When you run a small business, you have your mind focussed on all sorts of areas. Marketing, market research, advertising, product development, packaging… the list goes on. But one area many people often ignore until too late is storage. At the end of the day, if you’re selling products, you need somewhere to store them until they’re sold and dispatched. Let’s take a moment to look at whether your business could benefit from storage spaces like a warehouse space!
How Much Storage Space Do You Need?
The first question you need to ask yourself when it comes to your business and storage is how much storage space do you need? Sometimes, if you are running a small business, you can keep storage requirements low by producing goods to order, or only ordering a small number of items to be manufactured, placing further items when demand continues. This means you don’t have to worry too much about storage and can often keep your goods in your home or office, ready for direct dispatch. However, if you find you have too much stock to keep in these places, you may need to consider official storage options.
To Rent or to Build
Now, if you find that you do need more storage space for your business’ stock, the first question you need to ask yourself is whether you want to rent a storage space that is already in existence, or whether you want to build your own storage space from scratch. The answer will largely fall down to your needs and whether you anticipate that you’ll need use of a storage space for a long time or not. If you’re a start up and haven’t completely set your roots in the field of commerce yet, storage could be a good option. At the end of the day, you sign up for a set period of time and can pull out of the contract when it comes to renewing. Many storage units will allow you to leave early for a set charge too. This means if things change and you don’t experience success, or you decide to stop trading, you haven’t lost all too much money. However, if you are a larger business, have been well established for a long time and need storage, you may be better off building your own storage unit. This way, you outlay the cost of having one built – as well as other costs, such as heritage consultant services – but then no longer have to pay monthly installments of rent or storage costs. This can save you a lot of money in the long run!
Security
A benefit of warehouse spaces to bear in mind is security. Generally, in these spaces, your stock can be insured. You can also monitor that it’s not being stolen with security cameras and alarms on the space that can be set overnight.
Sure, these are the basics of storage. But hopefully, they’ll get you asking the right questions to benefit your business overall!
