Setting Up Your Equipment

There is no one right way to design and equip a workspace. What works for someone else may not work for you. However, we suggest that you keep in mind what we call the "PEC" (Productive, Efficient, Comfortable) priorities.

PEC Priorities

• Productive offices are organized so that equipment, records management, and communications systems not only work, but work together.
• Efficient offices should be both cost-effective and time-effective. If your office is set up right, it allows you to do more, with less money, in less time.
• Comfortable offices help you to do your work with minimal stress and strain on your body.

If your office is set up to be productive, efficient, and comfortable, then you have done things right. Competitors and business consultants may "tsk-tsk," but if it works for you, that's what matters.

Our examples apply specifically to office-type settings, but can be adapted for almost any business facility.

Organizing your business records and supplies. Although you need to be comfortable with any system that you create, this doesn't mean that you're locked into organizing your business the same way you handle your personal records. Your business gives you a fresh start. If you haven't approached your personal recordkeeping with the care that it deserves, you have a second chance to do things differently in your business.