As your business grows, many changes need to be made in order to accommodate the new developments and ensure processes continue to run smoothly. While a growing business sees changes in many different spheres of significance, such as financially and operationally, so it sees changes even in areas one may consider ‘minor’. One ‘minor’, yet incredibly important area is that of storage. As the business grows; acquires new clients, contracts and expands in various ways, so does the need to store important documentation, information and more inventory. Sometimes it can get a little overwhelming, especially for a business who has not yet considered their next plan of action in terms of safe storage. The last thing you want is to be drowning in papers, or worse – losing confidential documentation. To avoid this costly dilemma, it’s vital that your growing business considers various storage options – and luckily, we have listed the tried and tested, easiest ways of keeping things in order around your office, while making safety a priority.
Organise your stock room
Not only are messy, disorganized stock rooms a frustrating place to be, but it is certainly a recipe for disaster. The best way to re-organize your stock room in a way that works for you, is by creating a process. Things should be marked neatly – perhaps also in alphabetical order, and colour coded so that documents can be easily found. Boxes or crates should also be stored in an organized way so that clutter is avoided. Storing on shelves is a great way to keep things in order too. As a growing business you may find the need to even invest in a forklift, as the need for storage increases and the shelving becomes higher. Luckily there are great sites with forklifts for sale. Another helpful tip is keeping your most recent inventory and documents closest to the front, with the older stock/documentation archived in the back – or higher on the shelves. You may just need to refer to the recent inventory or documentation, and it will make it a whole lot easier if it can be located quickly.
In terms of storage of inventory, it’s worth considering sales or even donating old stock so that they can be moved out, which of course creates more space.
Use less paper
Using less paper should be one of the first considerations you make. Not only is it better for the environment, but it’s also more affordable, and it solves many a storage problem! Storing documentation on the cloud, or on safe files on the PC is a way of reducing your paper usage. The cloud is the best way of storing, as it also takes up less space on the PC and you’ll be able to access the documents from anywhere – so long as you have a device with an internet connection, of course. Another option is to take advantage of a POS system that can help manage inventory itself. This way you aren’t looking at data after the day is through, your point of sale system is keeping track as items are scanned through the registers.nt!
Consider cloud storage
In basic terms, cloud storage is the process of storing data online – or in ‘tech-y’ terms ‘in the cloud’. It’s one of the safest ways to store and protect your data/important information as it can be backed up and retrieved even if files are deleted accidentally. It can also be accessed from wherever you are, provided you are granted access to the files and are using an internet-connected device. These are just two great advantages of cloud storage, but there are plenty – including the advantages pertaining to storage. Cloud storage certainly saves plenty of space in your office and is probably a lot safer than keeping fly-away papers which could get lost or in more serious cases, stolen or even burnt in a fire.
Use the old-fashioned storage methods – Storage Cabinets
There’s nothing wrong with using old fashioned storage methods if need be. If you prefer to keep documents in hard copy form, then storage cabinets are a great way of keeping them safe and orderly. We’d recommend you invest in cabinets that are able to lock, and which are easy to place around the office. Cabinets are a great solution for the documents that are not yet old enough to be archived, and which may be needed in the near future. Here again, it’s important that you make use of labelling and colour coding, to keep things neat and easily accessible.
Storage needn’t be a challenging operation. The best way to tackle it is to identify what your business needs are and select the best solutions that fit with your current processes.
