Starting a small business may force you to beg and borrow rather than invest immediately on high-end stuff. And there’s a good reason for that. You really have to manage you cash flow first.

But what if you workers will be sitting on worn-out chairs? Sooner or later, they’ll be complaining about bad backs. Discomfort, even the slightest physical one leads to stress.

One of the banes of the busy office is the strain caused by repetitive stress injuries (RSI). It’s supposed to cost US business owners $100 million in lost productivity in worker’s compensation yearly. Some states, like California, for example have their own ergonomic regulations that you need to abide by.

One of important investments that you might need to give your employee is a good chair, one with a lumbar or lower back support and adjustable height. But how do you keep spending at a minimum when good chairs can retail at a thousand dollars easy?

Keep it simple at first. Invest on the following items initially:

• Lumbar pillows
• Keyboard wrist rests
• Foot stools
• Good lighting

You can also teach employees some RSI prevention techniques like:

• Taking breaks every 50 minutes in front of the monitor to walk around (prevents eye strain)
• Proper posture
• Simple stretching exercises

The simple act of showing you care about your employees go a long way. They’d be less sluggish and more active in doing work. Something that a busy startup would need.

From then, you can always work your way up to great workstations!

Image Credit: SABES