Equipment, Supplies and Services for Your Business 4

In addition to the price of the copier, consider how much paper you can put in paper trays at one time, how many paper trays the unit will work with (if any), whether you can add collating equipment later on if you will need it. Be sure to find out about power requirements, too. The photocopier may draw so much power that it will require its own separate electrical line.

If you have any special uses intended for the copier (for instance, copying onto card stock, onto papers with rough or textured surfaces, or copying photographs), test the copier with the actual work you want to do. Look at the quality and speed of the output. If space is at a premium in your office, note whether the top of the copier unit (called the platen) slides back and forth during copying or is stationery, and if it slides back and forth, how much room it needs to operate.

Finally, ask about guarantees, maintenance, and service agreements. If you will be using the machine daily or if it is very heavy, you are likely to want someone to come to your office to service the unit, so ask if a service contract is available and what it costs.

TIP: If you're just starting out and don't know how much copying you'll be doing, consider buying a multifunction device that will handle both printing and copying. Wait to buy a separate copier until you can determine how much you'll need it and whether your need for copies will justify purchase of a separate copies.

Do I need a fax machine?

Facsimile (fax) machines are used to send or receive all sorts of printed documents, orders, letters, etc. Although many of these documents can be sent by email, many companies still use faxes to send orders and other important information. So there's a good chance you will need fax capabilities. However, depending on what other equipment you own, you may not need to purchase a stand-alone fax machine.

If you are using a fairly recent model computer, for instance, it probably is equipped with a fax modem. The fax modem will allow you to receive incoming faxes and to send out faxes of any computerized document. If you have to fax something that isn't on your computer, however, a fax modem will be of little use unless you also have a scanner and scan the document into your computer.

If you are purchasing a new printer and only receive or send a few faxes a day, you can save space and money by purchasing a printer that will send and receive faxes as well as print out documents (see multifunction devices below).

If you must buy a stand-alone fax, the good news is that prices have fallen considerably in recent years. You can get a plain paper fax for under $ 100 in many parts of the country. (Plain paper faxes print out onto standard papers using inkjet or laser ink. They stay readable much longer than thermal printouts do and are preferable to thermal faxes as long as you don't need to receive faxes that are longer than standard-size sheets of paper.

What kind of fax should I get?

There are three broad categories of fax equipment: stand-alone fax machines and fax modems that work with computers and multifunction devices that serve as both a computer printer and a fax (and often perform other tasks such as scanning.) With a stand-alone machine, you feed printed or handwritten pages into the machine, which scans the documents and converts what it scans to a format that can be sent out over the telephone lines to another fax machine. When you use a fax modem, you use a combination of computer software and hardware to send documents that are stored in your computer to a fax, Incoming faxes are received into your computer and can be printed out, or, with the proper software, converted to a format you can put in a word processor and edit. Many multifunction devices let you create documents on your computer and send them to the fax machine without printing them out. Incoming faxes are printed on the fax machine, rather than being stored on the computer.

Faxes can further be divided by the way they print on paper. The three types are thermal faxes, inkjet faxes and laser faxes. Thermal faxes are inexpensive, but use special paper that many find hard to read and which has a tendency to curl. Ink jet faxes use the same kinds of inks as inkjet printers. If you get many faxes, replacing the ink can be quite expensive. Laser faxes use toner cartridges like those used by laser printers. Depending on the brand of laser printer you buy, the cost per printed page for laser faxes is likely to be significantly less than the cost per page of an inkjet fax.

Which type of fax to get will depend on how you will use the fax and on your preferences for output. For many small offices, the ideal choice is the multifunction device. It saves desk space and avoids the need to buy two devices. Here are various questions and options you should consider in making your decision:

• Where will you get the documents you need to send out? Are they already printed documents such as contract forms or letters printed on your letterhead? Are they formatted documents or drawings that reside in your computer?
  
• Will you need to send photos or drawings via fax?
  
• Will you need to send copies of handwritten documents or printed documents that have handwritten notations on them?
  
• What size are the documents you will want to send or receive? Standard letter size or bigger?
  
• What will you have to do with a document after you get it via fax? Will you need to just look at it and discard it? File it and store it for any length of time? Will you need to get the document into your computer to work on it?
  
• How often will you need to send or receive fax documents?
  
• How often will you need to fax documents that aren't stored in your computer? Is there a quick print shop or other business nearby that you can send such documents from if necessary?
  
• If you are using a fax modem can you launch the software from within any application?
        

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