3 Reasons to Consider Used Networking Equipment for Small Businesses

3 Reasons to Consider Used Networking Equipment for Small Businesses

Small businesses are constantly seeking ways to reduce spending, increase profits, and become more efficient. While this is true for any company, small businesses in particular are typically ultra concerned with these areas because they lack the substantial financial backing of larger corporations and can’t get away with much if any frivolous spending their bigger counterparts might be able to.

One area in which all businesses are spending more and more time and money on is in buying network equipment and IT hardware support services. In fact, the global growth of expenditure on IT hardware is expected to be 2.54% in 2015 compared to the previous year. Total expenditure this year is expected to be $1,051.8 billion. In an effort to improve the bottom-line more companies, especially small businesses, should turn to used networking equipment for these three reasons.

1.) Cost: The obvious and most important reason to buy used networking equipment is to save money. As is the case with anything else you can save a lot of money by choosing to buy used hardware rather than the full ticket price for new products. In 2013, 44% of surveyed SMBs thought that the cost of necessary upgrades was the biggest challenge their company faced with its use of technology. By saving money buying used equipment you can also spend that money on professional service and maintenance to ensure your systems run properly.

2.) Reliability/Warranty: One of the things that scare a lot of people away from used networking equipment is the fear that they will buy something that will break soon after they get it. While this is a risk whenever you buy anything really, many companies that sell these kinds of products now offer third-party warranties or guarantees of service for a certain amount of time. Search around and find a company that is confident enough to stand by their products and chances are you’ll find serviceable, quality equipment.


3.) Usage: As technology continues to advance and evolve so does the way employee and employers use it. Not only do companies need more of this equipment to meet their internal needs, but many businesses now offer opportunities to work from home. It’s estimated that 1.3 billion people will telecommute by 2015. In order to accommodate this sort of stuff a company needs to be constantly buying new equipment to expand their network or in some cases even provide their employees with the hardware needed to do things like telecommute. If you buy new every time you’re going to end up racking up a hefty bill quicker than you might think.

The market in these industries is only expected to keep growing and as they develop new models and systems, the older ones, which work just as well in many cases, will be sold for lower prices to make room for the new. Don’t pay top prices for the shiny new toy. Save yourself some money by buying used networking equipment and invest the money in other areas.