a new one so as to redesign the office or giving it a totally new look. Companies may also want to get rid of the furniture if the business is downsizing or if the business is coming to an end. Merging of two businesses also results in rendering a significant amount of furniture useless.

Keeping an unused inventory wastes a lot of space and it is also liable for taxes, so it is best for the companies to do something about it.

What Can Companies do with the Old Furniture?

A company can get rid of the furniture either by throwing it in the trash, donating it, or selling it to some new company.

  • Throwing in the trash: If the furniture is still under working condition, then throwing it in the trash is not a good idea. It’s true that the value of the wood decreases with time, but it still has some significant value which can be helpful in recouping a part of the investment which the company made in buying the furniture.
  • Donating the furniture: This can be seen a charity work and it does provide some tax benefits. But many times other businesses, even the new start-up ones, don’t want to feel like they’re dependent on someone else’s charity, and so they don’t want donated furniture.
  • Selling the Furniture: Selling of the furniture can be done either by the company itself or through a furniture liquidator. If the company decides to do the business itself, then it will have to spare some time and delivery cost in order to finalize the deal. Liquidator firms, on the other hand, undertake all the removal and shipping processes and they also provide a better bargain as compared to what companies can get itself.

    Liquidation firms also have cubature trucks which make transportation of furniture easy.

    It’s true that the companies won’t get any tax benefit by selling, but the value they’ll get will far outnumber the tax benefits.

What are the Benefits for the Buyers?

Strong and durable woods are not cheaper, and buying new furniture for the office can swallow a huge portion of the budget. Buying used furniture at low costs can help businesses, especially the small and new ones, save a lot of money.

Also, new and customized furniture takes at least six to eight weeks before getting delivered. This time can be saved by buying used furniture from a liquidation firm.

Environmental Benefits: If the furniture is still usable, then throwing it in the trash is certainly not good from the environmental point of view. Also, buying new furniture means more cutting of wood. Liquidation of furniture can save the environment by accumulating less wants in the landfills and by preventing the cutting of the trees.

Office Rental Is Profitable for Your Business

We all know that real estate rates are increasing tremendously with the development and advancement of society. Commercial property rates have always been higher than residential rates. In such a case buying an office can be a big investment especially if one has limited resources and a low budget. We all know that multinationals and large corporations have a huge commercial premise which looks quite professional and impressive. However, they have a huge turnover and can afford it conveniently. What about the small and developing companies? There are many companies in the market who are working to establish their places in the world of big industries. However, initially they have a shortage of resources and cannot invest in an office.

The best solution for this problem is office rental. Renting an office is quite convenient and affordable. It makes your business look more professional without having to invest a big amount. The saved resources can be used elsewhere which can prove to be more profitable for the business. Office space London provides you with an ample amount of space and can be easily sorted out by hiring a real estate agent. Real estate agents are middlemen who help you in searching for the right property suiting your needs and requirements. They have all the necessary market information which makes your property search much easier. They charge you some amount of commission for their services.

There are many people who run their businesses from home. But, normally these kinds of business do not succeed because they do not create an impression on their customers. If you do not have any idea about office rental and real estate you can conduct an online survey for more information. There are many websites which provide these kinds of services and help you find the right kind of office for yourself.

A developing business always expands some day or the other. In such cases a rented office proves to be much more convenient. You can always shift your business premises and move into a larger office. This is useful especially if the numbers of employees are going on increasing. Thus, it is very necessary that you plan out your resources well before investing anywhere. A monthly rental agreement is more suitable if you want to shift your office anytime in between. This will make your expansion procedure simpler and less hectic without blocking a large amount of your resources. If you are planning to purchase a property conduct a proper market survey before taking any step. It is best to invest in the locality whose real estate rates are most likely to increase in the future. This will be a profitable investment for you and you will get a good resell value if you want to sell the property and purchase a bigger property.

Renting an office also has advantages in case of taxes. A person who has rented an office is required to pay deducted amount of taxes according to the law. Thus, this was some important information on how to rent an office and the various advantages associated with it.

9 Compelling Business Benefits of Gmail Cloud Computing For All Your Office Productivity Needs

Deploying Google’s Gmail for my start-up internet marketing business has allowed minimal and secure IT administration of my 8 websites (28+ email accounts). Supporting a mixed operating environment which includes Microsoft, Ubuntu and MacOS, multiple browsers, and document file formats from Microsoft Office, Open Office is made possible and easier with an in-the-cloud computing environment like Gmail.

So why would you consider cloud computing like Google Mail for your business, especially an SME (small medium enterprise)?

In a two words – security and compliance. E-mail security, web security and message compliance are the underlying benefits to solid business reasons to have your mail and office documents served through Gmail.

Compliance to Security and Retention Requirements

Whether your organization is 1 person or thousands of people in size, you are faced with accounting, legal and government regulations and standards that dictate acceptable levels of IT security and records retention for all electronic files and e-mails. Gmail can help ensure compliancy plus provide you with real business benefits in streamlining your document and email management. Deploying Google Mail is just smart business. Some benefits include:

1) Organizing and Filing (Archiving) your email the anyway you want it.

Google uses labeling as a way to file and organize your emails. You can tag an email with multiple labels. For example, an email from your accountant with tax information could be label as “Corporate Taxes”, “Accountant”, “IRS”, “Revenue Canada”. Gone is the restriction of having to choose only one file folder to which you move an email.

2) Keeping Email conversations or threads linked together.

Appearing like cascading file folders, emails on the same topic (subject) will be kept together in your inbox or to the multiple archived labels you have assigned. No searching for the email trail or thread of emails about a particular subject. They are visually represented like a group of stacked file folders.

3) A free unlimited storage repository for all your email and messages forever!

At 7 gigabytes per gmail user account and growing as of August 2008, the Google mail tagline is ‘ you’ll never need to delete another message’.

Takin’ Care of Business, instead of computer or IT Administration

Reducing the time spent on administration of your computer storage, security, backup and recovery allows you to spend more time building your business. Manage all your email accounts entirely from within one or two Gmail addresses. Once set-up, Gmail offers this low administration environment.

4) No Mail is downloaded or stored on your server, desktop, laptop or PDA. This eliminates any stress or administration angst associated with:

– searching for emails stored and scattered across multiple client devices – some emails on your PC , some on your laptop, some on your PDA

– scheduling backups of your email, contact list and documents

– recovery (and loss) of email & documents due to client device loss, failure or theft

– expanding storage capacity due to continuing email and document growth and retention

– remote or mobile access for all your email, attachments and documents

– managing, consolidating and keeping intact multiple email addresses and personalities

– off-site backup of select files for SOHO or Small Businesses

Document creation, management and simple online collaboration

5) Use Gmail online Office Suite to create, manage, store your business documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Read and write Microsoft Office formatted documents as well as all the open document variants. Securely stored at Google, eliminate HDD file storage and backup. No more MS Office licensing fees to Microsoft.

6) Store images and pictures using Picasa Web Albums. Manage your images on your PC using FREE Picasa Software – crop, adjust, special effects.

7) online chat and messaging integrated, stored and managed just like your email.

Reducing the complex e-mail security threats to your corporate data

8) Google yet again has an very intelligent SPAM filter that checks each message content and therefore does not arbitrarily blacklist the email address, just the specific email due to content. No emails are downloaded to your PC or an office application; therefore, no waste of bandwidth or risk of infected emails on your hard drive.

9) Google’s anti-virus checking is also performed away from your computer. All attachments are checked at the Google server for viruses and, if infected, flagged/moved to SPAM right away. No infected e-mail ever arrives on your computer’s hard drive.

Traditional server or computer-based email systems download ALL your email, passing it through a spam/anti-virus filter on your computer. This is a waste of bandwidth usage (downloading spam email) and, even worse, exposes you to the additional risk of having spam and virus-infested e-mails get closer to your data files on your computer hard drives?

So why you need to seriously consider using Google Mail for all your office needs?

– Complete office mobility – via any browser, access to your email, documents, images, chat

– Access anywhere, anytime through any browser

– No backups required of email, office documents or contacts

– Manage multiple user profiles and email accounts in one convenient place

– Includes Anti-Spam and Anti-virus checking away from your PC, Laptop or Server

– Gmail Free Unlimited file space

– Next to No Mail Administration.

Gmail is the perfect Mobile Office Utility for Small Medium and Enterprise businesses. Google Mail Cloud Computing environment will allow you to focus on your business operations and growth. Implementing the Gmail in-the-cloud computing model for your email security and compliance makes a whole lot of sense.

Keep your head in the clouds!

Online Business App Solutions: Microsoft Office 365 Vs Google Docs

2011 was a good year for web-based “software as a service” suites. Although these aren’t new technologies, now more than ever people seem interested in using and taking advantage of the cloud and of the cloud computing document-sharing services. If in January 2011, Google has announced that it will offers its users free data storage of files up to 1GB for Google Docs, on June the same year, Microsoft released to the public its “commercial software plus services” called Microsoft Office 3665.

Both services include a suite of desktop apps which can be accessed and delivered over the Internet, and provide users with mobility and immediate access to their documents no matter where they, as long as they have a compatible device and an Internet connection.

Such tools address mainly businesses, but also users who work in a team and for whom collaboration tools are an essential part of their work. In order to have an optimal communication between users, such a communication tool needs to be compatible with all the hardware and software components of all members. So it’s essential to know what devices (PC, smartphones, tablets, etc.) your colleagues use and what software products. The best approach would be that the entire team uses the same web-based software service and avoid working across multiple hardware and software platforms.

In terms of familiarity and wider compatibility, Microsoft Office 365 is the best solution, but if your team prefers online ease of use, Google Docs offers a cheaper alternative. Regarding the user’s experience, Microsoft solution relies on locally installed copies of Office (instead of web apps), while Google moves the entire action into browsers. So let’s see what these web-based office suites have to offer:

• Microsoft Office 365 comes with: email, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneNote, Lync and calendars. On the other hand Google Docs provides users with: email, Word processor, Drawing app, Presentations, Online spreadsheet

• In terms of price, Google Docs is free (including Gmail, Google Talk, and other Google products), however for $5 per user, per month ($50 per year) you can get Google Apps which comes with Google Docs + support + extra storage + SLA (service level agreement). Microsoft comes with a more intricate license plan which includes various options, such as Plan E4: for $27 a month you get full Microsoft Office license + enterprise voice capability, etc.

• Docs suite is quite easy to install, and all the information you need is on the Google site. We cannot say the same thing about Office 365, as you need to install a browser plug-in, as well as Microsoft Lync.

• Docs is compatible with most important browser, while Office 365 doesn’t support Google Chrome.

• Both tools have an easy to use UI, however Office 365 offers a familiar touch: you’ll be working with documents (as usual), but these will be saved to Office 365 and not on your local machine.

• When it comes to spreadsheets, Google let’s you right-click in the app and resize hide/unhide rows. Also, Google spreadsheets provide more advanced features, such as: charting, image embedding, pivot tables, etc.

• On the other hand, when it comes to presentations/PowerPoint, Office 365 has a clear advantage: the web app offers the same experience and results as the desktop application

Google Docs has the advantage that’s easy to install, is inexpensive, and is compatible with almost any device with a browser. So no matter if you work from your home PC which has installed Linux, or away, from your Android smartphone, the experience will be the same. However, Docs has a series of limitations as well, such as: flawed integration with local apps, scarce compatibility with PowerPoint files, etc.

Microsoft Office 365, although is more expensive, provides a complete set of advanced features, as well as full compatibility with offline Office apps.

So, I can’t really say that one tool is better than the other, but that both have a series of advantages as well as limitations, and that before making your choice you should first take into account the needs and requirements of your team.

Office Supplies For The Smart Shopper How Small Business Can Save On Office Products

The overall economy is tough these days, and nowhere is the pressure greater than on small businesses. Expenses continue to rise for everything, and many companies have taken to office supplies as an area to cut costs. High dollar purchases like new printers, office desks, conference room chairs or file cabinets can easily be put on hold. However, companies need every day office products to get the job done. An office without hanging folders, copy paper, pens and Post-It notes is an office in disarray. While those costs can never be eliminated, here are some surprising insider tips as to how to reduce your costs on office supplies.

It’s common sense that most people assume searching hard for the lowest invoice price assures you of getting the lowest cost on office supplies. In fact, the actual time (therefore money), spent scouring websites, newspaper ads or retail superstores for the absolute lowest price usually costs your business more than the cost savings you see on that sales receipt. Taking advantage of that “in-store” special at Office Mega-Store so you save $.75 on a box of hanging file folders does not relate to savings to your bottom line.

Shopping tip number 1. Never have an office worker make a trip to the “Office Big Box” superstore to shop around for your business needs. There are significant hidden costs you aren’t accounting for whenever this is done. The employee salary expense for a 1 hour shopping expense is usually $12 minimum, not to mention gas, the possibility of an accident, and we all know shopping trips never take only one hour. Instead, you can easily find a trusted company with office supplies online; one who has free next day delivery and eliminates the need for costly shopping excursions.

Here’s a tangible real life example. John the new office manager makes $17 an hour, and has been given a typical order for office products – some Pilot pens, an HP ink cartridge, Smead classification folders and some Universal binders and report covers. The order total is $82, and he’s been told to find the best deal. He hits the internet and compares 3 different sites for each item taking 30 minutes. He then reviews the Big Boxes Sunday newspaper specials for 10 minutes looking for coupons. On top of that 40 minutes scouring for the best “deal”, John decides to go to “Office Mega-Max” because they had the lowest prices. A trip to the store, shopping, etc. adds another hour, (that’s conservative – driving to and finding what you need at a superstore NEVER takes an hour). So total, John spent an hour and 40 minutes trying to save you money and get the lowest prices — or $28.39! That’s 34% more than your receipt will tell you!

Now comes the biggest secret I’ll tell you. People are shocked to learn the office superstores like OfficeMax and Office Depot no longer have the lowest prices for the office products you need. Today, you can find online office supply stores who are independently owned that guarantee their everyday prices are lower. It’s free next day shipping and lower prices – that saves you money. But how do some of the better run new internet companies have lower prices than these huge corporate chains? The primary way is much lower operating overhead. The successful internet companies that Do Good Work don’t have hundreds of retail stores to maintain, all the inventory to keep, and all the employee costs to run those stores.

Some final helpful hints. You will always save money in the long run if you find a trusted supplier who gives you guaranteed low prices every day and doesn’t use price gimmicks or change their prices every week. Find a company with good customer service, one with people who actually answer the phone not a machine, and trust them to save you money and get you the products you need on time with free shipping. A big thing – never buy office supplies from an internet company that hides or does not prominently display their toll free number on the website. Companies that do good work to save you money will have personal service, easy to use websites, and some even give back to great charities.

In summary, don’t forget these simple tips to save money on the office products you need, and can’t cut out entirely during these tough economic times. The first rule is to remember employee time spent obsessing on finding that lowest price is unproductive time, and costs you money. Second, never send someone to that office superstore unless it’s an emergency. When looking at your total costs, that always costs you money. I know it’s hard to believe, but the superstores do not have the lowest prices anymore. Find and trust the right online office products company to service your needs. Of most importance to me is to find a company that does good work in the community. It helps build trust, and I’ve found a cool company that even donates 50% of their profits to great charities. They practice conscious capitalism, and it makes me feel good to do business with them. And the biggest benefit is I save money!

The reality is it’s not possible for your small business to cut out all office supply spending. Standard every day products like staples, paper clips and view binders are necessary to keep the normal work flow moving. But, if you rely on these simple hints, and search out a trusted internet office supply company that does good work, you’ll not only save time, but save money to your bottom line!

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