Getting Ready to Move out of my Warehouse

Welcome back! Today is staging day for the move from my commercial warehouse space to the new barn. 

As I get ready for this move, I figured I would talk about the backstory of renting this warehouse, and what having a rented commercial space is like. So I got this warehouse space August 1, 2020. Before that, I had been looking for a commercial space to buy or rent. At my old house, I was cramped for space, and that was the biggest hindrance to the growth of my business. I had been looking for space to grow the business for awhile, but I held off on renting any spaces because we had been looking to move for awhile as well. But eventually, it got to the point where I had to get more space because I had launched my workbench and chair kits. I had shipped a few workbench kits from the house, which was a huge pain, so I knew I needed more space. 

The space I found is in Minneapolis, about 20 minutes from our old house. The space is sort of a shared space, because it is the excess space of a business. When I originally rented the space, they had almost the whole warehouse available, and I could name how much space I wanted. I took 2,400 square feet, and at the time, they were willing to let me have more space if I needed it in the future. As time went by, their business exploded, and they needed more space for their business. So when my two year lease was 6 months away from expiring, they told me they wouldn’t be renewing the lease because they needed the space. 

So from February to June of this year, I was looking for new commercial spaces that I could rent to replace this warehouse space. By the end of June, I had had no luck, and I had two options. 1. Shut down the businesses temporarily or 2. Put a building on our property that I could use for the businesses. You know what option we went with, and now there’s a barn on our property. 

I figured I’d run through some of the pros and cons of having a commercial space. The pros of having a commercial space are having more freedom with what you can do and a lot more growth potential for a business. You can add employees, add more space, and move to a larger space if you need to. Another advantage is that commercial spaces often have loading docks, which makes large shipments easier. Some of the cons of a commercial space: operating costs may be higher, you need to deal with commercial insurance, you have to commute to that space. 

So of course, the other option is to have a building on your property, which comes with its own pros and cons. Some pros: your outlay of initial capital is probably going to be cheaper because you won’t have to build to commercial standards, and you have no commute to go to work. Some cons: the outlay of capital for the building is a sunk cost, you may not be able to hire employees based on the zoning that your house is in, and you may have more people coming to your property (employees, deliveries, customers, etc). Another con is the inaccessibility of trucks, at least in my case. And last con, there’s no separation between work and personal life, potentially.  

So, now let’s do some prepping for the move! I have all of the smaller stuff on that shelf to the right, and that’s going to go into Donavan’s job box. We’re going to get a load of lumber out of here, and we will do some staging for the move. The biggest things we will have to move are the slab flattener and the giant bandsaw, but we are going to worry about those on actual moving day.

We made a little bit of a dent today. The first load for the move will be the slab flattener, as well as anything we can fit under, around, or above it. But for now, time to unload what we brought on our first trip. 

So here is the first load of stuff. A lot more still to come. Two box truck loads for sure, as well as some loads in the truck and trailer.

But that’s it for this one. Thank you as always for joining, I greatly appreciate it. If you have any questions or comments on the move, the warehouse, or anything else, please feel free to leave me a comment. As always, I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have. And, until next time, happy woodworking.