What to Consider When Buying Equipment for a Business

December 14, 2020 Tom Clark

When businesses sell, some leave thousands of dollars on the table by not accurately valuating their company’s worth. One of the primary factors they forget to add to the mix is the value of their equipment.

Equipment for a business encompasses a wide variety of tools. If you own a trucking company, your tractors would be equipment. If you run an ice cream parlor, your commercial freezers would be equipment.

All of those things have value and in some cases, more value than the business you’ve set up itself.

Given how valuable business equipment can be, you’ll find that when you’re buying it, it can represent a steep expense. So, if you’re in the market for a large piece of commercial equipment, keep reading. In this post, our team shares key things to keep in mind before making an equipment purchase.

Affordability

The number one thing you’ll want to think about before investing in equipment for a business is if you can afford what you’re buying. That should be relatively easy to determine by looking at an item’s price.

If you can’t afford a piece of equipment out of pocket, it may make sense to finance it. Equipment sellers and banks offer financing options you can leverage.

Buying your equipment used, as you can do on Mazree, can also bring down the overall cost of your purchase.

As you try to cost cut, ensure the item you’re going to be investing in is of quality. Buying cheap, off-brand equipment that won’t get the job done isn’t worth your resources.

Maintenance Costs

Even after you purchase equipment for a business, the expenses won’t stop. The vast majority of commercial machinery will carry maintenance expenses.

Consider a commercial truck that has expenses like repairs, tire swaps, oil changes, fuel, washes, and more.

The best way to find out what kind of maintenance your equipment will require is by talking to your seller and/or consulting your equipment’s manual. Manuals will spell out stringent maintenance protocols that can ensure your item meets its life expectancy.

Warranty

If you keep up with your business equipment maintenance schedule, you’ll be able to cash in on its warranty… Assuming your equipment carries a warranty.

Therein lies another key factor to watch out for when equipment buying. You’ll want to make sure that for new items, you have at least a 1-year warranty attached to your buy and with used items, 30-days.

Many reputable commercial equipment sellers exceed those windows to instill confidence in consumers.

Solution Durability

When you invest in equipment, make sure it’s going to fix problems for you not just for the next couple of months but for the foreseeable future.

Ask yourself before buying, “How long am I going to benefit from this purchase?”

If the purchase you’re making will help your business’ workflow in perpetuity, you know that what you spend on it will absolutely give you a return on your investment.

Training

Is the business equipment you’re buying something complex to use? Does your locality require special licensure for employees to operate your equipment? That would be the case if you were purchasing a warehouse item like a forklift.

If training is required either legally or from a perceived educational barrier perspective, consider how that training will be rendered.

Paying for professional training out of your own pocket can be costly and waiting to hire an applicant that comes equipped with proper training can take a long time.

Floorspace

Where are you going to store your equipment? Many business owners fail to ask that question and find that the piece of hardware they invest in disrupts movement around their office or warehouse, creating more problems than solutions.

If possible, see your equipment in person before purchasing anything, take measurements of it, and make sure you have a great idea of how it’s going to slot into your operation.

The more pre-planning you do before adding commercial machinery to your work area, the happier you’ll be when your equipment gets delivered.

Safety

Your employee’s safety should be a top concern of yours every day they come into work. Therefore, when you add new equipment to your work area, you’ll have to ask yourself what safety risks that equipment presents.

Nothing is too obvious when it comes to communicating with your team how equipment could cause harm. Whether it’s notifying people what to do if they get locked in a commercial freezer or sharing with employees how to safely unmount a tipped forklift, make an effort to keep your team in the know.

Doing so could literally save someone’s life.

Alternatives

You’ve weighed all of the factors we’ve shared and are ready to dive into your business equipment purchase. Before you do though, quickly consider if the problem you’re trying to solve with the equipment you’re looking to buy can be solved more cheaply and efficiently another way.

We’ve seen people spend tens of thousands of dollars on equipment only to find that it would have made more sense to outsource certain tasks to vendors or to rearrange their workflows.

Don’t fall into that trap.

Consider every angle and only then take the leap towards the purchase you’re mulling over.