Start An Office Furniture Business
About
Starting an office furniture business requires a great deal of effort, dedication, and most importantly passion.
If you're interested in how to sell office furniture, or selling office furniture online, you can use this page as a guide for everything you'll need to know.
Key stats
Startup Costs
| Min Startup Costs | Max Startup Costs | |
|---|---|---|
| Office Space Expenses | $0 | $7,000 |
| Employee & Freelancer Expenses | $151 | $352 |
| Website Costs | $223 | $7,215 |
| Business Formation Fees | $600 | $4,700 |
| Equipment & Supply Expenses | $66 | $700 |
| Retail Business Expenses | $1,250 | $11,650 |
| Inventory Expenses | $350 | $14,750 |
| Specific Industry Expenses | $500 | $4,000 |
| Advertising & Marketing Costs | $75 | $4,786 |
| Software Expenses | $0 | $420 |
| Total Startup Costs | $3,215 | $55,573 |
Case Studies
Successful Businesses
| Business | URL | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Autonomous | autonomous.ai | #11,242 |
|
Ergonomic Office Furniture from BTOD | btod.com | #47,283 |
|
Rentickle | rentickle.com | #55,601 |
|
ValueCityFurniture.com | valuecityfurniture.com | #56,240 |
|
Rent Furniture Online | furlenco.com | #60,010 |
|
Rent-A-Center | rentacenter.com | #65,675 |
|
Furnished Finder | furnishedfinder.com | #77,610 |
|
CasaOne | casaone.com | #117,910 |
|
Fernish | fernish.com | #118,311 |
|
Feather | livefeather.com | #119,514 |
|
CORT Furniture Rental | cort.com | #126,489 |
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Description |
|---|---|
| Flexibility | You can put as much time into the business as you'd like. If you like the work and have some initial experience, you can start small and manage all aspects of the business on your own. |
| Scalable | With businesses and processes changing daily, there will always be demand for new features, products and services for your business. Additionally, there are several different business models and pricing tiers you can implement that will allow you to reach all types of customers. |
| Meaningful business connections | You never know who you will meet as a office furniture business. This could be the start of an incredible business opportunity! |
| High customer retention rates | Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer. |
| High margins | The gross margins for your office furniture business are typically around 52%, which is considerably high and allows you to grow your business and manage costs easily. |
| Control of workload | With starting an office furniture business, you have the unique ability to choose how little or how much you want to work. You also have the freedom to decide which projects you want to work on, and can turn down the ones that do not interest you. |
| Cons | Description |
|---|---|
| Motivation of employees | If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees. |
| High employee turnover | In the office furniture business, employee turnover is often high, which can be quite costly and time consuming for your business. It's important to try and avoid this as much as possible by offering competitive pay, benefits, and a positive work environment. |
| High overhead expenses | With starting an office furniture business, there are overhead expenses that come with selling a physical product. You will want to make sure you strategically budget for these overhead costs. We discuss this more in the startup costs section below. |
| You may need to charge sales tax | If you are selling your products in various states, you may be required to charge sales tax. Although this may not impact your financials specifically, it can be a headache to create a process and procedure for this. To learn more about sales tax, check out [this article](https://www.thebalancesmb.com/do-i-need-to-collect-sales-taxes-in-my-state-398913) |
| Churn | In this business, customers can cancel their membership or subscription for your services - which can make revenue forecasting challenging and unpredictable. It's important to focus on your churn rates and trends so that you can prevent this as much as possible. |
| Time commitment | With starting an office furniture business, all responsibilities and decisions are in your hands. Although this is not necessarily a negative thing, work life can take over at times. This can place a strain on friends and family and add to the pressure of launching a new business. |
Marketing Ideas
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1
Affiliate Program
Affiliate marketing is a great way to bring in a new revenue stream, especially when you don't sell products or services.
Simply put, an affiliate program is an agreement where a business pays another business or influencer ("the affiliate") a commission for sending traffic and/or sales their way.
The affiliate typically gets a unique link where clicks and conversions can be tracked.
-
2
Direct Sales
Direct sales strategy implies a direct contact between a seller and a consumer without the involvement of any third party. Direct selling is popular in sectors where sellers communicate with their clientele personally. The sales technique occurs at non-store locations which include at home, work, or online.
For direct selling to succeed, hire a few (or many) salespeople to support the sales conversion process. It's critical that you assign them specific roles and responsibilities to nurture the client and provide excellent support.
-
3
Word of mouth
Word of mouth is when a consumers reflects their interest in a company’s product or service in their daily dialogues.
Therefore, word of mouth advertising is essentially a free advertising triggered by the customers experience.
According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family.
Therefore, in today’s hyper-connected world, a single recommendation through a word of mouth can have a huge impact to your business.
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