Anyone know anything about warehousing and distribution?

**Southern_Lenders** · 04-16-2010 02:17 PM

Is it legal / or even reasonable to think I can run a mini-warehouse out of a spare bed room for one or two small businesses?..do small businesses even warehouse their goods?

How is shipping handled and who pays for it, given these examples?..

1. Joe runs an auto parts company but needs 2000sf (square feet) of extra storage, and calls me up ands says he needs to ship parts to my warehouse... who arranges for the shipment?, and do I pay for the shipment if I'm asking for his business?

2. When things are sold from the warehouse, who pays for the item to get delivered? The Customer I assume in most cases, but does the warehouse recieve the $ or does Joe?

3. Warehouses that distribute, do they contract the shipping out to other trucking companies or do they have their own inventory of trucks? Whats most common?

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Also how is the fee for holding Joe's auto parts determined?

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My grand parents have a two story ,6 bed room house..the top floor is almost always empty with a total of 3 bedrooms (one used to be mine, so I could most likely use that one at least).

I know nothing about this business tho. Seems like its easy money tho if 50% of my job is to just store peoples stuff.

Of course things are never as they seem.

**SmoothEntrepreneur** · 04-16-2010 02:25 PM

I have a feeling it would be legal, but this question would fare very well on Linkedin -- and you would get concrete and reliable responses

**StockDC2** · 04-17-2010 06:54 PM

It should be legal. My question for you though is what are you going to offer that people can't get from large storage companies that have already infiltrated this market? I sure wouldn't want to leave my valuable possessions in a stranger's home.

**Carlos™** · 04-17-2010 08:10 PM

Its legal, all you would need is zone clearance from the city that you're doing business. Zone clearance comes with your city business license. Well, it did for me. I'm doing business from home, but I had to pay extra for zone clearance.

**Terry Justice** · 04-18-2010 07:45 AM

It should be legal, given the proper zone clearance as noted above. The only other prohibitive factor would be local covenants of a home owners association.

I have been in supply chain management for over 30 years. It is a complicated and ever changing business. To keep the conversation simple, lets suffice it to say, you are a shipping and storage broker.

There are two basic methods of managing the process. 1) The small business pays you a fixed monthly fee for a specifc amount of square footage. For that, you store the goods, and take them to the local UPS store to be shipped on their account number when requested. 2) They pay you a fixed fee for the storage, plus the cost of shipping and handling.

In both instances, you would bill them for the cost. I would probably recommend the space rental be secured 30 days in advance like a deposit. Each month thereafter they would receive a bill of the next months storage, and the current months shipping.

You could also offer to help them sell goods from your website, or run a website re-directing customers to their store site as an affiliate.

Where will you be located?

**Southern_Lenders** · 05-08-2010 02:29 AM

Here is an idea... what if I rented one or a few self-storage units?.. I'd have to pay monthly for it though of up to 86.00 for a 10x20 space.

**Terry Justice** · 05-08-2010 07:05 AM

Renting a storage space is certainly acceptable. The main issues to watch are:

Climate Control for the goods being stored
Theft and Loss

You will want to ensure you have a constant temperature in the storage facility.

You will also need to secure additional insurance to protect you in the event of loss due to fire, theft, etc...

**www.olytec.cn** · 05-08-2010 07:20 AM

we are laser safety glasses' factory in China, If you want to get laser safety glasses , maybe, we can help you.. Hope you other people can help yours. hehe

**Southern_Lenders** · 05-14-2010 02:04 AM

Yes, there are plenty of places here that offer climate control, but how would I even go about this?..ok so say I got the space, now what?... Who would I talk to? Who tends to have large inventories, but yet small enough for me to manage?, could I do this part-time?, lifting heavy boxes would be very hard, back breaking work rather quickly, I'd need a way to use fork lifts, and other possible equipment, and these storage spaces are small and tight when fully loaded...

Maybe this is a dead idea?