Speaking of scanners, if your copying volume requirements are fairly low, you can use your scanner as a copier. Just scan in the document and save the image. Have your computer send as many copies as you need to your printer. Scanner prices have fallen to new lows while their quality has done nothing but rise—they're good buys.

So, for the very small office, you can side-step the purchase of a copier and fax machine.

As you grow, you will want to investigate multi-purpose machines which combine several functions. The most common is the copier-fax-scanner multipurpose machine. Advantages here for a small office is the saving of space, and the ability to forego the purchase of three separate pieces of equipment. The disadvantages are that you have combined three devices inside one box. What happens if something breaks? Have you lost the functionality of all three or only a small portion? It depends on the particular brand machine and how badly its broken, of course. In general, however, the quality of most these machines on the market today is quite high and this has become much less of a concern.

For those offices with higher copier volumes or heavier faxing requirements, its probably more cost effective to acquire separate machines for each function.

Phone systems for the small office have become very affordable. The functionality built into many systems is almost dazzling. This is one device which can easily leverage your small office's abilities in the business world through use of voice mail, messaging, cell phone connection call forwarding, and other features.

Before deciding on any phone system for your office, spend the time to investigate it fully. They can be complicated. Do you need the help of a professional in designing and setting it up, or can you do it yourself? What kind of support should you buy? You will need to pursue the answers to these and other questions before you dive into the purchase of a phone system.