For small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs the overhead of renting, staffing and managing a warehouse can be simply too high. This creates a potential problem for the business as it limits growth potential and can even make it difficult to handle orders and deliveries.
By choosing to use an established warehousing facility in Birmingham, AL, you will find you can reduce the amount of time your business spends on everything from receiving and delivery to inventory tracking and management.
Of course, there are different factors to consider when choosing a warehouse facility. Some businesses may require specialized types of storage for fragile items or they may require specialized handling of the merchandise or materials, both within the facility as well as during transportation.
Consider Your Needs
Rather than starting by just trying to cover your basic warehousing needs, start by making a list of all the functions and features that would be beneficial to your Birmingham, AL business. This will be different based on your business model, your inventory or merchandise and if you are located in the city or shipping into the facility as a distribution hub type of model.
Some will be standard such as 24-hour security and monitoring of the facility, fire suppression systems in place and secure, private storage vaults or rooms. However, you may also need to have a service that provides client access, bar-coded inventory control, manages JIT (Just In Time) deliveries or even complete project management tasks for your business.
By considering the possibilities rather than just the basics, you will be able to find a warehouse that can add value to the services you provide. This may be in expanding your delivery fleet and options or it may be in allowing you to dramatically increase your inventory and sales possibilities.
