Don’t Start a Business Without a Multifunction Printer

When starting a new business, setting up your office can be one of the most fun parts of the experience.

The truth is, we all like to new toys, and setting up a brand new office is often the adult version of Christmas — even if, just like Christmas morning, you’re the one who bought Santa’s haul.

But just like when we were children, no one likes to read manuals, put things together, and make everything talk to each other. We just want our toys. And we want them to work. And we want them to work now.

Listen, I’ve been at this a long time — and if you won’t take my advice about not renting an office, and your going to buy (or rent) a bunch of new hardware, at least do yourself a favor and listen to me this once: don’t buy a scanner, a printer, a fax machine, and a copier. Buy a multifunction printer.

Multifunction printers are a combination device that includes everything I mentioned, and plug into your computer as one complete device. You don’t have to set up each individual device. You don’t have to read five different manuals. Instead, all you have to do is to unbox one device, remove all of the cardboard and packaging material from the insides, add the ink or toner, plug it in and go.

Multifunction printers are slightly more expensive when compared to the price of ordinary printers, but they more than make up for that when you factor in the inclusion of not only a copy machine (often a big expense in itself), a scanner (always useful) and a fax machine.

Truthfully, the fax machine alone is what makes these devices so fantastic. When’s the last time you faxed anything? I’m sure it’s been awhile. Maybe even a decade. Maybe you didn’t even realize that people still had fax machines. Well, listen up, according to researchers who study such things, approximately 92% of all businesses in the United States have fax machines. (Bet you didn’t know that.) And here you were, about to start a business without one. One day, and probably soon, someone’s going to ask you to fax them something. Or they’re going to want to fax you something. And on that day, instead of scrambling around on the internet to find a way to do via a webservice and email (totally doable btw, but it’ll take you at least 20 minutes to figure out how), you’ll say “Go for it,” because your multifunction printer will have you covered.

Amazon has an extensive collection of different multifunction printers, as do all of the big box office supply stores. If you have a Costco membership, I’d advise you to go there and buy whatever one they have on display. It might not be the absolute best one on the market, nor will it be the cheapest, but it’ll be a solid mid-level option that should work perfectly for your business. And, if anything happens, you can always return it.

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