As these economic times hit hard in Hong Kong as well as the rest of the World....saving money is a critical step for most people in order to pass through this crisis. People in Hong Kong have noticeably spend less on non essential items, cut going out for dinners and drinks, as well as less holiday trips. While these are all worth while actions, if one loses a job or faces further detoriating income, what can he or she do?
Space is one of the most expensive commodity in Hong Kong, and payment of rental takes a large portion of a person's income. Effectively using
self storage can make a person use much less space, as well as paying cheaper for storage spaces. Here are a few tips one can consider:
1)
Move into a smaller apartment and put all the non essentials into storage: a typical apartment cost 16hkd/sq ft. A typical storage cost 11hkd/sq ft to rent, plus you can stack it up to 9ft in storage. A typical customer who lived in a 800sq ft apartment, can stack all their CDs and books and Winter Cloth into a 50sq ft
storage, and have much more space living in a 600 sq ft aparment.
Savings: 200sq ft X16hkd (apartment saving) - 50X 11hkd=550 (storage)
= $2650.
2)
Move into a smaller office and put all your documents into storage: study show that 30% of office space is used to store non essential documents. Why pay for high office rent when these documents are rarely used (but needed). Most
Storage companies provide delivery and retrieval services so that documents can be retrieved within 1-2days. The savings of moving into a smaller office is even more apparent when you rent a grade A office that cost 80hkd/sq ft+
Here is a an example:
Savings: 200sq ft X 80 (office size saving) - 50 X 11hkd=550 (storage)
=$15450
3)
Moving your store online: if your current business have a pool of stable and loyal customer, why not move your store online, and work from the storage? Many people are joining the online revolution by having a virtual store on line. Since a virtual store doesn't discriminate a big company from a small company.....your physical store front is not neccessary and a good website can outwin any big company's website. Of course the inventory can be stored in storage. The average store rent ranges from 18hkd/sq ft to 5000+hkd/sq ft, so the savings could be very big.
4)
Live out of your suitcase: Do u travel a lot, and seldomly stay in Hong Kong? If so you may be paying for spaces that you are not effectively using. By not renting the apartment and putting your essential stuff in storage will greatly incur saving for yourself. Furthermore, you can rent 2 different location of storage, 1 more expensive storage that is closer to your office or place of work, the other cheaper one for storing stuff that you seldomly uses. Due to the current economic downturn, most hotels are offering very attractive rates, especially for frequent customers. Storing and living from the hotel makes a great alternative for travellers in this busy hub like Hong Kong.
5)Rent out your Extra Room: In this current bad times, everyone is trying to save money, why not rent out that extra bedroom or office room that nobody is using? Wait, there are many furnitures and stuff there that have monetary and setimental values!! What to do? By using a cheaper storage, you can earn more income from renting that extra room to a friend or family even after you store your goods in the cheaper storage.
Example: 1 bedroom charge 2500hkd/mth
1 bedroom of stuff= 30sq ft storage @ 330hkd/mth
Income: 2170hkd/mth!!
6)Non belongings?, just rent a mailbox: Many expats we've come across is leaving Hong Kong, and heading to other places in search for opportunities, but should you leave a formal address in Hong Kong for contact, or someone wants to send something to you? Renting a mailbox from a
mini storage company cost as low as 60hkd/mth and you can get bank statements, invoices, bills, letters delivered to you, saving lots of hassle of not having a presence in this city.
7)Buy in Bulk, Save Money: many companies are offering 'going out of business sales' or 'clearance sale' to get cash for their inventory, and the discount on these goods are big. But where to store all these durable goods even if the prices are good. The answer is storage. A typical 30sq ft storage room cost 330hkd/mth, and can store 40 cartons of goods plus. The saving you can get by buying in bulk and in discount can easily outweight the cost of the storage, provided the goods will be used up within 6 mths.
Example:
Cost of storage for 6mth: 1980$ (@330/mth)
40% discount on $20000 worth of durable goods: 8000$ (shampoo, can food, etc)
Savings: $6020
I hope the above ideas can help people to start thinking of alternative ways to save money in this tough enviroments, which many people predict will last much longer than the average recesion. So its pay to save money and take precaution.
