Self storage offices

If you are running a small company and looking for office space, give self storage some thought. Safestore, Access, Big Yellow and others have spotted a gap in the market, and are filling it with a formula that many small businesses find perfect for their needs.

Real advantages in self storage office space

There was a time, not long ago, when running an office from a self storage facility meant hiding yourself away in an unheated, windowless unit, and going outside every time you wanted to make a call on your mobile phone.

These days, purpose-built offices are being designed into new-build storage facilities. Light, modern and airy, they have all the advantages of new offices, with good lighting, heating, and telephone and internet connections, and even carpets on the floor.

Rental costs are highly competitive, especially given that all utilities (apart from the telephone) and business rates are often included in the price. Contracts may require as little as four weeks’ notice to quit, giving tenants more flexibility than the more usual long-term contracts for offices.

Other advantages may include:

• use of the self storage reception office for deliveries and photocopying;
• meeting rooms for hire by the hour;
• free car-parking;
• 24-hour security.

There may also be 24-hour access, which can be a huge bonus for start-up companies operated by people who still have a day job to maintain.

Then there’s the storage

And close at hand are the storage facilities, perhaps complete with trolleys and even forklift trucks.

Such facilities suit, above all, the kind of small business that needs storage to hold stock — wholesalers, for instance, or online shopping businesses.

Direct retail businesses cannot operate from such facilities, as self storage companies cannot allow constant toing and froing of random customers. But business tenants are allowed to receive visitors and clients for meetings and appointments, of course.

It is usually perfectly possible to expand and contract storage capacity, according to changing business needs. Self storage managers are happy to accommodate such fluctuations ­— a major advantage over most commercial office spaces.

So, for your new office, think self storage!

2 Responses to “Self storage offices”

1. The Storage.co.uk Award for Storage Facility Design | Storage.co.uk Blog says:

   October 28, 2010 at 5:52 pm

   […] Well, of course, this is an office block. This is one of a number of storage facilities that also have offices, where clients can both run a business and store their wares and stock – a happy symbiosis (see our blog entitled “Self Storage Offices”). […]

2. The Storage.co.uk Award for Thinking Outside the Box | Storage.co.uk Blog says:

   November 2, 2010 at 3:28 pm

   […] reported in our blog entitled “Self Storage Offices”, an increasing number of the larger self storage companies are including offices-for-rent in […]