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Top reasons to invest in portable storage units - Movers Development

Top reasons to invest in portable storage units

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As a business owner, you should always be looking for new ways to grow your company. This could mean expanding your capacity in the areas where you’re already providing services. Or it could mean investing in something new. If you’re in the moving and storage business, that something new could be portable storage. There are numerous reasons why you should invest in portable storage units. Not only is offering convenient and accessible storage one of the growing moving industry trends, but it is also potentially a very high return-on-investment project. So, let us consider all the ways this investment could pay off for you

Invest in portable storage units because they are in high demand

Nobody has ever complained about having too much space. Even the people who live in big houses could always do with some extra room. This makes storage of any kind a relatively safe investment at any time. But portable storage comes with a huge additional benefit – it’s exceptionally convenient. Namely, instead of the customer having to go to and from a storage unit, the storage container comes to them.

Storage containers at a dock.
Portable storage is convenient for customers who don’t want to spend time traveling to and from a facility.

This is an especially good selling point now due to the COVID-19 pandemic when most of us are trying to stay away from public spaces as much as possible. So if you decide to branch out into the portable storage business right now, you’ll almost definitely see more leads from your online moving quote calculator. And since buying and maintaining portable storage units isn’t too expensive, you can expect to make a profit from them pretty quickly.

Invest in portable storage units to reach more customers

If you’re wondering how to increase your customer base, then portable storage is exactly what you’ve been looking for. Its portability, versatility, and flexibility will open up new markets for your business. You’ll be able to expand your reach in terms of both the geographical area you cover and the demographic of your clients.

Cover a wider geographical area

Traditional storage facilities are typically used by people in the same neighborhood. After all, nobody looks for a storage unit they have to drive a few hours to reach. Unfortunately, this limits your pool of potential customers. Even in densely populated cities, there are only so many people in a single neighborhood. You may be able to entice a few people from further away with good prices and additional services. But those numbers will be negligible.

Moving truck driving down a road.
If you invest in portable storage units, you’ll be able to reach a wider geographic area.

With portable storage, distance becomes less of a problem. You will, of course, charge for delivery and pickup. Those charges will grow with the distance you cross to reach the customer. So it’s not like you’ll be able to provide your services cross-country. But you will certainly be able to reach a much wider area. And because people won’t have to come to you, they’ll be more likely to use your services even if they live a bit further away. Instead of a single neighborhood, you’ll now be servicing the entire area.

Target a different demographic

Almost everyone could benefit from renting storage. But some demographics are more likely to do so than others. With traditional storage, your clients are most likely to be families, retirees, and businesses. However, portable storage will interest a different type of person:

  • a college student who needs to move frequently but without a lot of things
  • people who only need storage for a short amount of time, while moving or decluttering
  • families who are renovating their homes
  • people who are willing to pay for the convenience of having storage delivered to them

So you’ll have new markets to explore! Make sure you adjust your moving company’s digital marketing to target a broader audience and you’ll quickly attract a more diverse customer base.

Invest in portable storage units because they’re a scalable business

Starting a new business avenue is always a major expense. Sometimes, that pays off. Other times, you realize the business you’re in is not for you. So it’s best to start small and then grow your business from there. Portable storage makes this easy.

Start small – test the waters

A woman considering if she should invest in portable storage units.
With portable storage, your initial investment doesn’t have to be so big that it gives you a headache.

In order to get into portable storage, all you need are a couple of storage containers, a facility to keep them in, and a delivery method. If you’re in the moving business and just branching out, you probably already have access to at least a truck and a warehouse. But even if you’re starting a whole new business, the investment won’t be more than you can handle. You can start by only doing portable storage as a side gig for extra cash. It’s a great way to see whether it’s something you’re really interested in and something that is a good endeavor for you before going all in.

Grow your business at your own pace

If you find that portable storage is something worth pursuing, you can easily scale up by getting more containers. By the time you reach 12-15 containers, you’ll have a serious business on your hands. And if you ever find that overwhelming, scaling down is just as easy. Simply take some of the containers out of your offer. You can put them back to use when you’re ready for a larger venture again. It really is just that easy to scale up or down with portable storage. This makes it a very flexible business model that you can tailor to market trends in the industry and your own capabilities.

Getting started in the portable storage business

If you decide to invest in portable storage units, you have a couple of options. You can buy a franchise from an existing business. This gives you a headstart and brand recognition. However, it comes with additional franchise fees. You could start from scratch instead. The benefits here are that you will be in control of the entire venture. But you’ll also have to figure everything out yourself and build your own brand. Finally, you can add to an existing self-storage offer you have. It’s a natural development and it’ll expand your existing business so you don’t have to worry about starting from scratch.