Business Information By Mast Directory: Knowing the Office furniture business
Everyone follows a routine in their life, kids would get up in the morning to attend school while teenagers pack their stomach with a sandwich and head for college. While parents would head to their respective work place. Life is frenzy these days and work is top priority for all of us. Do you know how many hours does a person spend at the office working? Do you know how many hours a person spends on the computer? In the US men would spend nearly 8 hours working each day while women work for 7.1 hours per day on an average. Also people in America spend anywhere from 4-6 hours a day in front of the computer.
This is the average time spent by people working in America but in developing countries like India marketing, banking and IT company employees could well spend over 9-10 in office related activities. Marketing people spend nearly 80% of their work time in the market place searching for business but people seated in the office for long hours could gradually face strains if the office furniture is not comfortable and supportive to work styles.
It is important that the office furniture be designed in such a manner that it supports a healthy working environment. People in recent years have reportedly suffered aliments because of bad office furniture. Some so seriously that they have had to take to bed rest and could return to work only after a clean chit by the physician.
Today’s office furniture shopping in retail is thus highly based on providing office furniture that takes care of the health of the company’s employees. Companies cannot afford to lose a hardware engineer just because bad office furniture led to him being crippled to a state of bad health rendering him unfit to work. Thus if you are looking to enter the office furniture business in retail or wholesale or going for office furniture shopping you should take care of such aspects. Before we get down to how you can start such a business let us read into some market statistic for the office furniture business.
One trend that is clean is that in the past decade office furniture sales have remained sluggish. As per data released by the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer's Association (BIFMA), office furniture as an industry has witnessed continued decline post touching a sales high of $13.2 billion in 2000. In 2001 office furniture sales retracted by 17.4% to less than $11 billion. In 2002 decline continued and sales touched $8.9 billion presenting a 19% contraction of the market. But all is not gloom in the office furniture business and forward to 2008 which saw the office furniture manufacturing sector record business worth $27 billion. This figure includes sales derived from furniture systems, seating, desks, storage, tables, files etc. Steelcase Inc., HNI Corporation and Herman Miller, Inc. are amongst the market leaders in the USA.
If the growth trends inspire you to enter the retail office furniture space then there are many ways you can get started. You can firstly start by opening a retail showroom in the market. What needs to considered is startup costs associated with doing so. For setting up the business you will need your own office furniture, a computer, internet service, a business phone etc. You can contact an office furniture manufacturer via writing to them or meeting them personally to express your interest in selling their range of office furniture. Before you agree to any terms and conditions you should have in writing what sales commission or margins the company will provide you with and whether they offer any incentives on sales.
You can also source office furniture from hotspot destinations like China. There are many companies all over the world that choose low cost manufacturing bases like China to source or manufacture customized office furniture for their own office furniture business. But at the same time US remains the leader in the ergonomic style and high-end design category. If you are looking to cater to the upwardly middle class and high end buyers then sourcing products from Western countries more prove to be benefiting for your business.
When you go for office furniture shopping in retail be it for your own home, a retail store or an organized corporate office the furniture should make a statement on the part of the work that is being carried at that premises. Office furniture should not present heavy and chunkier look rather contemporary designs with comfort being the high point. When shopping for office furniture you should be sure of the durability of the furniture. Modern furniture is expensive and you would like to see the furniture last for some time to come.
Another Guide- By Mohit
Office is one place that the working people head to every morning, it’s the place where you work and earn your living. There are thousands of offices in every city around the globe and in every office big or small office furniture is needed. There are so many things that make up the office furniture, tables, chairs, cabinets for storage, computer desks, reception furniture, wall paintings and the list is endless. People in the office at times do office furniture shopping to meet their personal requirements. For someone who runs a small private business they will do office furniture shopping according the staff they employ. Reading this it can be easily said that there is tremendous scope for making money from an office furniture retail business.
In this article we tell you about the different ways you can do office furniture retail business so stick with us because will find this article beneficial. There is the home based office furniture retail business, internet office furniture retail business and also starting a dedicated furniture showroom selling office furniture. Before we start with elaborating on each of the retail business models there are some things that are some minimum requirements of each business. You need to register the business name and address, get a business license and a tax number. For a home based retail business if you are not registering the business as a company then you must register a business under your name. In the long run all these things will help you establish your business in a better way.
We start with the home based office furniture retail business. Such a business model is good for those people who would like to start with very small capital investment. With the home based business model you cut business startup costs like paying rent, water and electricity bills and other business expenses. Still you will have to invest in office furniture stock. You can start by simply selling office chairs and desks. People will do shopping for office chairs, desks and office computer furniture as these are basic office furniture needs. Wondering how you are going to get people to do office furniture shopping from you. Well firstly you need to spread the word about your new business. Invite some of your friends and neighbors over to your house, introduce your new business to them and it would be great if you can show them the stuff you are looking to sell. Why not have a tea party and get your friends to sit on the chairs, then when they are leaving ask for some feedback.
If at all any of them like the chairs and other furniture then might return to ask you something about the furniture, maybe the price or how many chairs can you supply. Well consider this as your first office furniture supply order. Few of the things that people look for when they are shopping for office furniture is that whether it’s durable, comfortable but mostly importantly will the furniture support good working style, meaning it should not lead to back pain and other problems related to office furniture.
The other way you can do office furniture retail business is by having a business understanding with a company that’s already in the retail office furniture business and is looking to expand its operation via the means of appointing a dealer. Many companies do not want overheads like purchasing retail space they rather concentrate on marketing the brand. People who want to do shopping for office furniture want reliable furniture and want to purchase branded furniture so that if there is an issue later on they can get the furniture repaired properly. A retail furniture store also works well because people who want to do office furniture shopping can visit the store and see the products themselves. If they like what they see then they can place an order immediately and have the furniture delivered to the location directly. You will be paid as per the agreed system, either a commission of retail price or fixed monthly expenses for running the store. The salaries of the support staff plus other expenses should be negotiated before entering into a formal contract and all such details should be mentioned in the executable contract between the two parties.
Today people work for long hours and sitting for long hours can lead to injuries and other problems such a backache amongst others. If you are not using the right kind of office furniture then it could be harmful. For this reason people shopping for office furniture are increasingly shopping for only those kinds of furniture chairs and tables that support a good work environment that aids people in doing stress free work. So the next time you are out shopping for office furniture make sure that the furniture you buy supports a healthy working style.
Retail Shopping > Furniture > Office Furniture
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