It doesn’t matter if you are just starting out, or trying to expand, or even just save some money in this difficult climate, there is no getting away from the fact that if you need specialist machinery for your business, then it isn’t going to be cheap. However there are several ways you can help reduce or spread this cost.

Hiring:

One option open to you would be to hire your machinery instead of purchasing it outright, there are advantages and disadvantages to this route that you should consider carefully before opting to take it though.

Advantages:

  • Helps you spread the cost – other then the deposit, many companies will be happy for a monthly or quarterly payment for the rental.

  • Some companies do extremely short term leases, allowing you to hire the machinery for just a specific project, and return it when done.

  • If the machine breaks beyond repair, then rental companies will normally source a replacement for you as part of your contract.

  • If you decide to downgrade your business, or discover that you aren’t making as much use of the machinery as you first anticipated, you can cancel the contract and they will collect the machinery.

  • It allows you to determine how much use you would get out of the machine before spending out on buying one for yourself.

  • Some hire/lease agreements contain a clause that means as new machinery becomes available you may upgrade your machine – allowing you to stay on the cutting edge for no, or minimal, extra cost.

Disadvantages:

  • If you hire your machinery then unless it is a condition of your contract, then you won’t ever own the machinery outright.

  • If the company you are hiring from comes into hard times, then you may loose the machinery through no fault of your own.

  • In the long run it could work out to be more expensive then owning your own – for example if your rental payment is £100 a month, and the machine is £2000 to buy, in just under 2 years you would have paid out the same as you would to buy it, but still not own it.

Reconditioned Machinery:

Another option would be to buy or hire reconditioned machinery, this is often cheaper then brand-new machines, they still work beautifully, and often come with the same cover and maintance deals that new machines do, but for a fraction of the cost.

It may be worth asking for a bit of background on the chosen machine, to find out it history and the level of reconditioning, especially if you are looking at buy one. Some companies will hire out their reconditioned machinery too, again at lower rates and if you are just starting out it could be useful for you to test out just how much you will use the machine, especially if it is a very specialist machine; for instance a reconditioned envelope inserting machine, or a CNC waterjet cutter.