/ By Warehouses Plus / Storage Blog/ / 0 Comments

3 Reasons to Store Your Summer Business Tools Away for Winter

Seasonal businesses need seasonal tools. But if you own your own assets, you need a plan. Renting works well enough for specialty tools that you only need once in a blue moon, but, after a while, it becomes more economical to hold onto universal equipment. Whether you have a landscaping business, a photography studio, or a carpentry company, renting space to stow away those seasonal tools is a good investment. Here’s why:

3 Reasons to Store Your Summer Business Tools Away for Winter

1. Winter weather can damage your equipment.

Even if your business uses tools that are built to last in the outdoors, leaving them outside through the winter wears them out faster. They can start to rust or be corroded by road salt. Strong winds can also damage them or knock them together. If you don’t have plenty of space to store them safely inside, temporarily rent a location that can hold them for you.

2. Limit your liability.

Damage is expensive. If you have to replace or repair your business equipment because it’s been broken, stolen, or lost, those costs add up. Even qualified costs can raise your commercial insurance premiums.

But a seasonal storage warehouse keeps them secured against both weather and would-be criminals. If your seasonal equipment needs a more fine-tuned environment, look for warehouses with climate control options.

3. Save your work space for current work tools.

Clutter isn’t just bad for business. Visible untidiness can raise your stress level and lower your production. Instead of trying to stow seasonal tools out of sight, take them off-site entirely. Give your office or your work space the room you need to handle your current jobs instead of using the space for storage, too.

If you have seasonal equipment and you don’t want it cluttering up your office or your garage, go to Warehouses Plus. We have the extra space you need.

/ By Warehouses Plus / Storage Blog/ / 0 Comments

5 Tips for Constantly Improving Your Warehouse

When it comes to improving your warehouse storage solutions you might begin with the management side of things.  Managing your warehouse is a process that can always be improved. Constantly bettering your warehouse management system will ensure that the sales keep coming in on a regular basis and are fulfilled properly. Here are a few warehousing tips that you can use right now.

5 Tips for Constantly Improving Your Warehouse

Ask for Feedback

Have you considered asking your warehouse employees for feedback? After all, they are the ones stocking and filling orders from morning to night, day in and day out. They will have a wealth of information on how the process can be improved and made smoother and more efficient.

Vendor Relationships

Part of a good warehouse management strategy is maintaining good relationships with your vendors. Keeping up a good relationship with them will make it more likely for them to help you out if you are in a pinch.

Good Vendors

Of course, it is also important to choose your vendors wisely. Making sure that you order from the right vendors will ensure that your shipments come on time, in the amount that you specified, and are of good quality.

Cycle Count

Unlike a physical count, which encompasses your entire warehouse and shuts down your operations, cycle counting involves counting a small subset of your inventory, such as a specific product or category. You should cycle count on a regular basis, going through important stocks throughout the year. This will help you pinpoint problems that are recurring throughout your warehouse and fix them.

Have an Emergency Plan

It’s important to always have a contingency plan in case something goes wrong. Know what you are going to do if a product goes out of stock, does not get or can not be delivered by the supplier, or gets damaged. Having a backup source or a plan for refunding customers or upgrading them to a more expensive product for free will go a long way to keeping your customers happy.

For more warehousing tips, contact us.

/ By Warehouses Plus / Storage Blog/ / 0 Comments

3 Reasons to Rent a Small Warehouse for the Holidays

The holiday season always brings more business, especially if you sell gifts or holiday and EOY services. Here’s how a small warehouse can help with the rush.

3 Reasons to Rent a Small Warehouse for the Holidays

1. Faster shipping wins the sale.

There are a lot of small details that have a big impact on shoppers decisions, especially with the holidays just around the corner. One of the biggest make or break factors is the shipping.

Customers are after free shipping, so try to work it into the total deal either as a special or as a gift if they buy over a minimum threshold. Customers also care about the deadline: if you can offer two-day or one-day delivery, you can beat out cheaper suppliers.

2. Decrease delays and order turnaround.

But faster internal processes don’t just benefit your customers. They benefit your company. If you want to make sure you’re squeezing as much profit out of your work hours as possible, that means you need space to set up assembly lines and keep your inventory organized. Working in a squashed space automatically causes delays, especially if you have to arrange things to match the space instead of best practices.

So rent a small warehouse that gives you enough breathing room and also lets you organize your products based on paired items and frequent purchases. More space also means you can order more inventory at once. That means you don’t have to wait for deliveries yourself.

3. Test out your 2019 expansion.

If your business is booming, it’s time to get bigger. The fourth quarter is a great time to add some new processes that improve your workflow without a lot of organizational planning hours. Test a small warehouse now to see if it will help you in 2019. When New Year’s Eve rolls around, you’ll be glad for either the head start on your goals or a forewarning that you need different ones.

Go to Warehouses Plus to find small warehouse options that match your schedule and your holiday business.

/ By Warehouses Plus / Storage Blog/ 0 Comments

5 Tips to Help You Keep On Top of Your Inventory Stock

Do you feel like you can’t stay on top of inventory stock in your warehouse? Managing a warehouse can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to improve that.

5 Tips to Help You Keep On Top of Your Inventory Stock

Use Labels

Always use labels on all of your products. This will help ensure that you can easily take stock of each product’s quantity and that each product gets stocked on the right shelf. Even better, use barcodes that can be scanned for electronic processing.

Identify Workers

Make sure all workers wear a tag or a t-shirt that identifies them. Otherwise, you will never be able to know who is who when you go down to inspect your warehouse. This will help you stop random people, such as delivery men, from wandering around your warehouse as well.

Inspect Shipments

A common mistake is to forget to inspect shipments properly. Losing track of products happens often when receiving shipments. When you receive a shipment, make sure that you are getting the right amount, that you are getting the right product, that the shipment is not damaged and is of good quality, and that there is an efficient process for storing and stocking the shipment.

Prioritize

Not all of your stock will be created equal. In order to be more organized, stock your products based on their priority. Products that get more sales should be closer and easier to access than products that aren’t that important to your bottom line. Similarly, seasonal products shouldn’t be at the forefront year round.

Use Vertical Space

If you have limited horizontal space in your warehouse, maximize your vertical space. Use shelves to stock products, while using your priority system to stock more important products lower down. Have easy-to-use ladders that allow workers to stock, and later access, products.

For more tips, contact us.

/ By Warehouses Plus / Storage Blog/ / 0 Comments

5 Inventory Management Tips For a Smoother Workflow

Keeping a good inventory workflow is essential if you want to avoid hiccups and out-of-stock problems. A smooth inventory workflow will help you keep your buyers satisfied so that they become repeat customers. Here are five great inventory management tips.

5 Inventory Management Tips For a Smoother Workflow

Forecast

Always try to forecast your future sales. Of course, this is difficult and you will not always be entirely accurate. However, if you factor in things such as seasonal demand and fashion trends, it will at least be better than just guessing it. There are also programs that will analyze past sales for you and use that data to predict future sales, but take them with a grain of salt.

Have a Minimum Quantity

Always have a minimum quantity for each product stock that you store. This will help ensure that you don’t lose sales and revenue due to products being out of stock. Again, you’ll need to make some estimates based on past demand and predicted future demand. Adjust your minimum quantity as necessary.

Have a Maximum Quantity

Similarly, you should have a maximum stock quantity. This will help ensure that you do not overstock a product, which can lead to significant losses. It’s especially important to have a maximum quantity if your product has an expiration date. Both your minimum and maximum quantity can change based on seasonal demand.

Keep Products Fresh

In order to keep products fresh, have a system where products get shipped out based on the order you received them (first in, first out). This way, your products won’t stay on the shelves for too long.

Use a WMS

Consider using a Warehouse Management System to process your shipments and orders. This is the best and easiest way to keep your inventory flow smooth.

Need help with storing your inventory? Contact us today for more information.

/ By Warehouses Plus / Storage Blog/ / 0 Comments

3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Renting a Warehouse

If you’ve never rented a warehouse before, you may not know what size warehouse to get. So before you decide on how much space is needed, you should consider what you’ll be using the warehouse for. Different businesses have different types of products. Plus, you may also be interested in storing office furniture paper, files etc. So make a list of everything you’ll need to store before deciding on how much space you need. Here are a few things to consider:

3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Renting a Warehouse

  1. What Kind of Product Do You Make? Different types of products require different amounts of space. There are things which are light but take up a lot of space. On the other hand, there are products which are heavy but don’t require that much space. So consider what type of product you’re making before renting a warehouse. Consider the dimensions of the product and the quantity that you’ll be storing to get an idea of how many cubic feet you require.
  2. Will You Be Storing Office Furniture, Supplies and Files? Take an inventory of these items before you get a warehouse. You might also want to consider whether it’s really necessary to keep all these things. Old paper files can be digitized instead of putting them in storage. Old furniture may not be worth hanging on to and you can just go ahead and get rid of it instead of putting it in a warehouse.
  3. Will You Have Staff Members Working Out of the Warehouse? If you’re renting a warehouse to run an e-business, you’re also going to need some space for your staff members who will be working in the warehouse. How many staff members are you going to have? Do you need a desk and chair for each one? Make sure that the warehouse you get has enough space to fit these staff members before you go ahead and rent it.

Contact us for more information on what you should consider before renting a warehouse.

/ By Warehouses Plus / Storage Blog/ / 0 Comments

Warehousing Provides Opportunities for Business Growth

If you are like most small businesses, your commercial retail or office rental space is expensive. This makes it difficult to keep inventory on hand or have back up materials stored at your onsite facility. As a small company looking to for business growth, it also makes it difficult to take on new stock or expand your inventory. Here are three reasons why renting space at Warehouse Plus will save you money over time as you grow your business.

Warehousing Provides Opportunities for Business Growth

Buy in Bulk. If you are like most businesses, buying in bulk saves you money and time. By ordering large shipments and storing them, you are most likely saving on the price per unit as well as any shipping charges incurred. You can have your items delivered directly to us at Warehouse Plus. We allow you access 24/7 making it easy to pick up your items at any time that is convenient for you.

Growth Opportunity. If you are a small business looking to expand but you aren’t ready to make the leap into a long-term lease, we have you covered. Rent warehouse space by the month and move to a larger unit as your business expands. No costly long-term rental agreements, only rent what you need.

Manage Your Growth. Running a small business is not like running a business with large amounts of deliveries and shipments. We can help you manage your inventory by becoming your distribution partner both locally and long distance. From making local deliveries in the DFW area to offloading shipping containers, we have you covered.

If you are a small business looking to make the leap, contact us. We can help manage your inventory and provide distribution services. Don’t let the high rent on your retail or office space hinder your business growth, let Warehouse Plus help you grow into the business you were meant to be.

/ By Warehouses Plus / Storage Blog/ / 0 Comments

The Warehouse Rental Solution for Selling Products

When your business uses commercial warehouse space, you can help people get the supplies and other products they need with greater efficiency. Use your warehouse to store your inventory and prepare shipments so your customers can get their goods delivered directly to their homes.

The Warehouse Rental Solution for Selling Products

Warehousing Products

While it may seem easier to sell a product from a storefront, there can be advantages to having a warehouse rental. Having an advantage over large retailers that have more overhead means you can keep your cost down and potentially pass that on to the customer.

Using Warehouse Rental

While warehouse and distribution services can be a challenge for many small companies, we make it easier for you to run your business and make a profit. You are charged only for the amount of square footage you use or the number of pallets you keep on hand each month. Our individualized inventory system will help you maintain the right balance of stock at all times, and provide valuable data that you can use to analyze customer demand. We even offer month to month contracts with no additional fee requirements so you’ll have the flexibility to adapt your warehouse space to your current needs however much you grow or experience seasonal fluctuations.

Whatever you sell or make, if you’re looking to rent a warehouse for your small business, contact us at Warehouses Plus. We offer customized warehouse solutions, and some of the lowest monthly rates in the DFW area.

/ By Warehouses Plus / Storage Blog/ / 0 Comments

3 Scenarios in Which You’ll Need Commercial Storage

As a business owner, there are a number of things you have to do. You need to supervise every function of your business—from production and distribution to accounting and payroll. And it’s necessary to make sure that all these things get done in time. If a seasonal product arrives too late on the market, nobody is going to buy it. And if employees get paid late, they’re going to be unhappy. So there’s a lot of things that need to be done efficiently. Fortunately, there’s one thing that you don’t need to worry about too much: commercial storage.

3 Scenarios in Which You’ll Need Commercial Storage

Storage Before the Product Launch

Most businesses are going to need commercial storage at one time or the other, mostly to store products. It’s very rare for products to go directly from the production stage to retail stores. In general, businesses try to make sure that their products are ready in advance. This means that production will probably be finished a few months before the product is launched in the market. So what do you do with the product in the meantime? The answer is commercial storage.

Storage After the Product Launch

Another thing that often happens is that businesses produce more of the product at one go and then send them to retail stores in stages. Most retail stores don’t have the space needed to stock too much of the product. So they’ll take a few pieces at first, then send for more when they run out. This process gets simplified when the product is being stored in a warehouse.

Year-Round Storage for E-Businesses

Another scenario in which commercial storage is needed is when you run an e-business. This means that you only sell your products online and not through retail stores. In this case, you would produce everything in advance and store it in commercial storage. And you’d have staff members working at the warehouse to send out the product as and when orders are received. In this case, commercial storage is really just like an office space and your entire operation depends on it.

These are the three scenarios in which commercial storage would be useful to your business. Contact us for more information.

/ By Warehouses Plus / Storage Blog/ 0 Comments

3 Things to Consider When You Get a Small Warehouse for Rent

There are many reasons why you might want a small warehouse for rent. Maybe you’re moving offices and you need somewhere to store your office furniture for some time. Or maybe you sell seasonal products like wool coats or swimsuits which people only buy during certain times of the year. In that case, you might need a small warehouse to store your surplus until the same time next year. Or maybe your offices have become overcrowded with files from the last ten years. A small warehouse would be the perfect place to keep these files until they’re needed. Here are some things to consider when you get a small warehouse for rent:

3 Things to Consider When You Get a Small Warehouse for Rent

  1. Location: How often are you going to need the things you store at your warehouse? If you don’t need access to these things for an indefinite period, then location doesn’t really matter. For example, if you have files from the last ten years which you hardly ever need to access, then you can store them at a faraway location. But if you’re storing products which you’ll need to mail out as and when orders come in, then it’s probably better if your warehouse is located somewhere close by.
  2. Temperature Control: When you put things in storage, temperature control is important. For example, if you’re storing clothes or paper items, then the warehouse shouldn’t become too hot and humid or these items might get damaged. So make sure that the conditions in the warehouse are optimal for the things you’re trying to store. If you go with a reputable warehouse rental company, you should not have any temperature control issues. You can rest easy knowing that your excess inventory is in a safe place.
  3. Space: How much space do you really need when you get a warehouse? Most people overestimate the amount of space needed. Remember when you packed up your entire apartment and put everything into a large U-Haul only to find there was a lot of space remaining? It’s the same kind of situation. The best thing is to make an inventory of everything you have and figure out what things can be stacked. You can also consult your warehouse rental company and get their input on how much space is needed.

Contact us for more great tips on getting a small warehouse for rent.