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Where to store your marquees

When we ran a marquee hire business my dream was always to have a large yard with everything loaded by forklifts. It strikes me as the most efficient way of running the business and we were probably a year or two away from accomplishing it when I had to ‘retire hurt’.

So is this what you should aim for in the long term? Well now I’m not so convinced – if you save up for a commercial property the costs don’t stop there, you have to pay council tax at 40% of the estimated rental income. To give you some idea if you’re paying £15k rent for a commercial unit you then need to find another £6k for council tax (even if you actually own the unit and don’t rent you still have to pay council tax).

So what’s the solution? Well it depends on where you are on the size scale for a marquee hire business.

If you’re just starting out or you’ve only got a handful of marquees then I’d always recommend using your garage, shed or a trailer for storage. Make sure you don’t upset your neighbours so they don’t compain about you running a business from home.

If you’ve outgrown your garage/shed then you need to find somewhere else to store your equipment. If you’re offering furniture and dance floors it won’t take long before you need to find more storage.

My advice is to approach local farms and see if you can rent one of their buildings. Rent is generally cheap, they probably won’t have planning permission for commercial use so again you want to keep a low profile but it does mean you won’t have to pay council tax. Make sure you use your own padlocks -barns will never be as secure as commercial property or even your garage.

Thanks for reading

Spencer