Better Business, Better Storage — Three Trusted Tips

Business efficiency depends a lot on how you organise your workspace, both office and storage areas. By choosing space wisely, creating systems so you can find things and protecting items properly, your work spaces stay streamlined and operating smoothly.

Organised Storage Rooms

Having enough space to store everything your business needs, from documentation to stock and equipment is one thing. Organising it so you’re using the space at its maximum efficiency is another. Tips from professionals include:

  • Create a walkway through the middle of the storage area so everything is organised on either side. Sturdy vertical shelving lined with clear labels makes everything quickly accessible.
  • As well as labelling boxes, label spaces on the shelves. Each time you take delivery, place items in their own bespoke space so you can immediately go to the right spot in the store room when you need to retrieve something.
  • Place the fastest selling items closest to the door.
  • Organise stock types logically, whether by manufacturer, type, colour or size.
  • Don’t allow slow moving stock to linger. Consider holding a sale or using giveaways as promotional events.

Versatile, Flexible Home Storage and Office Space

For some, running a business from home as well as storing stock there too, is the best option. If this gets your business up and running, go for it. But do it right:

  • Set aside a business area. An entire room is best but failing that, create an office elsewhere, perhaps a custom shed design that you create. You can use bookshelves as room dividers, which also provide somewhere convenient for printer supplies or business document storage. Corner desks leave more free floor space than traditional ones of the same size, and portable trolleys or tables make for moveable office furniture.
  • Avoid trip or fall hazards by stacking and storing boxes correctly (largest at the bottom), and make sure cables don’t trail across the floor.
  • Install shelving to hold boxes of smaller stock items and keep them out of reach of children.
  • Invest in good storage containers. Transparent ones let you see what’s inside at a glance, while acid free archive boxes will keep paperwork in good condition.

Making Savings with Savvy Storage Choices

Where you store stock can be as important to the bottom line as how you store it. There are three main options:

  • Home Storage: Can be convenient for startups, but has disadvantages which include ease of access for delivery vehicles, ease or loading or unloading across curbs, steps or stairways, security and the disruption of your family lifestyle. Other considerations if you’re planning on using the garage or other outbuilding include damp or pests. Make sure everything is off the ground and tightly locked away.
  • Warehousing: Probably the most expensive option since you’ll also have VAT and utility bills as well as business rates. Consider sharing space, but work out the logistics and draw up a document agreeing on responsibility and liability should anything go wrong.
  • Self Storage: Relatively new to business storage, self storage facilities offer much that trumps other options. There is a huge variety of room sizes, the terms are short and favourable, they are open for long hours, and staff may take delivery on your behalf. If you also want to cut down on office space rental for business documentation, self storage also offers locker-sized spaces. You might also want to consider custom build storage shed so it is made bespoke to your requirements.

Attracting customers, winning clients and securing sales is far more important than having modern signage on the high street. Every pound saved through making smart storage choices is another pound you can invest in marketing or buying new stock.

Colin Shaw
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Written by Colin Shaw

Colin has been in the finance market for over 20 years and specialises in best business practice to make an organisation profitable. The only man for the job when it comes to numbers and accounts with a keen talent for simplifying finance for the wider market.