Starting your own business is an exciting, rewarding, and occasionally terrifying journey. There are lots of advantages to starting your own business – more creative freedom, setting your own hours and rates, doing work you’re passionate about – but one of the disadvantages is that you could easily end up turning your home into a warehouse, which your loved ones or roommates might not appreciate! Here are some tips for how to start your own business without filling your whole house with stuff.
Think ahead – but not too much
When you are buying a piece of equipment you need for your business, it will pay (both financially and in terms of saving space) to think ahead about all the features you are likely to need. For example, you might only need a printer for, well, printing at the moment, but if you are reasonably sure that you might need a scanner or a photocopier in the future you’d be better off buying an all-in-one printer (see theverge.com for a guide on how to choose the right printer for you). However, don’t get carried away with your ‘what if’s, if you are a painter, for example, only buy the colors you need at that time, or you’ll end up with a craft store for a living room!
Consider external storage
If your business relies on large machinery which you only use occasionally, but which you can’t do without, it might be worth renting a storage unit and only taking the machines out when you need them. This solution also works well for spare materials and for other things you need to keep but don’t need on a daily basis, such as paperwork which you might be required to keep for a certain number of years for legal reasons. You can find affordable storage solutions on www.storagearea.com.
Consider co-working spaces
If your business can be run (at least some of the time) from a laptop and not much else, consider joining a co-working space. Co-working spaces are dedicated office spaces often with an open-plan model, which offer freelancers a place to work independently but in the company of other people as well as facilities such as printers, scanners and conference rooms. Many co-working spaces, such as www.bathaus.com in New York City, place great emphasis on creating a sense of community among their members, through initiatives such as a weekly Happy Hour event.
Ask yourself: “Do I really need this?”
With work purchases as well as personal ones, a simple way to keep clutter to a minimum is to ask yourself, every time you pick up an item to buy or add it to your virtual cart, “Do I really need this?”. If you often find yourself unsure of the answer, a second question to ask yourself, which might help you make up your mind, is “Do I really want to spend $20 (or whatever the amount is) right now?”. If you have already accumulated lots of stuff, the box-and-banish method is sure to help! Read all about it on www.goodliving.live.
