Who This Is For

If you're running a small business, a home office, or you're the person in charge of buying printers for a team of fewer than 20 people, this is for you.

You don't have a dedicated IT guy. You don't want to become a printer expert. You just want something that prints reliably, connects to Wi-Fi without a meltdown, and doesn't cost a fortune in toner.

I'm a quality manager. I don't fix printers for a living, but I do review every piece of hardware that comes through our office. And I've seen a lot of otherwise good setups fall apart because of one bad decision—usually at the printer selection stage. Over the last 4 years, I've reviewed roughly 50+ different printer models for our company, and I've rejected about 15% of first deliveries because of spec issues or poor documentation.

This checklist is based on that experience. Four steps. Follow them in order, and you'll save yourself at least one frustrated call to support.

Step 1: Match the Printer Type to Your Actual Workload

This sounds obvious, but it's the most common mistake I see. People buy a laser printer when they need occasional color, or they buy an inkjet for a high-volume office and wonder why the cartridges run out in two weeks.

Here's the shortcut:

  • If you mostly print text (contracts, invoices, forms): Get a monochrome laser. Brother's HL-L24xx series is a common starting point. The upfront cost is a bit higher than an inkjet, but the cost per page is dramatically lower. We run a batch of about 200 pages per week, and a single toner cartridge lasts us 3-4 months.
  • If you need occasional color (presentations, client proposals): Get a color laser or a hybrid. But be honest with yourself about "occasional." If it's once a quarter, go to a print shop. If it's once a week, a Brother MFC-L37xx series all-in-one can handle it without bleeding you dry on ink.
  • If you print labels (shipping, filing, product tags): Dedicated label printers exist for a reason. They're faster, cheaper to run, and less frustrating than feeding label sheets through a standard paper tray. I'm not an expert in label printers, so I can't speak to specific models. What I can tell you from a procurement perspective is: if you're using more than 50 labels a day, get a label printer. It'll pay for itself in frustration saved.

One thing most people overlook: The duty cycle. Every printer has a recommended monthly page volume printed in the spec sheet. If your office prints 500 pages a month, don't buy a printer rated for 250 pages. You'll burn through it in a year. Get one rated for at least 1,000 pages. The headroom matters.

Step 2: Don't Skip the Wi-Fi Setup Documentation (Until You've Checked Two Things)

I get it. No one reads the manual. But "how to connect a printer to Wi-Fi" is the #1 search term that brings people to our support page. And 90% of the time, the problem is one of two things:

  1. You're trying to set it up on the 5 GHz band. Most office printers are still 2.4 GHz devices. If your office router broadcasts both bands under the same SSID, the printer might try to connect to the 5 GHz network and fail silently. The fix: log into your router admin panel and temporarily disable the 5 GHz network. Connect the printer. Then re-enable it.
  2. You're using the WPS button, but it's not working. WPS is great when it works. When it doesn't, it's a black box. The alternative: connect the printer to your router with an Ethernet cable (just for setup), follow the menu to enter your Wi-Fi password manually, and then disconnect the cable. This takes 5 minutes longer, but it's 100% reliable.

I'm not a network specialist, so I can't speak to deeper issues like static IP conflicts. What I can tell you from a quality perspective is this: if the printer doesn't connect within 10 minutes, stop trying the same method. Switch to the Ethernet setup. You'll save an hour of frustration.

Step 3: Set Up the Cost Tracking from Day One

The printer itself is usually not the expensive part. The consumables are.

Most people don't realize how much they're spending on toner or ink because they just buy a new cartridge when the printer says "low." That's a trap. The printer's low-ink warning is often set to trigger at 20-25% remaining, not 5%. If you replace it immediately, you're throwing money away.

Here's what I do:

  • When a new cartridge is installed, write the date on the top of it with a sharpie.
  • When the low-ink warning appears, check the date. If it's been less than 2 months for a toner cartridge, check your page count. You might have a leak or a defective unit.
  • If it's been 3+ months, you know your usage rate. Our office goes through about one high-yield toner cartridge every 4 months, giving us a cost per page of roughly $0.03. Yours might be different, but you want to know that number.

The surprise wasn't the price of the starter toner that came with the printer. It was how much we paid for replacements before we started tracking. Now we buy third-party cartridges (with caution—check reviews!) and save about 30%.

Step 4: Know When to Ignore the "Copier" Feature

A lot of people buy a "printer copier" all-in-one because they think they need a copier. In a small office, you probably don't.

Here's the test: when was the last time you made a photocopy of more than 10 pages? If the answer is "never" or "once last year," you're paying for a feature you're not using. A flatbed scanner (which is included in most all-in-ones) plus a computer is a perfectly fine copier for 95% of small business needs. If you need to copy 50 pages of a contract, take it to a print shop. It'll cost you $5 and save you a printer jam.

To be fair, there are exceptions: legal firms, real estate agents, or anyone who needs to copy double-sided documents frequently. But for the rest of us, the "copier" feature is just another thing that can break. We've rejected two all-in-one units in the past year because the scanning unit failed within 6 months. If we had just bought a standalone printer, we'd have had fewer headaches.

One Last Thing: Don't Buy on Coupons Alone

I see a lot of people searching for "brother printer coupons" before they know what model they need. Please don't do this. The coupon exists to move inventory, not to match you with the right product. A $50 off coupon on a printer that's wrong for your workload will cost you $500 in wasted consumables over two years.

Granted, if you already know you want a specific model, go ahead and use the coupon. Just don't let it be the deciding factor. Small doesn't mean unimportant—it means you need to be smarter about the decision because you don't have the margin to absorb a bad one.

Most of these issues are preventable with a bit of planning. The most frustrating part of printer management: the same problems recurring—paper jams, Wi-Fi drops, unexpected costs—because the setup was rushed. You'd think a 10-minute setup is enough. But investing 20 minutes upfront to get the right model, connect it properly, and track your costs will save you hours later.