When you think of self-storage, you might feel that they are for people who are moving house or have limited storage at home. However, they can be beneficial for various scenarios, including for business purposes. While you will not be able to transform a storage unit into an office or workshop for legal reasons, you can use them to keep important paperwork safe, equipment and tools that you don’t need in your workspace all the time, and even stock before putting it into your store or packaging it to send to customers. If you are a business owner who is looking for a storage solution to help keep your office organized, amongst other things, here are some examples of businesses that would find these units particularly useful.
Home-based Businesses
If you have set up a home business, you might already find yourself having to make room in your living environment to accommodate your work. While sitting in a home office might be comfortable most of the time, if you struggle to find space to house your paperwork, products, or equipment at home, a storage unit would be ideal for this. Even if you don’t need a storage unit initially, you may find one worthwhile as your business expands.
Retail Business
If you own a small shop that doesn’t have a lot of storage onsite, then leasing a storage unit can help you manage your stock better. It can be dangerous for your employees to try and navigate a stock room that is full to the brim, as boxes and other heavy items could fall and injure somebody. Consider leasing a storage unit off-site to ensure that your store’s storage is neat, tidy, and in line with health and safety guidelines. You can also keep important paperwork, clothing racks, mannequins, and other items you might need for your store but don’t necessarily need them onsite at this time.
Catering Business
While you can’t keep perishable items in your storage unit, most facilities are happy for people to keep canned goods and dried foods in sealed, air-tight containers in a storage unit. You won’t be able to prepare food in your unit, but it could work well for a catering business that needs somewhere to store equipment when they aren’t working a job. For example, tables, chairs, or kitchen appliances that aren’t regularly used can all be stored in a storage facility. You could also keep linens in there, cutlery, and glassware, all ready to go when you’re catering your next event.
Artists and Crafters
If your business is selling pieces of artwork or other crafts that you have created, a storage unit is a perfect place to keep your products until you’ve sold them. You may want to look at using a climate-controlled unit, particularly for paintings, to help them stay in good condition until they are sold. You may also be able to use the unit as a studio space, but this will depend on the kind of work you will be doing. You will not be able to have employees working out of your unit or list your unit as a business address.
Antique Dealers/Vintage Clothing Retailer
If you make your money by dealing with antiques or vintage clothing, you can store your items safely in a unit. Again, a climate-controlled unit will be best for this kind of thing as it will prevent your items from damage, but you should make sure that they are covered with dust covers, acid-free paper, or sealed in vacuum bags or wardrobe boxes, etc. Whether you choose to keep your products solely in your unit or use the unit to store extra stock that will not fit in your physical store, it can be a worthwhile investment to lease a unit.
Sales Representatives
When you work in sales, it’s not uncommon to find yourself carrying around a lot of promotional materials such as catalogs, posters, banners, and so forth. You won’t necessarily need to use these materials all the time, but when you are visiting customers to make a pitch or running a stall at a trade fair, all of these items will come in handy. However, with numerous sales materials for various products, you can find yourself overwhelmed with these items very quickly. If you can’t recycle these items as you need them for future use, consider leasing a storage unit to keep all of the excess materials neatly packed away until you need to use them again.
Restaurant Owners
Like how a catering business can use a storage unit, restaurant owners might also find them useful if they have spare furniture that they are not using in their dining areas or perhaps additional appliances for the kitchen and bar. You could even use this space as a place where you can store old accounts, invoices, or other important paperwork that you need to keep a record of when you have run out of space in your office at work.
Contractors, Gardeners, Plumbers, and Electricians
If you run a business that is one of the above, you will need to have a collection of tools and equipment to help you carry out the essential jobs attached to your kind of work. You want to know that your equipment is kept safe, but if you don’t have a garage, large shed, or workshop at home, you might struggle to find a suitable place to keep your tools. This is where a storage unit can be the perfect solution and give you peace of mind that this often-expensive equipment is at low risk of being stolen or damaged due to the security measures that are in place at storage facilities. You can access your tools as and when you need them to help you on the job that you’re working on at the time.
If you are a business owner who is looking for a storage solution, look into leasing a storage unit near you to help you keep your workspace more organized and efficient.