In the beginning, if you can’t afford warehouse space, your next best thing will be storing and selling out of a storage unit, or two, or three, or four, etc. At my peak, I had three 10’ x 30’ storage lockers, and a pretty good system at that. I kept all the ready-to-sell furniture in one, the ready-to-sell “smalls” in another, and the third I kept for processing. This set me back roughly $650 per month, but I was making enough keep going. Note: I always put my profits back into the business so that I could grow it. If your loan, savings account, or significant other’s salary is enough to support your bills, I suggest doing this.
So, using storage lockers as storage sounds great right? No, not entirely. First and foremost, although you can now have buyers come to you, you will still have the problem with Craigslist buyers who show up late, or don’t show up at all. But, you can keep working in the meantime. Another downfall is there may be no electricity, lighting, or Wi-Fi access in order for you to post new items online. Let’s just say my smartphone got a workout!
In addition to those problems, you are also limited by the hours of the storage facility. Fortunately for me, because I was an LLC, the storage manager let me access my storage unit’s 24x7, which was great.
If you do decide to go the storage unit route, I recommend:
• Sign up for the storage units with your business name! This gives you some leverage and the possibility of 24x7 access to your storage locker(s).
• If you are getting multiple lockers, try to get them as close together as possible. I had two, right next to each other, and a third that was a hike away, which wasn’t very convenient.
• Get a system going before you max out your storage. I suggest having one locker for processing and one locker for selling.
• Leave an aisle in all of your lockers so that you can get all the way to the back. You don’t want to block yourself from selling your inventory. Sales are the life-blood of your business.