Business owners will often find that their demand increases around certain seasons. This can mean a sudden urgency to order more stock, take on more staff, and fulfill additional orders – often before a certain deadline, such as Christmas day.This article covers the benefits of self-storage and storage insurance for seasonal business owners looking to save costs on storage space.
When you manage a seasonal business, the holiday season is a time of year that can significantly increase the demands on your business for more stock and equipment.
While of course this is good news for most business owners, often bringing in the highest levels of profit for some businesses than at any time of the year, it does bring in a few problems. These can include:
- Practicalities: where are you actually going to store your additional stock to cater to this increasing demand?
- Staff: do you need to take on more staff for this increased demand, and if so, have you got an employer’s liability insurance policy?
- Security: what steps do you need to take to ensure that your seasonal stock is stored safely during your busiest period?
Paying for a large warehouse premises all year round only to fill it up for a quarter of the year doesn’t make much sense – and it’s in these cases that self-storage can be the perfect solution for seasonal business owners.
Storage Insurance for Seasonal Business Owners | Contents:
- What is self-storage?
- What is storage insurance?
- Benefits of storage for business owners
- Storing seasonal stock
Benefits of seasonal business storage
Small businesses and entrepreneurs in particular can great benefit from self-storage during seasonal holidays. If you aren’t keen on filling up your home with excess stock, and don’t love the thought of shelling out for expensive business premises for months at a time, using self-storage for your seasonal stock is a great alternative.
Here are a few of the major benefits:
- Flexibility: With self-storage, you can take out a short-term contract to accommodate the demands of your business, or simply add additional space (i.e. renting out an additional unit) during the busiest months of the year. In the long-term, you can save a lot of money this way compared to renting a business premises.
- Security: A good self-storage unit will have CCTV, manned security, perimeter fencing, and a sign-in book so you know that your stock is secure
- No time constraints: There’s no long term commitment, so you can rent your unit only for as long as you need it
- 24 access: Most facilities are open 24 hours, so you can easily access your stock as and when you need it
- Cost: Storage is typically priced per square metre, allowing you to save on costs
Storing your seasonal stock
If you run a Christmas stall, operate at fairs or markets, or simply run a business that is more popular during the seasonal period, having a self-storage unit can be the most cost-effective and secure solution to storing your excess stock when you need it on hand, but not cluttering up your home or garage.
For many self-storage units, you are required to have storage insurance, which will protect the contents of your unit.
Keeping your seasonal business stock safe in self-storage
Using a self-storage unit for your seasonal business stock may be a cost-effective move, but it’s important to take care that your goods (and their value) is covered when stored away from your home or business.
You can do this in two main ways:
1. Choose a secure storage facility
Choose a facility with CCTV, manned security, fire alarms and sprinklers (although this in itself is a hazard if you are storing paper items), and a fenced perimeter.
Remember, you may pay a higher premium for a secure facility, but that cost is often worth it to reduce the likelihood of your unit being broken into or a fire wiping out hundreds of units due to poor fire safety.
2. Make sure you have the right storage insurance
It’s crucial that you have the correct level insurance to cover the total value of the items that you have stored in your unit. That includes the value of your stock, plus any other items you have stored there – such as equipment and furniture.
For many small businesses, the loss of all seasonal stock due to a storage unit fire or flooding could leave irreparable financial damage, so self-storage insurance at least covers the replacement value of those items.
FAQs
What is self-storage?
Self-storage units are rented to business owners and individuals to store their goods remotely, either on a short-term or long-term basis. In many cases, self-storage is considered one of the more secure ways to store belongings, both for individuals and for businesses.
If you currently rent out a storage unit for the bulk of your business, renting out a self-storage unit to account for the extra stock you need throughout the seasonal period can be a secure and affordable solution to storing this stock without having to pay additional fees for a large unit for the entire year.
What is storage insurance?
Storage insurance will cover the items you are storing from unexpected damage or loss, due to incidents such as natural disasters (flooding, earthquakes etc), leaking water, vandalism or theft, falling trees, and a number of other events.
Your policy will either replace or reimburse you for the value of those items (at the discretion of your insurance provider), something that can be extremely valuable to business owners who rely on the safety of their stock in order to make a living.
Get more information on what’s covered with storage insurance, or go straight to getting a quote today.