It’s late spring and the smell of summer, sales reps, and CPO is in the air! For brand new managers, one of the first things you need to do is set up your office space so that you can start running interviews. If you’re like most young business owners, you’ve never put an office together at all. You’ve been to some Vector offices (and various other business offices) so you have an idea of how one should look. Your DVM is going tell you to get up and running FAST and CHEAP to get your business off the ground. It’s not uncommon for a Vector office to have lots of mismatched furniture or to look like it was thrown together in 24 hours. In many cases, that’s true!

But we’re here to encourage you to slow down a tiny bit and offer you some insights about how to set your office up for success right from the start.

Getting stuff and getting started

Before you can set up an office, you need stuff to put in it. Las Vegas DM Amberly Lacy, says you should stay organized with a list of what you’ll need. How many tables, desks, chairs, etc will you need (and will fit) in your office space? West Denver DM Quina Feldstein and Chico, California DM Casey Meyer also weigh in with things you’ll need. You can find a good starter list here.

Finding office furniture doesn’t have to use up all of your start up dollars. Since you are probably new to your territory, Quina suggests asking others in your office building if they know where you can get inexpensive office furniture or if they have anything they are trying to get rid of. Other great resources are your landlord, local schools, and libraries. Casey adds that Craig’s List and garage sales or yard sales are good places to look for cheap or free office furniture and décor.

Amberly collected office furniture, trophies, posters, and other items from former branch and district managers. She also utilized her Amazon Prime account for two day shipping for various items like clipboards, pens, white board markers, erasers, file folders, and organizers. It saved her both time and money from going to a local office supply store.

As you are doing your last rounds of demos, you can ask customers if they have any office furniture that you can have, buy, or borrow. You could also reach out to previous customers to see if they want to add to their Cutco collection. Then, utilize the Trade-In Special or bonus points to strike a good deal for customers that have office furniture they are looking to get rid of.

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