What to Do When Your Home Business is Taking Over Your House
Having a successful home-based business is one of the most satisfying things you can achieve in life. For many, mail order is the most straightforward option despite the constant storage problems and the risk of turning your home into a warehouse.
Here’s how to organise your stock so your home business runs smoothly and efficiently, no matter how much the business grows and how much storage you need:
Consider Your Options
Before you dive into anything, look at the problem from all angles so you can find the best solution. Do you really need more space, or do you just need to organise your stock better? If you definitely need more space, where can you find it?
- Rented offices? Maybe not, because you probably don’t need an actual office and it would defeat the purpose of running a home business. Plus, it can be wildly expensive to rent an office.
- Warehouse space? Is your business growing really huge? Could you maybe partner with another business owner to share warehouse space? Be wary of this option as you need to hammer out legal obligations and liabilities, and warehouses have additional costs such as VAT and business rates.
- Local self-storage unit? Worth a serious look. No business rates or hidden costs, short-term flexible contracts and lots of unit sizes to choose from. There are other benefits too. More on this in a minute.
- Carve out more space at home? There are a few ways you can extend your space.
Finding Space at Home
You’ve probably already taken over the spare room and filled all the cupboards with boxes of stock. What else can you do?
- Put up some more shelves. The vertical space in a room is often underused.
- Find hidden spaces. Such areas include the spaces under kitchen cabinets. Take the kickboards off and put sliding or hinged doors in their place. You can put dozens of shallow boxes for small items under there and no one would ever know.
- Use storage furnishings – for example, an ottoman-style bed with storage underneath can hold a lot of stock.
Spaces to Avoid if You Possibly Can
Depending on what you’re storing, it’s probably best to avoid the garage or shed as these places can be damp and not offer protection from pests.
Unless you have a sturdy, fixed loft ladder, storing stock in the attic or loft may not be the safest option either.
For the sake of convenience and ongoing friendship, it’s also probably best to think twice before roping in neighbours or family and friends to help with your storage!
Local Self Storage
If you’ve always thought self storage was just for personal stuff you’re not currently using, you might be surprised at how it benefits small businesses these days:
- You can work from your local self-storage room. Facilities don’t mind you doing this. Put a desk or table in the room so you can pack up stock there and then be ready for posting.
- You can rent an additional space for just a couple of weeks or months during busy periods or when you find a bargain purchase you don’t want to miss.
- You can get stuff delivered directly to your self storage facility, and the staff will receive it if you can’t be there yourself.
- The locations are handy, with plenty of parking, and the opening hours are convenient.
- You can have freestanding shelf units so all your stock is professionally arranged and easy to find. It streamlines stocktaking and avoids overselling or running short of bestsellers.
If your home business is taking over your house, you’re doing something right because the business is expanding. When you reach this stage, it’s time to celebrate and congratulate yourself, then take advantage of the growth by organising your storage so you can maintain momentum.
This is a collaborative post.
