Setting Up Your Shipping Center

We spoke earlier about what was required to set up your office for business. You might call the area where you do all your online business your "front office." So let's take some time and talk about your back office. This is the area where you'll pack and ship your orders. You'll also need to set up a separate area near your shipping center for inventory storage.

Designating the Space

If selling merchandise is your business, the size of the items you sell will dictate the size of the inventory storage and shipping space you'll need. The smaller the items, the less space you will need, and vice versa. Whatever the size of the space, make sure it's dedicated to shipping only. That way you will always have a permanent shipping center set up and ready go.

Make sure your shipping center has enough space for a large flat table to pack your items, storage space for your packing supplies, and a staging area to temporarily store your packages that are ready to be picked up by your shipping company.

Where do you find such a space? Since you're operating your business from home, you'll have to find a space large enough in your house. Your garage is good place to start, and if you have a basement in your home, that's another fine place to set up your shipping center. Wherever you choose, the space must be large enough to accommodate your packaging activities and staging area.

Essential Supplies

Your shipping center needs space not only for packaging your orders, but to store your shipping supplies. You should have enough shipping supplies on hand for at least a week of orders. Here's a list of the basic shipping supplies you will need.

• Shipping labels

• Return address labels (your return address can be incorporated into your shipping label)

• Bubble wrap

• Styrofoam packing peanuts

• Scissors

• Box cutter

• Tape (Clear tape is recommended. That way you can use it to tape over the shipping label to make it somewhat waterproof.)

• Black magic marker

• Postal scale

• Forms, rate lists, and other shipping supplies provided by your shipping service

What about shipping boxes? There's some good news there. Most shipping companies such as FedEx will supply you with an assortment of different size boxes if you use their shipping service. But you should also carry larger boxes than they supply to accommodate any size order.

Web Resource: Where to Find Shipping Supplies

Check out these websites for shipping supplies:

• BubbleFAST at www.bubblefast.com

• eSupplyStore at www.esupplystore.com

Managing Your Inventory

If you're setting up a small home business, you will be faced with the challenge of finding a place to store your inventory. If your items are small, you shouldn't have any problem finding space. But if the products you sell are bigger than a breadbox, you have a space challenge.

Here are some suggestions:

• Your garage

• Your basement

• A spare room

• A closet

If you can't find the space in your home then look to the outside. Or perhaps you have a storage shed outside your home. You can always rent one of those storage bins or even a small warehouse space. Whatever you choose, make sure it's convenient and close to where you process your orders.