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3 Essential Things You Need when Setting Up a Budget Friendly Home Office

(Image source: The Lighting Judge)

In this article, ESCO explores the essentials and the cost needed in setting up a budget friendly home office as most of us are working from home. Follow Trish, Marketing Executive, as we dive into the essentials needed when setting up a budget friendly home office.

Imagine this: Waking up early in the morning, getting ready for a Zoom meeting with an important client but only to find yourself rushing to find a decent place at home, with no distractions and then, facing a technical issue with your desktop. This is one of the many situations that most people faced when they are working from home. With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, businesses are forced to close their physical offices and to allow their employees to work from home. Since working from home facilitates more virtual meetings, it is essential to have a decent working environment at home and to have relevant hardware and software to increase your efficiency. However, home offices can be costly and according to Homestratosphere, it can cost between USD $20,000 – USD $30,000 which include basic renovations such as flooring, electrical upgrades and lighting. Thus, instead of spending money on fully renovating a dedicated space, many are looking for cheaper alternatives to recreate a home office. Here are 3 essential things that you need in your budget friendly home office.

Furnishings

Firstly, when planning to have a dedicated home office, one should take note of their furnishings. Do not overlook at the importance of having comfortable furniture for your home office. Having the right furniture will ensure that you are able to finish your work more efficiently. For example, when buying a desk for the home office, one should consider the desk area to be large enough to place your computer and for you to complete your work. In addition, it would be great to have a small cabinet or a couple of bookshelves to store all your physical work files. Apart from desk and shelving units, buying a comfortable ergonomic chair is important because it prevents you from having any backache which will hinder your work progress.

The estimated cost of a comfortable ergonomic chair would be around USD $90 TO USD $150 (The BalanceSmall Business) and as for the estimated cost of a desk would be around USD $275 to USD $1,200 (PriceitHere). For the shelving units, it’s estimated cost would be around USD $500 to USD $7,350. As such, the total estimated cost would probably be below USD $1,000 for basic furnishings, excluding any renovation works if you are looking to set up a more budget friendly home office.

Hardware

When it comes to setting up a home office, it is important to equip your home office with relevant hardware and software. Hardwares such as printers, webcam camera and desktop computers are 3 of the key items needed in your home office. If your job requires you to work on large spreadsheets while looking at other tabs for reference, you will need an additional monitor. The average cost of a PC is around USD $733 (Statista) and as for printers, it can range from USD $12 to USD $8,000 (Soscanhelp). As for webcams, it can range up to USD $25 – USD $500 (TheVerge) depending on the functions and the quality that you need.

As virtual meetings are held regularly, one should take note of the video conferencing software and the webcam that they use in order to prevent any technical disruption or low connectivity issues. Having a good quality webcam camera is essential for important meetings with clients or even colleagues. For example, the Huddlecam Go would be great for those who prefer a plug and go video conferencing camera. It has a single USB 2.0 that allows you to connect to any devices giving you crystal clear audio and HD video. It has a super wide-angle lens, 360-degree speakerphone and its’ portable design allows you to bring it to almost everywhere. With the Huddlecam Go, you no longer face low quality video conferencing meetings.

Software

Other than having a good webcam camera, having the right video conferencing software too contributes in having more productive meetings. Some of us can face issues such as having a video feed that keeps freezing and unable to share screen which can cause an unpleasant experience. Thus, Zoom, a video conferencing software is a great software program for users to hold their meetings efficiently. Other than small meetings, Zoom also offers video webinar services which is great for marketing events and town hall meetings. With having the capabilities to host over 1,000 video participants and 10,000 viewers, many corporations opted to use Zoom as their daily video conferencing software as it rarely has any software issues. Furthermore, Zoom also has robust security settings to ensure disruption-free meetings such as encryption, role-based security, passcode protection, waiting rooms and many more. In addition, it gives you clear audio with advanced background noise suppression, a camera setting that enables you to touch up your appearance and many more.

All in all, there are many variables that need to be taken into consideration when it comes to setting up your own home office. The total estimated cost to have a home office can differ based on one’s budget. For those who are on a budget, one does not have to fully renovate their dedicated small space for their home office. By just having the right furniture, up-to-date software and relevant hardware is enough to set up a small home office to increase your work productivity and efficiency. As working from home will likely continue to stay after the pandemic, it would be feasible to invest in a small space in your house for a home office. Perhaps in a few years time, home offices will replace the traditional physical offices.

Contact ESCO now if you would like to purchase Zoom licenses or know more about the Huddlecam Go HD.