Watch out for truly home-office copiers

The office supply superstores are full of desktop printer/fax/copiers that seem to be a good deal. But they are, for the most part, designed for occasional, non-professional use. Prepare to buy a copy machine — and to spend several thousand dollars.

I recommend: A good initial exercise is to sort through comparison shopping sites photocopier listings. Check NexTag, Shopping.com and Epinions for a quick-and-dirty copy-machine budget check. Another site, BuyerZone, offers quotes from local copy machine dealers. 

Brush up on leasing lingo for copiers

You will learn quickly that most businesses lease copy machines rather than buy, to protect themselves from upfront costs and changing technology.

I recommend: CopierGeeks takes copiers way too seriously.

Stand alone copiers or networked?

It's a rare small office that can afford to buy two big pieces of capital equipment when one will do. If you office computer system is networked, then a copy machine-printer combo that is part of your PC network is your best bet. You can print to the same machine that copies. A copier that doesn't print is called a stand-alone. Cheaper, but less useful.

I recommend: Xerox, HP, Lanier, Ricoh and Canon are among the better-known sellers of so-called heavy-duty multi-function (MFP) printers.

Consider bundling your costs on copy machines

The latest trend in small business is to capture some of the return big companies get by outsourcing tech. In the copier world, that means signing one deal for everything: hardware, installation, maintenance and supplies, like ink and toner for copy machines, then paying one flat monthly rate

I recommend: HP offers this kind of way to buy, calling it Smart Print services.

Check out the deals on used copiers and refurbished copiers

Dealers offer deep discounts and warranties on name-brand copy machines.

I recommend: See the dealer directories on Business.com for used copiers and refurbished copiers

Use copy machines lot at once, then a little for a month?

Copiers – real copiers – cost as much as new cars. If that's out of range, and your business tends to make batches of copies, like restaurant menus, brochures, flyers or stacks of sales presentations, consider buying a cheaper home office printer (practically free if you bundle with a new PC!) and instead use print shops for high-volume photocopier work.

I recommend: FedEx Kinko's and the UPS Store both offer this virtual copy-machine service, FedEx going so far as to allow you to print straight from your PC to their photocopier systems.