A2X Consulting

Congratulations! Finally getting that start-up off the ground is an exciting thing, and when you’re finally ready to open up that office for the very first time, there’s a lot to think of, keep track of, and properly account for. Any business has a pretty high degree of moving parts, and running an office requires a pretty specific set of things in order for its operation to be successful straight from the get-go. There are simply certain things that every business needs to have in order to properly function — most of this has to do with making sure you’ve given your employees every opportunity and tool they could possibly need to do their jobs to the utmost degree. We’re going to talk about some of the most basic office supplies you’ll need to get if you want your workers to get anything done. You might be anticipating less and less of a need for actual office supplies as we continue to move into a more technologically-oriented and (thankfully) paperless way of doing things. While this is true to a certain degree, it’s also true that everybody works in a different way, and if you want your employees to do their best possible work, you should give them every way they might possibly need to be creative. Physical organization and the simple practice of writing ideas and brainstorming on a piece of lined paper might never go out of style.

This being said, pens, pencils, and paper are an absolute must. You’ve got to have at least the most basic of these types of utensils and supplies. Depending upon your budget, you can go to various lengths to please the specific preferences your workers might have — more creative types tend to value their writing utensils and office supplies being in a certain way, so if you’ve got the money, by all means offer your employees a good selection of tools from which they might choose. You’ll also need printers, scanners, and a fax machine. These tools are pretty much necessary for doing business, and there’s simply no way that the preference for electronic communication has even come close to rendering them obsolete.

Little tools that can be used to bind and collect things are also very important — things like paper clips, staplers (and the staples that’ll go inside them), and tape are necessary for you to do the things you need. To that effect, folders, files, labels, and other organizational knick-knacks are great ways to encourage thoroughness and productivity in the workplace.

An important thing to remember about your office supplies is that the more you provide, the more motivation your workers will feel to produce and keep organized. Sites like efax.com and tools like email may have made it seem that paper’s obselecence is impending, but the fact is that we still use physical tools to create and communicate in the workplace to a very high degree.