How Much Should a Company Spend on Office Furniture ...

Author: Faunus

Dec. 06, 2023

Furniture

How Much Should a Company Spend on Office Furniture Per Employee?

Yuan Sommer

Published in

The Startup

4 min read

May 31, 2019

Being the CEO of your own successful company is undoubtedly a dream for many, but when picturing yourself reclining in the luxury seat of your private jet, perhaps the echoing voice of Eric from Accounting will make you feel surprisingly grounded. Like an air balloon rising with serious ballast issues:

“Boss, wouldn’t it be great with a small library section for impromptu research? And can we get some orange and lime Post-its to go with the yellow and pink ones for extra creative brainstorming?!”.

Now you might be thinking, “surely, that has to be somebody else’s job”, but unless your operation is big enough for you to hire an office manager, it really isn’t. You’re the decider in charge of giving shape to the company in every thinkable aspect.

When this perhaps unwelcome truth finally materializes, you are going to need an educated answer to the question: “how much should a company spend on office furniture per employee?”.

In a 2014 article on OPI.net, writer Jack Francis stated that startups in their infancy spend $1,844 per employee annually on office products. This amount chimes in well with Quora-listed numbers, revealed by HavenCo founder Ryan Lackey, whose experience in building larger companies has led him to a budget of $1,500 per person for furnishings — of course that includes buying with bulk discounts.

Your desks and chairs will be used 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year, totaling 1,920 hours annually. While Americans on average spend $9,000 on cars that are used only 600 hours a year, many find office furniture prices steep, while others completely forget to factor in this cost when projecting company investments altogether. Why is that?

Startups are expected to be scrappy bootstrappers, hacking away in keg-fueled man caves.

Amazon famously used $15 Home Depot doors as desks in their infancy and have been applauded for…

A successful tenant representation project begins with surrounding the tenant/Client with the appropriate experts, forming the complete Tenant-Rep Team. Team members should be comprised of the tenant-rep office leasing broker; architect/space planner; general contractor; and furniture consultant. Far too often tenants leave furniture planning to the latter part of their office space project—when it’s usually too late to avoid costly mistakes. So, bringing in a seasoned furniture professional at the outset is crucial to the ultimate success of the project. Furniture professionals, of course, sell new and used furniture…but are also available to perform inventories, furniture valuations, reconfigure-estimations as well as a myriad of physical services associated with the tenant/Client’s existing or future furnishings.

Insofar as new furniture is concerned, please see the following furniture budget pricing matrix developed as a tool for the San Francisco market. It is based on recent experience working with professional-services tenants/Clients operating within the San Francisco Financial District market. We can provide additional information for Clients outside that profile.

High End Mid-High End Standard Estimated Cost per Usable Sq. Ft. $21–$30 $15–$20 $12–$14 Estimated Cost for 10,000 Usable Sq. Ft. $210,000–$300,000 $150,000–$180,000 $120,000–$140,000 Partner Office $6,000 +/- $4,000–$6,000 $2,000–$4,000 Associate Office $5,000–$7,500 $3,000–$5,000 $1,500–$3,000 Secretarial Station $4,000–$6,000 $2,500–$4,000 $1,500–$2,500 Administrative Workstation $2,500–$3,500 $2,000–$2,500 $1,500–$2,000 Executive Seating $800–$1,500 $650–$800 $500–$650 Task Seating $750–$1,250 $500–$750 $300–$500 Conference Seating $800–$1,300 $500–$800 $400–$500 Side Chair $550–$900 $300–$550 $175–300 Lounge Chair $1,600–$2,500 $700–$1,500 $500–$700 Boardroom Table* $8,000 +/- $5,000–$8,000 $2,000–$5,000 Conference Table** $4,000 +/- $2,000–$4,000 $1,000–$2,000 Lateral Files (cost per Lineal Inch)*** $4.25 $3.75 $2.95

Sample of Manufacturers:

Bernhardt DF/m HBF Knoll OFS / First Office Brayton Global HPL Contract National Taylor Brandrud Halcon Keilhauer Nienkamper Tuohy

*14 Foot Veneer for High and Mid-High End, Laminate for Standard
**8-Foot Veneer for High and Mid-High End, Laminate for Standard
***Based on Metal 5-High, 36″W Lateral File

About the Author

Andrew Sullivan
President, MG West
P: 415 284-4810
E: andrew@mgwest.com
W: www.mgwest.com

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