How is leasing an effective option for business owners? What are the advantages and disadvantages of leasing capital goods?

It’s absolutely essential that business owners get all of the equipment they could need in their business at an effective rate. However, many businesses need capital equipment, and affording this can change so much for companies, especially upon start.

Capital equipment is equipment business owners purchase that costs quite a bit of money, generally more than $5,000, and affording this equipment is not an easy matter. Whether your business is just starting or has been around a while, you have many different expenses, from the location your company is based out of to the employees you hire and more.

Therefore, you need to allocate your finances in such a way that you have enough money for everything and still have some left over as profit. This can be extremely challenging, especially when dealing with the need for capital equipment, but there are alternatives to purchasing your equipment.

Finding different ways to get your equipment means you pay far less to get your business running and still get good equipment.

The two main solutions business owners take advantage of are leasing and purchasing with a loan, but how do these play out for a business? What are the advantages and disadvantages of leasing capital goods versus purchasing them?

Pros and Cons of Purchasing your Capital Equipment

There are both advantages and disadvantages to purchasing, with or without a loan, but generally purchasing is much riskier with capital equipment. For example, fitness centers purchase quite a bit of capital equipment for their business, as gym equipment can end up costing quite a bit, especially the quantities they need.

With purchasing, you get the equipment right off the bat, which is great, and you also get some funding for the equipment by claiming it as a business asset. Many of the reasons business owners purchase their equipment is because, if they’re able to pull the funds together, they don’t have to worry about paying for it again, or so they think.

However, with intricate, complex equipment like capital equipment, it’s not guaranteed to last forever. In fact, the more complicated the equipment, the more likely something is to go wrong, and when equipment breaks down options are fairly limited.

Sometimes, you can get equipment repaired for a bit of money but even if you do, it’s not guaranteed to last very long. In that case, you’re stuck with replacing the equipment, meaning you have to dish out that same, large amount of money again to buy new equipment that will only last another few years before breaking again.

Generally a loan is not a much better option just because the interest rate on loaning capital equipment is guaranteed to be large.

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Leasing Capital Goods?

There are many reasons to get a lease for your business, but it’s absolutely imperative that you get the right lease or you’ll run into issues. There are many advantages and disadvantages of leasing capital goods, and they all depend on the lease contract itself.

Many a business owner has gotten a lease that lasts far too long or is far too expensive or even get a lease they don’t even need, and end up paying the large cancellation fee to get out of the lease. The best way to avoid that cancellation fee is by getting a good lease that you will want to have throughout the duration of the contract period.

A lease involves a low, flat monthly rate in exchange for equipment being loaned out to you. This is fairly convenient and works well in theory, but some business owners still end up getting the wrong lease.

Leasing can offer you quite a few benefits, especially when dealing with getting capital equipment for your business. For instance, you can get your equipment repaired and returned to you without paying to replace the equipment, and you can get leasing tax benefits.

To learn more about the different advantages and disadvantages of leasing capital goods, click here.