How businesses can use self storage during the summer rush

For many businesses, summer may be the busiest and most profitable time of year. 

Summer brings out the shoppers, and sales of things like clothing, garden equipment, sports gear and ice cream greatly increase. Food, tourism and leisure businesses usually experience greater numbers of visitors during the summer, with cafes, garden centres, hotels, event spaces (for weddings, in particular) booming with extra business.

As the saying goes, you need to make hay while the sun shines! To make the most of your summer upturn in business (and make up for any losses during the colder months), here are our tips on maximising your efficiency and profits.

1. What changes do you need to accommodate?

The nature of your business will determine what challenges you might face over a busy summer:

• Retailers will sell more stock and therefore need more inventory readily available. Storing that extra stock can be difficult if your storage space is limited - items can get damaged, squashed or difficult to access if there is too much of it in your storeroom.
• Businesses in the hospitality industry may need more resources like bed linen, crockery / cutlery, ingredients, decorations and so on to cater for larger numbers or higher customer turnover. Sports and leisure businesses may need access to more equipment than usual (e.g. more wetsuits or safety gear).
• Businesses offering landscaping and outdoor services like building and conservatory installation may need access to larger pieces of equipment and more tools than usual.

Having all that stuff in your place of work, or at home, can make everything feel cramped and disorganised.

2. Using self storage flexibly

A self storage unit is ideal for any business that has more stock, tools or equipment than it can comfortably accommodate in its own buildings. That’s because of how accessible the units are.

Our stores have extensive opening hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Many can allow 24-hour access if needed. This means that you can visit your unit several times a day, or daily, or weekly, or however often you need to top-up the supplies you need.

You may want to keep an electronic or written inventory of what’s in your unit, and update it regularly to ensure you know when to top up your supplies. You can organise your self storage unit with shelves and labelled boxes to ensure that you can easily find and reach whatever you need. 

Our self storage units are indoors in units of various sizes, from 10 sq ft lockers to warehouse size rooms. If you rent a unit with us, only you will have access to it, and it will be completely secure, clean, dry and protected from the elements. Our stores are covered by CCTV, alarms and pest prevention measures. Meanwhile, your workplace can remain clutter free and tidy, presenting a good image to your customers and making it a more pleasant place to work for you and your staff. 

Another benefit to using our self storage units is that you can increase or decrease the size of your unit over time if you need. That way, you’ll never pay for more space than you need, and you’ll never need to worry about the contents of your unit being damaged by being crammed into a space that’s too small.

Examples of using self storage for your business over summer

Typically, businesses store excess stock (that they don’t need on a particular day but will need shortly), and tools and equipment that they don’t have room for or that may be at risk of theft overnight if left elsewhere.

For example:

• Retailers might store: excess inventory, out of season stock.
• Hospitality industries might store: decorations for forthcoming events, tables, chairs, platters / crockery / cutlery, any unseasonal products that won’t be used until autumn / winter.
• Restaurants & cafes might store: outdoor furniture (e.g. umbrellas, chairs and tables) if they have a street cafe licence but nowhere indoors to keep it overnight.
• Landscaping & outdoor services might store: lawnmowers, trimmers, power tools, decorative stone, bricks, mortar, cement. Please note that any fuel must be drained before storing equipment in our stores to protect all customers and their belongings.
• Leisure or sporting businesses might store: surfboards, paddleboards, oars, wetsuits, crash helmets, safety gear, camping equipment etc.

Your business can use self storage over summer to stash anything you won’t be using again until later in the year, or things you need to access during summer but don’t have space for anywhere else. 

3. How to rent a self storage unit for your business

You’ll need to work out how much space you want to start with. Our friendly team can offer tailored advice based on what you plan to store, or you can have a look at our self storage size calculator. Remember that if your needs change, you can move into a larger or smaller unit later. 

Find a store location that suits your business - depending on how you work, that might be near to your office / place of business, your home or your customer base. We have units all over Great Britain so you have plenty of options to choose from.

If you think you’ll need extended hours, check whether your chosen store can offer that, or chat with one of our team to find one nearby that can.

Then use labels and a system that works for you when loading up your unit. Make sure you leave space to move freely around your unit so that you can find everything quickly and easily - the point of using self storage is to make it quick and easy for you to grab what you need quickly and easily. Using shelving will help you make the most of the vertical space in your unit.

4. Self storage is an affordable storage option

If you need more space for your business stock, tools or equipment over summer, renting a self storage unit for a few weeks or months can be more affordable than committing to a long-term commercial lease on warehouse storage. 

We offer discounts for long-term storage (over 1 year) so if you decide that keeping a unit with us to swap your seasonal equipment and stock in and out all year round would be useful, please bear that in mind when booking.

Can we help?

If you’d like to know more about using self storage for your business over summer, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to give you all the information you need to make a decision. There will be no pressure or obligation to reserve a unit with us, and we’ll be here ready to help if you decide to go ahead.