During the first 90 days of launching a new laboratory, every decision matters. And as a new business, you face the challenge of acquiring essential equipment while carefully managing finances. It’s important to know what to prioritize to build a functional, compliant, and reliable workspace from day one.
The goal is to build a supply system that helps prevent unnecessary interruptions. To achieve this, connecting with a reliable supplier can help ensure dependable deliveries while reducing the risk of sourcing poor-quality equipment that could result in expensive replacements.
In this guide, we will walk you through the essential first 90-day lab checklist, how to prioritize spending, and where your startup can save money by selecting reliable, cost-effective disposables and budget-friendly consumables.
Why the First 90 Days Matter for Success
For many new laboratories, the first mistake is thinking you need a fully stocked facility right away. In reality, you don’t need to buy everything at once, and the key to a successful startup begins with the right essentials in the right order to build a core operating inventory that keeps daily operations running efficiently.
It is a practical approach to start by identifying the tasks your team expects to perform for at least the first 30 to 60 days and build around the work that needs to be done first. This helps separate essential supplies and equipment from items that can wait for later down the line.
Buying too much too early can tie up your valuable startup capital and result in unused or expired products and consumables. However, ordering too little of the essentials you will need can lead to stockouts, which suddenly halt lab operations and cost your lab time and money you can’t spare during this early establishment period.
The Essential Startup Supplies
While this depends on your core laboratory operations and capabilities, consumption rates depend on the number of staff, testing volume, and processes; there are some fundamental supplies most laboratories use, including liquid handling, containers, sample filtration, and personal safety.
When you have identified the procedures your laboratory will initially perform the most frequently, it’s time to place your first order and build your inventory around those specific requirements.
These are some of the basics that your laboratory can prioritize to get operational:
1) Glassware and Volumetrics:
For many laboratories, basic glassware is one of the first purchases you will make, used for a wide range of everyday laboratory tasks from mixing to holding, transferring, and preparing solutions. At Med Lab Supply, we stock a range of high-quality glassware that offers reliability for consistency and sample integrity.
As a practical starting point, these include:
There is no single quantity that will work for every startup laboratory. Each piece of laboratory glassware has different purposes, and purchasing a practical variety of sizes based on the number of staff, expected procedures, storage capacity – and then adjusting as you go – can be the best approach.
Durability and quality especially matter here, since laboratory glassware can last many years through repeated use; prioritizing quality glassware can be a good long-term investment. This is where Type 1, Class A borosilicate 3.3 glass can offer the superior performance and durability you need. It allows for very low coefficients of thermal expansion. This makes it a much sturdier design compared to standard soda-lime glass and less likely to shatter due to its resistance to thermal shock.
In a laboratory environment, this is especially important for testing and experiments, as this material can undergo extreme and rapid temperature changes without cracking, contributing to efficiency and the safety of workers. This type of glass is highly chemically resistant, making it ideal for storing many reagents, strong acids and bases, biological fluids, and organic solvents, and is suitable for long-term storage.
2) PPE Gear and Disinfectants:
Every startup laboratory should stock enough PPE inventory to cover the number of employees and the possibility of increases in workload.
Under OSHA requirements, employers must assess workplace hazards and select PPE accordingly to protect employees.
Depending on your laboratory's needs, these can include:
Since PPE products are disposable and typically used frequently, consumption can vary, particularly as workload increases, and it is important to track usage to maintain accurate quantities for workload needs. It can be worth keeping a reasonable reserve of frequently used PPE to avoid unnecessary interruptions.
OSHA guidance states that laboratories should have appropriate cleaning and decontamination practices based on the work being performed, and any contaminated surfaces should be cleaned regularly with appropriate disinfectants. The right surface-cleaning product can vary based on the surface being cleaned, from isopropyl alcohol used in certain sterile cleaning protocols and aseptic processing procedures to wipes for routine surface cleaning.
3) Filtration and Liquid Handling:
This is another area that depends on your intended procedures, and many filtration and liquid-handling supplies are single-use, which can help streamline your workflow and minimize the potential for cross-contamination between applications.
Bottle-top filtration systems can be useful for your lab when larger volumes need to be processed. Extracto Bottle-Top Filters are designed specifically for filtering culture media and organic solvents in research and industrial laboratories. These systems are designed to deliver high performance and consistent purity standards where consistent filtration of larger liquid volumes is required.
For harsher chemical applications, Autofil Solvent-Resistant PP Bottle-Top Filters are designed as a single-piece polypropylene funnel that withstands harsh solvents that degrade other bottle-top filters. Choosing the right membrane pore size depends on the level of sterility or clarification and required process speed. This includes 0.22µm which is commonly used for sterilization-grade filtration, and 0.45µm for general clarification and particle removal.
Syringe filters are typically ideal when handling smaller-volume applications. It’s important to consider chemical and solvent compatibility when selecting membrane materials, and which pore sizes will be needed for particle filtration applications.
When it comes to syringes and needles, the gauge, length, and connection type are essential considerations. Rather than purchasing a broad selection of sizes, your initial inventory should be specific to reflect the volumes and materials that will be handled and the procedures your laboratory expects to perform.
4) Transfer and Sample Storage
When your lab processes begin, it’s important to have the right containers for moving, storing, and organizing samples to maintain integrity and achieve accurate results. Depending on your intended application, both glass and plastic labware provide different advantages for sample handling and storage.
The type of container you should select comes down to volume, chemical compatibility, temperature, and storage duration. Borosilicate glass containers offer temperature resistance, provide durability and chemical resistance for many applications, supporting rapid heating and cooling. Polypropylene plastic containers are typically ideal for cold-room environments and compatible with a range of samples and reagents, offering a cheaper and shatter-resistant alternative.
Where to Save on Your Budget
When stocking up on supplies that are designed to be frequently replaced, such as gloves, transfer pipettes, certain plasticware, or cleaning supplies, there are more opportunities to manage costs, and buying in bulk is often the most cost-effective option.
It’s important to remember that this should be based on your actual consumption. During the first 90 days, a good approach is to establish a baseline based on your team size and projected testing volume rather than over-purchasing quantities that may not be used.
There are a few areas where investing is beneficial, such as glassware and volumetrics, sterile vials, and filtration. But when it comes to plastic disposables and general PPE and standard disinfectants, this is where you may be able to really save with bulk buying options.
Laboratory plasticware offers convenience and provides a cost-effective option, including non-sterile, sterile, and one-use items to help maintain a high level of sterility and prevent cross-contamination. Polypropylene containers are ideal for high-volume storage, high-temperature tolerance, and chemical resistance. They also have the added benefit of being shatterproof, allowing for safer use in high-traffic lab areas or cold-room environments, minimizing the risk of breakage or sample loss.
At Med Lab Supply, the selection of polypropylene labware products includes carboys, media bottles, and funnels. There are also Polystyrene Autofil Media Bottles available for life science research applications, including tissue culture, media, serum, and buffers.
The Benefit of Tracking Your Supply Usage
As your lab gets further into the run of things, there should be some real information about your supply usage that can help to simplify your procurement process. This is where keeping track of your first order becomes useful. It is beneficial from the very beginning to keep an inventory spreadsheet to record quantities and to establish a basic reorder point for frequently used supplies.
In the first 30 days, you can focus on prioritizing the essential supplies and equipment your laboratory needs to get started. After this period, from days 31-60, you can start adjusting based on your actual usage or burn rate, using data to inform your decisions.
You should track and review:
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Which supplies are being consumed the quickest.
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What sizes are used most frequently.
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Which products need a standing order.
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Whether any supplies have a longer lead time.
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What supplies aren’t being used as much.
From days 61-90, this information can help determine which products need to be reordered regularly and which you may have overestimated in your initial plan. By the time you reach 90 days, you should be able to move towards a repeatable procurement system.
You can establish:
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Minimum inventory levels
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Reorder points
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Reliable suppliers
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A regular inventory review
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Preferred products and sizes
If your laboratory is consistently and quickly getting low on a particular item, that’s where having these reorder points can give you time to stock up before current supplies run out. Tracking using your inventory spreadsheets can help account for supplier lead times and predict or identify when you should reorder critical items before stock levels drop too low to keep things running smoothly.
Additionally, as larger laboratories grow, integrating your ordering systems with AI and cloud-based platforms can aid data-driven predictions, providing better visibility across storage locations to help identify inefficiencies, forecast demand, and improve inventory allocation.
Maintaining a 30 Day Buffer of Safety Stock
For certain critical supplies where running out would put important procedures on hold, maintaining at least a 30-day buffer of safety stock can be a beneficial starting point. These may include frequently used consumables such as nitrile gloves, syringe filters, and plasticware. This doesn’t have to be for every item in your laboratory, but where appropriate, it can help combat unforeseen supply chain disruptions such as shortages or manufacturer backorders.
Once you have a clearer idea of your average weekly and monthly usage, it makes it easier to simplify this process and determine which supplies warrant buying larger quantities and which would be a drain on finances.
You should also consider more than consumption, making sure to factor in product shelf life, available storage space in your lab, and how critical a supply is to your ability to continue operations without interruption.
Starting With What You Need and Building for Success
You don’t need to order everything at once; you just need the right supplies to get started and grow from there as you expand your operations. A reliable supply partner can make sourcing essentials and your purchasing process easier.
At Med Lab Supply, we provide high-quality laboratory essentials designed to support emerging research facilities, clinical labs, and industrial labs as they establish and expand their operations. We’re here to support long-term success and help keep your lab running smoothly, at more affordable prices.
Visit our website to explore our full range of laboratory essentials.
