One of the most important things you can do when starting a business is to maintain good record-keeping hygiene. Not only will this allow you to stay tax and legislation-compliant, but keeping records can also help you manage your finances and keep track of the performance of your business and its employees.
Keeping hard copies of these records and documents can also be a wise decision, as it can ensure that should anything go wrong with your tech, you’ll still have paper copies safe and sound.
As sensible an idea as this can be, these paper copies can build up over time. While this is nothing a decent filing cabinet couldn’t handle, as years pass and your company expands, you could find your office space groaning under the weight of your documents.
So what’s the alternative? Read on as we explore why self-storage could answer your developing document dilemma.
Why choose self-storage for your documents?
Let’s explore some of the most common reasons our customers choose to store their business documents with us:
Don’t hold onto anything you don’t need
First, one of the most beneficial reasons for document storage is out of sight, out of mind.
Valuable as they may be; chances are, you’re not rifling through pages and pages of financial administration and performance reviews, each and every day, or even every month.
Documents like this only tend to illustrate their value now and again, so there’s no benefit to having them in your immediate vicinity, particularly when your space (at home or in an office with multiple employees) could be put to better use.
A cluttered room often has a cluttered mind, and using self-storage can help increase productivity in the workplace and reduce trip hazards!
Potential hazards
Secondly, keeping your documents at home or in the office can pose potential threats, such as heat, humidity, water, and even fire damage.
While there are certain accidents that can’t be planned for, self-storage is often specifically designed to minimise risk to your possessions and is generally kept cool and dry to minimise damage, no matter the length of time they are stored.
However, elemental damage isn’t the only reason self-storage spaces offer a better alternative to office or home storage. Thanks to state-of-the-art intruder recognition technology, self-storage can help ensure a security level that most work premises can’t compete with.
Hopefully, you’re now convinced that self-storage is the ideal solution for your document storage needs.
Let’s look at the next steps, and what you should do before storing your documents.
How to manage your documents in self-storage
Before turning up at your self-storage provider of choice, there are a few things that are worth planning out before you arrive.
Transport to your self-storage location
When transporting documents, you’ll be surprised how heavy filing cabinets or boxes full of documents can be. Old cardboard boxes are especially prone to degradation through wear and tear over time, so they may be tricky to carry when transported to self-storage.
Chasing sensitive documents down a busy street or road as they flutter in the breeze sounds like every business owner’s worst nightmare, so it’s worth having a removal solution in place.
To this end, unless you have a short trip or a very enthusiastic and capable team of employees, professional removals are your best bet for safe and secure storage; some self-storage providers may even offer localised removal services.
Labelling your documents
Before you leave, one of the most crucial self-storage tips is to label and label well!
While storing documents just as they arrive at the premises might be tempting, taking a moment to mark each item with as much information as possible will save you a lot of time and headaches later.
We recommend labelling with the name of your business, the category, the year (and even month), and then alphabetically to ensure that retrieval is as simple as possible.
The best containers for self-storage
Cumbersome cabinets and flimsy cardboard boxes are out, and plastic containers are in. Durable, stackable and therefore better suited to self-storage life, clear plastic containers offer far better visibility. You can see what’s in a box at a glance, giving context that a label might not.
Order of storage
Finally, while labelling is a great start, it is also essential to ensure that your documents are accessible in a more literal, physical sense.
When entering your storage space, survey the dimensions; while it might seem sensible to begin layering from the back wall to the entrance, consider how this relates to the layout of your documents.
It may be more practical to structure your documents like the aisles of a library. You may even wish to create a floor plan for quick access upon repeat visits.
Aside from this, we recommend that you avoid stacking your documents too high. This will help you search for specific documents and ensure that certain boxes are easily accessible, reducing the likelihood of things falling and documents cascading.
Choosing the right self-storage unit for your business
Now that you’re fully prepared for storing your documents, it’s time to choose the self-storage location best suited for you.
Getting to know your provider and learning more about their processes is time well spent. Naturally, proximity to your workspace is a priority, but knowing that your belongings are in safe hands is also essential, as is finding a service at a reasonable price.
Services such as removals, document destruction, and general business storage may also help support the needs of your business, so it may be worth enquiring about these when chatting with a prospective provider.
If you’d like to know more about GTW’s document storage service and other business-forward offerings, get in touch via our website, where you can peruse our full suite of services.