Thinking of Starting a Small E-Commerce Business from Home

If you’re thinking of starting a small online e-commerce business, you may also be thinking about storing your stock along with a small office space in your home. Rightly so, working from home can give you great flexibility in working time and less overhead costs. But at the same time, this same flexibility of working hours can bring you stress, which may produce a list of problems that could mess up your social and work life. The key is to maintain a proper balance between your work and personal life.

Suppose, you’re contemplating running an e-commerce website or set up a store on eBay or Amazon, but don’t want to invest in expensive warehouse setup costs. It might be worth thinking about the option of using the services of self storage facility for storing your inventory and running your business.

A self storage facility offers flexible storage and pricing solutions, which would work well if you want to start from a small inventory of stock and scale up as per the requirements.

Get an understanding of benefits of a self storage facility and apply it to your business model. Quickly go over the below Infographic to see if Self Storage can work for you:

Work from home infographic

Work from Home Using the Services of a Self Storage Facility

  • Online E-commerce businesses have rapidly grown in Australia during the past 5 to 7 years.

  • Quite a large number of businesses in Australia today use the services of self storage facilities.

  • A self storage facility is a good alternative to storing your inventory at your home. You don’t have to worry about fluctuating space requirements anymore for storing your inventory; especially, for start-ups/new businesses, self storage is a very good option when you are unsure of stock and storage requirements.

What is the Requirement of an E-Commerce Entrepreneur?

  • Focus: When you use a self storage facility for storing your inventory, as an e-commerce entrepreneur you can totally focus on your work giving it your undivided attention, which is important to succeed.

  • Flexible Storage Options:The option of upsizing and downsizing storage as required is an important aspect for every e-commerce business owner. It helps control costs by spending only what you need on storage.

  • Receipts & Deliveries: Major courier companies visit self storage facilities daily, which allow deliveries to be received and dispatched every day.

  • CCTV: Self Storage facilities have CCTV’s installed for 24-hour monitoring.

  • Your Own Lock & Key: You’ll have your own lock and key at a self storage facility. Also, regular lock integrity checks are carried out. And entry to a self storage is only through a PIN access security gate.

  • Alarmed Storage Buildings: Storage buildings are alarmed and protected by security lighting and fencing. A lot of self storage facilities also have individually alarmed units.

  • Overhead Costs: You’ll be able to keep the operating costs predictable and minimal with no outgoings.

  • Contact Details: When you provide a valid business address and phone number for your business, it appears more professional to your customers.

  • Insurance: You may be covered under your home or business contents policy, however, call your insurance company first to confirm if the insurance extends to the items stored at a self storage facility; in case, they aren’t covered, you can easily take this up through the self storage company.

  • Encouragement: Try meeting other entrepreneurs whenever possible. Self Storage facilities have lots of entrepreneurs frequenting the site. This will not only give you new ideas and insights but also encouragement that you are not alone.

  • A Cheerful Home Life: Spending your personal time with your family is imperative to relieve stress that will result in higher creativity and performance in your work.

It is worth exploring the option of doing business through a self storage facility. You’ll be more organised and will be able to follow a fixed routine, which will help you to keep your personal and work life separate. Also, when using a business self storage facility, you’ll be covered with respect to insurance and security, and you’ll get other valuable services as well.

Undoubtedly, e-commerce is very competitive, and any benefit your business can avail, can lead to business expansion and faster attainment of your goals. A flexible self storage warehousing solution is only one of the methods to accomplish it; however, it may be the perfect method for you.