The last few years have been rather up and down economically. This has been for numerous different reasons that were unprecedented. Businesses have done a fantastic job of weathering the storms, and even capitalising on opportunities that have come from adverse economic conditions, in some cases. Whilst being fluid and problem solving is essential for any small business, and it will help you get through tricky times ahead, there are certain tools that can give you even more ability to weather those storms. One major tool all small businesses should utilise to survive economic instability is business storage.

Self storage for business use is incredibly beneficial when you’re a small business and don’t necessarily have those strong roots down yet to help secure you against major changes in the economy. 20% of new businesses fail in the first year anyway, without even considering challenging events that can make it even harder to avoid becoming such a damning statistic.

 

If you’re not sure about paying for business self storage, especially as any extra spending right now seems unwise, the following 10 reasons affordable self storage makes sense for all small businesses is likely to change your mind:

 

1.   Room To Be Seasonal

Seasonal businesses can benefit from affordable self storage because they can have storage that suits the storage needs of different parts of the year. Maybe you are a seasonal business with a focus on Christmas. So you may have the beginning of the year without a need for a large storage space, but as you bring in stock to prepare over summer you need a larger unit, and then towards Christmas you may need a much bigger unit for your full operations. You can shrink and expand as you need to with affordable self storage and no associated penalties to worry about because of those natural changes.

For businesses who are not seasonal, you might not be seasonal now, but if things change, you could end up capitalising on seasonal business or you could capitalise on unprecedented situations. Some businesses completely changed from one direction to another during the pandemic in order to survive. One gin business became a hand sanitiser company for a while, and some craft businesses totally focused on creating and selling face masks. It’s good to know that a flexible option exists as and when you need to expand or shrink down your operations.

2.   Flexible Contracts & Options

Self storage for business will have contracts that are flexible in lots of ways. They are flexible in size, as we mentioned above, but they are also usually under a contract that is taken out quickly and ended quickly without consequences. There is also flexibility in climate control, whether you have outdoor or indoor units, the different extras you might use like equipment hire. It’s a flexible, adaptable service that works incredibly well for small businesses, and especially small businesses trying to survive uncertain times.

3.   An Increase In Petty Crime (Protect Your Stock)

Unfortunately there has been an increase in petty crime because of strains on police services, which means theft is more of an issue than before and with no real repercussions for perpetrators. For small businesses based at home, your stock is already at risk through human error, environmental damage and theft. The increase in petty crime rates only adds to this risk. Moving your things to affordable self storage helps you to keep your stock protected, with many different security measures in place to make sure it stays secure and out of the hands of thieves.

4.   Always A Way To Take Advantage Of Stock Bargains

When the climate is as it is you may take advantage of large stock bulk opportunities becoming available, or you may need to make large orders to make shipping from overseas cost effective. With affordable self storage you have somewhere to put those large stock orders, and some facilities even take deliveries for you. If you have dead stock you’re waiting to sell, your unit can also keep those items safe until they can be moved on.

5.   A Need To Hold Onto Stock When There’s A Lull / Pause

The pandemic brought the operations of many businesses to a halt. Self storage gives you somewhere to put everything in the event that you require a complete pause in your operations. Somewhere that, even if your office closes down or you are unable to even keep your business going for a time, your things will remain safe until such a time that they can get started again.

6.   Somewhere To Help Create Space At Home

During the pandemic a lot of people suddenly had to find the space to work from home. For small businesses, you probably need to do that anyway but in the event you do have an office you use, the self storage unit is a helpful place to quickly put your spare room contents away at home if working from home becomes the only option once again.

7.   Low Cost

Economic uncertainty and fluctuations mean that you have to be very careful with money. Expensive, long-term warehouse contracts and office contracts simply might not be a possibility. Self storage is very affordable and low cost in comparison to those kinds of options.

8.   Furniture Flexibility

If you are a food truck or you run a small food business you may well have already had to store furniture that needed to be removed to abide by the different government guidelines on social distancing. Add to that screen guards, PPE equipment, sanitising equipment and more, and there’s a lot of stuff to move around and place. Most businesses also know this could well happen again in the future and aren’t getting rid of all their expensive social distancing equipment just yet. Logistically, it is handy to have a place for furniture so you can swap and change what you’re using, so you have somewhere for bulky items like a marquee or festival setups, and in the event of more pandemics, somewhere to securely keep items you’ve had to store to work around social distancing guidelines.

9.   Ability To Change And Adapt Quickly

Because self storage units are so flexible in their size, the contract lengths, the ease in signing up and changing the size of the unit, they provide you with the ability to change and adapt very quickly. This means that no matter whether prices of a certain ingredient have shot up and you have to quickly buy new stock in bulk, or you’re suddenly switching your sales process around to meet the demand of going online, you always, at least, have a secure place to keep things going. It’s the perfect way to keep at least one thing constant and secure whilst the world changes around you.

10.  Fulfilment Possibilities

Part of the adaptations made during the pandemic were companies turning their business into a largely online and postal business. Self storage units provide an opportunity to increase fulfilment easily, so you can continue to serve customer orders in the event of having to be solely online, keeping the money coming in and keeping your brand growing regardless of the change.

With Secure Self Storage for Businesses You Can Weather The Storms Ahead

Whether you need a secure place to use for an increase in online orders, or a place to securely store your stock whilst an economic change has put a pause on operations, affordable self storage makes good business sense. Why not contact your local self storage company today to find out how they can help you keep your business secure and thriving during uncertain times?