Space is vital when growing a small business – too little room can suffocate growth, while too much space can put major financial pressures on a young business. Keeping overheads down, while maintaining the flexibility to expand your company is paramount, but what are the options and how do we put them into practise?

Rent out unused office space

In the current economic climate, shared offices are becoming much more popular. To take advantage of the ‘rent a desk’ movement, look at unused or poorly used space in your business premises and remove the extra furniture, re-structure, and lease out the space to a small company or freelancer to keep your overheads down (this is an especially good solution if your business goes through a short-term downsize).

Use your storage as a distribution hub

Small businesses need to rethink storage: it’s not just a place for keeping stock or equipment, it can also be a place to work in too. A lock up or a storage unit can be used as a distribution hub to package up goods for delivery and  locating a storage room near a post office can speed up delivery times.

Go up into the Cloud

Using cloud storage is a great way to save physical space and save money, but there are two major considerations, support and security. Free suites like Google (which offer free document uploads) might seem like the most cost effective solution, but support might not be provided if your documents are lost or corrupted –  always check before committing.

Be clever with your space  

If you want your own storage space, and a warehouse is too big or expensive, self storage might be the answer. The greatest draw is flexibility. Hire two self storage rooms (one for seasonal products and one for big sellers) and shut down the seasonal room as soon as the product sells. If there’s a good offer on a new product, a business can quickly open a large room and then scale down to a smaller sized one as stock is turned around.

About The Guest Author: Drew Davies writes on behalf of Big Yellow Self Storage.