Effective office storage is essential for any organisation no matter the type or the size. At some point, every business outgrows their current space but expanding or relocating to bigger premises may not always be possible. The associated costs such as increased rent, rates and electricity are major contributing factors. However, there are really good storage ideas which apply to home offices, small businesses or larger corporates. Let’s get right to it shall we.
Do You Really Need More Office Storage?
This is an important question and requires careful consideration. Your reasons for additional office storage should make good business sense. Take a look at these questions and think how you would answer these.
- Are you expanding to give your customers a better experience?
- Have you employed additional staff and require more space for desks and other office furniture?
- Do you need more storage space for stock and what type of storage do you need?
- Is it necessary to store all your stock on the business premises?
Depending on your business model, your commercial space is there to generate income, not to store excess things or to impress anyone. With the exception of maybe being a luxury car dealership, 5-star hotel or a software giant like Google, why spend a fortune on an extravagant lobby? If you own a factory that does not sell to the general public, you don’t need massive amounts of on-premises storage. Prioritise your business needs and choose wisely.
Commercial property is expensive whether you’re buying or renting so you need to be absolutely certain of your decision whatever it may be. If relocating or expanding is not within your business budget, there are other options available under the right circumstances.
Declutter Your Existing Office Space
Before considering anything new, first see if you can improve your current office storage space. Declutter what you can as any space can feel small if it’s not organised properly. You’ll be surprised how much space you can actually save.
A major obstacle many of us need to overcome is deciding what to store, archive or throw away. A general rule is if something is not used daily, it should not take up valuable space. Decide what is essential for operating your business and keep these close at hand. Get rid of unnecessary items and minimise clutter using trays, baskets, shelves or drawers. The same applies to equipment, stock or exhibition stands – move them out to make room for desks and furniture.
Remove filing cabinets containing old documents and consider phasing out paper archives altogether. Digital storage is widely used by many businesses and is highly recommended for important business documents. Not only is it safer and easier than manual filing, it saves considerable space which can serve a better purpose. After a period of time, you’ll know whether or not you really need bigger premises.
Consider Renting A Self Storage Unit
Once you’ve decluttered and established how much office storage is necessary, perhaps you’ll find that the cheaper option of long term self storage is the answer to all your problems.
There are so many benefits when using a good storage facility and we’ve listed our top 5 below:
- Greatly reduce logistics and distribution expenses.
- Substantial savings compared to renting or buying a bigger commercial property.
- Lower overheads results in a bigger budget for other business areas like staff training, product development or procurement.
- Important business documents are kept safe and only accessible to you.
- Flexible rates, terms and conditions – you can change the unit size as your business demands.
Finding the right storage solution for your business is important and with careful planning, you might be able to use a self storage facility without spending a fortune on a larger business premises.
If you’re looking for assistance with business storage in Stroud, Gloucester or Bristol, get in touch. We provide business storage at all our sites and have both internal and external drive up units. Our terms are fully flexible and there is no long contract period so you can store for as long as you need to. You are also free to change storage sizes at any time and at no extra charge.