Buy vs Lease...

[kdw75]

Just curious how many of you buy vs lease your digital press.

 

[thebluesdude]

We always lease now, bought a Konica and fell foul of supplier deciding it was costing them too much to supply service and consumables and terminated our contract, Konica would then only take it on directly if we paid another 5k to get the machine brought back to 'their' standard. Also we had no power to withhold payment when things went totally wrong

 

[MailGuru]

We always lease now, bought a Konica and fell foul of supplier deciding it was costing them too much to supply service and consumables and terminated our contract, Konica would then only take it on directly if we paid another 5k to get the machine brought back to 'their' standard. Also we had no power to withhold payment when things went totally wrong

We learned our lesson as well. Now, we ALWAYS lease. Not only that, the technology in the digital printing press world moves too fast to end up with a piece of equipment, that you now own, that is totally obsoleted and costs more to run than the newer machines. Also, once you've beat the crap out of the machine for the life of the lease (usually 5 years), trust me, you don't want it.

-Best

MailGuru

 

[gordo]

There's an old accountant saying:
If it depreciates - lease.
If it appreciates - buy.

 

[AP90]

I'm very new to the digital world, as in just signed for my first machine yesterday, but I think there's situations where you should do both. We outright bought the machine, and can tell you we saved A LOT of money. Plus now, our ROI is under 2 years if we just print what my company has printed, and do not get another single job. Plus, at the end of our service contract, even if the technology is out of date for us, the machine has paid for itself plus provided profit and we have an asset worth at least 5-10k at minimum. But I'm in a different situation where the machine doesn't need to make money for our business to survive.

So for our business, buying was a no brainer. No risk, no monthly payments, and saved tons of money on the machine. But, we had the capital to buy. A lot of places don't.

And as for leading anything that depreciates, I will never lease a car. But I'm weird, I drive them until the wheels fall off lol.

 

[Kunnajar]

I'm very new to the digital world, as in just signed for my first machine yesterday, but I think there's situations where you should do both. We outright bought the machine, and can tell you we saved A LOT of money. Plus now, our ROI is under 2 years if we just print what my company has printed, and do not get another single job. Plus, at the end of our service contract, even if the technology is out of date for us, the machine has paid for itself plus provided profit and we have an asset worth at least 5-10k at minimum. But I'm in a different situation where the machine doesn't need to make money for our business to survive.

So for our business, buying was a no brainer. No risk, no monthly payments, and saved tons of money on the machine. But, we had the capital to buy. A lot of places don't.

And as for leading anything that depreciates, I will never lease a car. But I'm weird, I drive them until the wheels fall off lol.

Why didnt you use the capital to market your business to create more business and lease the machine (or employ a salesman etc. or use the capital to improve your workflows to lower TCO or such?)?

 

[AP90]

Why didnt you use the capital to market your business to create more business and lease the machine (or employ a salesman etc. or use the capital to improve your workflows to lower TCO or such?)?

Our workflow is already optimized and such. As for a salesman, I am the salesman. When I said even if we don't get another job, I didn't mean it as we won't be seeking other jobs, but we aren't reliant on having to get other jobs to succeed. Also, your assuming that we are not marketing our business. We are, and we already have a large client base with which we can provide additional services to now (100+ Businesses). Also, I'm not a big person on borrowing money or leasing things. If I don't have the money, in most cases it's too big of an investment for me to make. Yes, there are exceptions though, I understand that. Yes, by buying the machine I have a large capital output at 1 time, but it's worth it to spend 30-40% initially than spread payments out over 5 years. Basically, we're adding another division to our company, not starting a new one. And we have printing that we outsource now that will make us more money by bringing it in house. Decisions change when it's another division and in house vs. A new business and outside clients.

 

[dabob]

We've done both . . depends on the amount and the finances we have available at the time . . . leased our 1st two indigos and recently purchased a Xerox 770 to replace the 2nd indigo . . . if you have the money you will end up making the money the leasing company would . . . and you can purchase it privately and lease or rent it back to your company . . . discuss this with your CPA to see what options are best for you . . . .