On the hardware side, Copy Cat opted to lease its equipment, rather than buying it outright (with or without financing) or through a pay per print option. “You know from a flat-line perspective that your payment will be X,” said Geoffrey, who finds that this predictability is a great help with budgeting. “We have no interest in owning stuff, and we have no need to be in debt.”

Copy Cat is a diverse and growing business with services that include digital printing, plan printing, design and layout, digital photography, video production, website development and even producing collateral for events in collaboration with the function organiser and art director. Today, the Browns manage all this with the help of an extensive array of mostly Canon equipment, including two iR6000 black-and-white multifunction devices, a CLC1180 colour laser copier a W7200 wide-format printer, a P660C business card printer, and a professional digital SLR camera with ’L’ series professional lenses. But tomorrow they might need to upgrade any or all of these devices, so flexibility was essential when Copy Cat signed its leasing agreement with Canon Finance.

“Whenever we need a new machine, we just negotiate a monthly increase with Canon,” says Cathy. “The migration path is seamless.”

On the services and consumables side, Copy Cat opted to pay per print used. They find this provides them with an instant snapshot of their usage — and when they shut the business over Christmas, they can forget about that part of their cost structure.

“The interest rate was more than acceptable, better than bank finance — and they worked to our budgets,” says Cathy.

“They even had the courtesy to complete the forms in advance, so they just needed our signatures to proceed,” says Geoffrey. “We like to just get on with the business of doing business.”

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