Small Business Must-Haves
Kit for running a small business from home. Rather than a ranked list, each category starts with what actually matters when you're choosing one — so you can buy well even if you buy something that isn't on here.
Nothing is ranked, scored or scraped, picks go in only once there's a real opinion behind them, and nothing is described as mine unless it is.
The desk
The surface, the chair and the height. Get these wrong and nothing else on this page helps.
- The chair matters more than the desk, and it is the one thing worth buying once rather than twice.
- Desk height decides where your elbows sit. Most fixed desks are built for people taller than average.
- Depth matters more than width if you use a monitor: you need the screen far enough away to look at comfortably.
- A sit-stand desk only helps if you actually stand. A cheap one you raise twice a day beats an expensive one you never touch.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
The single upgrade most home-office founders notice within a day.
- Screen area is the point. Two documents side by side, or a spreadsheet you are not scrolling sideways through.
- Resolution matters more than refresh rate for business work — you are reading text, not playing games.
- Check the stand. Many monitors ship with a stand that does not adjust height, which is the adjustment that matters most.
- One large monitor is usually easier to live with than two small ones, and involves less neck-turning.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
What your hands are on for six hours a day.
- If anything aches by the afternoon, this is where to spend first.
- Wireless is worth it for the desk tidiness alone, but check whether it takes rechargeable batteries or disposables.
- A quiet keyboard matters if you take calls, or if you work in the same room as anybody else.
- Trackballs and vertical mice are worth trying if your wrist complains. They feel wrong for about three days.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
Being seen and heard
What a client sees on a call. Usually the cheapest credibility upgrade available.
- Lighting improves a call far more than a better camera does. Fix the light first, then decide if you still need this.
- 1080p is enough. Higher resolutions mostly get compressed away by the call software anyway.
- Check the mount fits a monitor without the camera drooping — a surprising number do not.
- Built-in laptop cameras point up your nose. A separate camera at eye level is most of the difference.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
People forgive a bad picture. They hang up on bad audio.
- The room matters as much as the microphone. Soft furnishings, and not sitting in the middle of a bare room.
- Closer is better. A cheap microphone near your mouth beats an expensive one across the desk.
- USB is the sensible choice unless you already own an audio interface.
- Check whether it needs an arm or stand, and whether that is included. It usually is not.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
The upgrade with the best ratio of cost to visible difference.
- A window in front of you is free and usually better than a lamp. A window behind you is the single most common mistake.
- Adjustable colour temperature matters if you work into the evening and the daylight changes around you.
- Bigger, softer and closer beats brighter. A small very bright light makes hard shadows.
- If it clamps to the desk, check the clamp fits your desk's thickness.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
For recording the build, not for becoming a studio.
- A phone you already own plus a tripod and decent light beats a camera you have to learn.
- A tripod with a phone mount and a flexible arm covers most small-business filming.
- Sound again: a small clip-on microphone changes more than any camera upgrade.
- Storage and a workflow for the footage matter more than the gear. Most of it dies on a full phone.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
How a small product looks when somebody is deciding whether to buy it.
- A light tent removes the two hardest problems at once: background and shadow.
- A sheet of white foam board as a reflector costs almost nothing and does most of the work.
- Consistency across a listing matters more than any single photograph being perfect.
- Shoot on a tripod. Same angle, same height, every product, every time.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
Paper, print and post
Mostly for shipping labels, invoices and the occasional thing that must be on paper.
- If you print labels regularly, a dedicated thermal label printer is a different and better answer than a paper printer.
- The running cost is the ink, not the printer. Check the cartridge price before the machine price.
- Duplex printing saves paper and a lot of small irritation.
- A printer that prints reliably over Wi-Fi from a phone is worth more than extra features you will not use.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
For shipping, for stock, and for the cables under your desk.
- Two different tools: a shipping label printer for postage, and a small handheld labeller for organising things.
- Check the tape or label cost. This is where the money actually goes.
- A thermal printer uses no ink at all, which removes a recurring cost and a recurring errand.
- If you ship daily, look for direct integration with the postage service you already use.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
If you sell anything printed, this is the difference between a product and a craft project.
- A guillotine is faster; a rotary trimmer is more accurate. Printed products usually want accuracy.
- Check the cut length against the paper you actually use, not the paper in the photograph.
- A self-sharpening or replaceable blade matters if you cut in volume.
- A guard and a locking blade matter if this lives anywhere children do.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
The unglamorous things that decide how long packing takes.
- Buy the boxes that match what you actually sell before buying in bulk. Wrong-size boxes cost you twice, in postage and in filler.
- A scale that reads to the gram pays for itself the first time it stops you over-declaring a parcel.
- Tape guns are the single biggest time saving in packing, and the cheapest.
- Check dimensional weight rules for your carrier before choosing box sizes — volume can cost more than weight.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
What the customer opens. The last thing you control before they judge you.
- Protection first. A beautiful box containing something broken is worse than a plain one.
- A printed insert or a card costs very little and is the easiest place to ask for a review.
- Recyclable and paper-based filler is increasingly what customers expect, and it photographs better.
- Whatever you choose, check you can reorder it. Running out of your signature packaging mid-season is its own problem.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
Keeping order
Where things live, so you stop looking for them.
- Storage only works if putting a thing away is easier than leaving it out.
- Clear fronts or labels. A closed opaque box becomes a place things go to be forgotten.
- Measure the shelf before buying the container. This is the most common and most annoying mistake.
- Buy for the volume you have now, not the volume you hope to have.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
Cheap, deeply satisfying, and it makes a desk photograph well.
- A tray or channel under the desk does more than any number of ties.
- Label both ends of anything you might one day need to unplug in a hurry.
- Velcro over zip ties: you will change your setup more often than you think.
- One good multi-port charger removes more cables than any organiser.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
The category nobody thinks about until the week they very badly need it.
- Two copies in one building is not a backup. One copy needs to be somewhere else, or in the cloud.
- An SSD is worth the extra over a spinning drive for anything you work from daily.
- Capacity you will not outgrow in two years costs very little more than capacity you will.
- A backup you have never restored from is a hypothesis. Test it once, deliberately.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
For the thinking that does not want to happen on a screen.
- Lies-flat binding is the difference between a notebook you use and one you fight.
- A whiteboard earns its wall space only if it is somewhere you actually stand.
- Dated planners are a commitment; undated ones survive the month you fall behind.
- Paper that does not bleed through matters more than the cover does.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
The small-business reading that is actually worth the evening.
- Prefer books by people who ran the kind of business you are running.
- Anything promising a system that works for every business is describing no business in particular.
- A second-hand copy of a good book beats a new copy of a fashionable one.
- Your library probably has most of these. That is a legitimate answer.
No specific picks in here yet — I only list things once I've actually formed an opinion about them. The points above are what I'd go on in the meantime.
picks go in as I form opinions worth publishing…
Kit is the easy part. The awkward part is usually the process.
Buying a label printer fixes an afternoon. If the thing eating your week is the admin around the orders rather than the packing itself, that's the part I build.
Tell me what's eating the weekMore on running the business side of this in the blog.