The appeal of overseeing your own inventory and warehousing needs is largely obvious. You run your own warehouse, build your own pallet racking systems and take control of everything that matters. But at the same time, there are plenty of instances where doing so could actually be holding the business as whole back.

For most business owners, the idea of paying a third-party to do something that could be done in-house makes no sense at all. However, what comes across as an unnecessary expense often has the potential to yield benefits that far outweigh the costs. In fact, it can ever prove to be a more cost-effective solution.

So with this in mind, what follows is a brief overview of 10 reasons why it may, depending on your circumstances, be worth considering outsourcing your warehousing needs to a third-party service provider:

1. Focus More On Your Business

First of all, the immediate advantage that comes with outsourcing warehousing is the way in which it gives you so much more time to focus on your core business. When you think about it, every minute you spend focusing your attention on warehousing is a minute spent on a simple logistical consideration, as opposed to something of genuine value for your brand’s future. Outsourcing means freeing up your own time and that of your employees, in order to be redirected to more important matters affecting the performance of your business.

2. Elimination of Health and Safety Concerns

It’s not as if warehouses are inherently dangerous places, but they do nonetheless come with their own unique health and safety issues. As the owner of the business, it’s your responsibility to make sure that your warehouse is 100% safe to work in at all times, with liability for any accidents or injuries that may occur falling directly at your feet. By contrast, when you outsource warehousing you immediately eliminate all such health and safety concerns once and for all. After all, with no warehouse comes no such responsibility.

3. Premise Space Structure

Of course, it could also be that the size, shape or type of building your business is based in just isn’t convenient or even compatible with warehousing. If you simply don’t have the required room to set up an efficient pallet racking system, you might want to consider outsourcing to a facility that does. It’s extremely hard to run an efficient business from a cramped, cluttered and crowded environment – outsourcing could instantly free up an incredible amount of space.

4. Improved Operations

Unless you yourself are a dedicated warehousing and logistics expert with plenty of experience under your belt, it is extremely unlikely that you will be able to perform with the same kind of competence as a third-party specialist. As warehousing is all such service providers do on a 24/7 basis, it’s inevitable they’re going to be able to do a better job of it than you yourself. As such, if you’re looking to improve overall efficiency of your warehouse, one option on the cards could be to outsource.

5. Location Flexibility

Moving on, outsourcing to a third-party gives you the option of having your warehousing taken care of in a location that’s much more convenient, in accordance with where your goods are shipped For example, if you operate a business/warehouse located out in the countryside but most (or all) of your shipments are made to a specific city or town, it could save you a fortune in transportation costs to outsource to a more conveniently-located service provider. It’s always worth considering exactly how much it is costing you to get your goods to their final destination.

Stay tuned for the second half of our two-part outsourcing post, coming soon…