Nowadays, more and more of us are beginning to start our own companies and work for ourselves. There are so many perks that come hand in hand with doing this. You’ll be working to build your own fortune, rather than somebody else’s, and you’ll be able to choose exactly what direction your company and career take.

However, don’t be mistaken in thinking setting up a company will necessarily always be plain sailing. All small business owners come up against some hurdles at some point or another, as you’ll inevitably encounter aspects of running a company or challenges that you are unfamiliar with or simply didn’t anticipate. One area that often takes business owners by surprise is storage. If you’re selling goods, you’re going to need to store them somewhere. This space needs to be safe, insured, and you need to make optimal use of the room available to you. Here are a few options you might want to consider as you progress and expand!

Home Storage

At the beginning of your business venture, it’s highly likely that you aren’t going to have huge bulk loads of stock. Most people are humble in their approach and only have a few of their products made up to sell. This allows you to gauge whether the market is interested and whether there’s demand before you start mass producing or bulk buying components and materials. During this start up phase, you’ll likely be fine storing your products in your own home. If you have a cupboard or spare room, this will be ideal. Just make sure everything is safely stored away from potential damage – maybe from pets or kids. Also make sure your home and contents insurance accommodate the addition of potentially expensive stock. You need to make sure you’re adequately covered!

Warehouses

As your products experience increased demand and your business consequently begins to grow and expand, you may no longer be able to house all of your stock in your home. You need to expand your storage solutions too! Look into a warehouse. These are huge, specialist storage spaces where you can store your stock. Just make sure to make the most of the space. Many warehouses have high ceilings, so you can install pallet rack after pallet rack to fit as much stock into the area you’re using as possible. Having an organised system like this also ensures you always know where your stock is and can access it safely and easily.

Selling Old Stock

If you’ve had stock that’s been lying around taking up storage space for a long time – perhaps items from an old product line – you might want to consider holding a sale to shift them. If it’s evident they’re not being sold at full price, you might want to cut prices just to get rid of them and free up some of your space. Make sure the sale price is still above production value to ensure you’re not making a loss.

These are just a few things to consider and bear in mind when dealing with your small business’ storage solutions. Finding the right option for you at any given time will really help you to organise your business and progress at a good speed!