Should You Work From Home as a Small Ecommerce Business? [Infographic]
10
2015
If you have just set up a small online ecommerce business it may be tempting to keep a store of your stock around the house and set up an office space in your home. Advantages of working from home include fewer overhead costs and a greater flexibility in working time. However, this flexibility of working hours can put a strain on you, creating a list of subtle problems that will affect both your working and social life.
If you own an ecommerce website (or run a store on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, etc) and can’t afford to hire a genuine office/warehouse setup it may be worth your time to consider working from a self storage office. Many of these self storage facilities offer storage and a flexible pricing structure with a small office space included, this is perfect if you only have a small amount of stock.
Like anything with business, it’s worth weighing up the merits of this to see if it suits your business model. An infographic from My Storage Pod looks at some of the pros and cons:
Infographic by My Storage Pod – The Ecommerce Entrepreneur’s Choice: Work from home or a self storage office? |
Arguably the most important points to take from this infographic revolve around your routine and free time. It may seem more flexible to work from home at first but the lack of structure to a working day can leave you feeling as if you never finish work. If you can’t literally shut the door behind you when you finish work you may find yourself picking up some work you left behind at an unusually late time of the day. Enjoying your leisure time in the same space as your work time can be stressful, for example you could be on constant edge during free time incase the phone rings for a work related issue. If you couple these problems along with the problems of isolation and distractions you may find that working from home is putting too much strain on your working and social life as well as your mental health.
If you find you are experiencing these problems then a self storage / office setup may be able to help you. A lack of routine and order will be restored to your working life and the cost of utilities, security and insurance will be more tailored to the needs of a business rather than a homeowner. Working from a self storage facility is a growing trend, for example in 2013 in the UK there was a 3% increase of businesses using self storage facilities to run their business from.
Ecommerce is increasingly competitive, and any advantage your business could gain can lead to growth and meeting your objectives quicker. Flexible warehousing is just one way to do it, but it might be the right way for you.