Do you have an empty warehouse but lack ideas on what business to start in it? If YES, here are 50 best small business ideas to do in an empty warehouse.
If you are fortunate to have a warehouse and the warehouse is at a good location such as a commercial hub, industrial/manufacturing hub or even close to a seaport or rail station, then you should be happy because you are on your way to financial stability.
Even if you have a warehouse that is not strategically located, you can still make money if you know how to go about it.
One good thing about owning an empty warehouse is that you need just minimal running cost and time to continue to make money from the facility.
There are loads of businesses that can be carried out in a warehouse, and as a matter of fact, one of the requirements of establishing a manufacturing or logistic company is to have a functional warehouse.
If you don’t have one, then you will be forced to lease one. Here are 50 best business ideas you can start with your empty warehouse.
Best Business ideas to Start With an Empty Warehouse
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Lease it out to a Manufacturing Company
If you have an empty warehouse, one of the quick ways to utilize it is to lease the warehouse out to a manufacturing company.
There are loads of manufacturing companies that don’t have enough space to store their goods and would appreciate a standard and well secured warehouse.
So, if you are looking for a business idea you can start with your empty warehouse, then you should think towards leasing it out to a manufacturing company.
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Lease it out to a Rental Company
Depending on where you have your empty warehouse, there are some rental companies that may not have their own warehouse and will find it convenient to lease a well – positioned and secured warehouse to keep their supplies.
Signing a lease agreement with such company is a good business idea you can leverage on to make money from your empty warehouse.
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Lease it out to a Church
There are several churches looking towards expanding and are finding it difficult to purchase a facility that is big enough to accommodate their ever-growing members. If your empty warehouse is close to any of such church, you can market it to them.
Trust me; they will be more than willing to lease your warehouse especially if it is strategically positioned and big enough.
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Lease it out to a Nanobrewery or Micro Brewery
In the united states, it is common to find those who are in the business of crafting beers, and they may also run pubs.
In some cases, when the business starts growing, they may not have a facility big enough to accommodate their growing customer base.
If you intend starting a business with your empty warehouse, then you should look for a Nanobrewery or Micro Brewery company to market your empty warehouse.
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Use it as an Event Center
If you have an empty warehouse, one of the businesses you can do with it is to convert it into an events center.
This is applicable if your warehouse is located in a good location and it is big enough to accommodate a good number of people per-time.
You can choose to directly rent out your empty warehouse to people who want to organize events, or you can lease it out to an event planning company who already has their own clientele base.
The only reason why you should be directly involved in renting out your empty warehouse is if you have relevant experience in managing such business.
Please note that using your empty warehouse as an event center means that you will invest some capital to renovate it and bring it up to standard.
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Lease it out to a Logistics Company
Another business idea you can start with your empty warehouse is to lease it out to a logistics company.
Usually, logistics companies have empty spaces or warehouses where they sort goods that are meant to be transported.
There are growing logistics companies that will appreciate a bigger warehouse and if your empty warehouse fit into their picture, then they will be more than willing to lease it.
So, if you have an empty warehouse and you are looking for a business to do with it, then one of your options is to lease it out to a logistics company.
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Lease it out to a Distribution Company
There are a lot of distribution companies looking for warehouses to use for their businesses. Distributors usually would need a space to keep goods meant for distribution and a suitable and secured warehouse will serve that purpose.
So, if you have an empty warehouse, then one of the businesses you can start with it is to lease it out a distribution company.
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Organize Mini Trade Fairs in Your Empty Warehouse
People love to attend fairs. This is especially true if the things that would be on display at the fair is such that can attract a lot of people.
This is how it works, you should mark out spaces and then rent out the spaces to businesses or individuals that have products or services to sell or display. With that, you will be able to make money from your empty warehouse.
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Lease it Out as Storage Facility for Importers
When it comes to leasing out a warehouse, you need to be sure that those who want to lease it would be using it for the right purposes.
If your warehouse is close to a seaport or airport, one of the thriving businesses you can do with it is to lease it out as storage facility to importers.
Importers usually would need an empty warehouse to keep their goods for a short period of time for effective sorting before transporting the goods to the final destination.
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Lease it out as a Storage Facility for Exporters
Similar to leasing your empty warehouse facility as storage facility for importers is leasing your empty warehouse facility as storage facility for exporters.
In some instances, an export company would need a large facility to sort out their goods and they will be glad to find an empty warehouse facility available for short rent or lease.
So, if you are looking for a business idea to start with your empty warehouse, then one of your options is to lease it out as a storage facility to exporters.
Another thriving business that you can start with your empty warehouse is consignment business. To start with, what is a consignment shop?
A Consignment Shop is simply a shop where fairly used goods are sold at a giveaway prices. It could be clothes, shoes and other fashion accessories, sports wares, automobiles, electronics, furniture, toys, books, tools, musical instrument, office equipment, machines and a host of other stuffs.
You can start this business without money because you would only be required to collect goods from people who are cleaning and clearing their wardrobes, houses, offices or garages at no cost at all.
In other words, you would be automatically helping them get rid of the items they do not want and in turn make your profit.
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Lease it Out to Tire Re-Threading or Recycling Company
If you know how tire re-threading or recycling companies work, you will agree that they usually need a space to sort out their tires before feeding their recycling plant. A tire rethreading company can find it suitable to launch their business in an empty warehouse.
If you are looking for a business idea to start with your empty warehouse, then you should consider leasing your warehouse to a tire re- threading or recycling company.
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Use it as an Art Exhibition Center
Another interesting and of course profitable business you can start with your empty warehouse is to use it as an art exhibition center. This is applicable if you are an artist or if you have interest in running an art exhibition center.
You will make your money by collecting space rental fee from interested artists who want to exhibit their art works in your warehouse.
Please note that you would need to face-lift your warehouse facility to meet up with the expectation of your clients.
If you are an artist and you don’t have the capacity to run an art exhibition center, one of the businesses you can start in your empty warehouse is to use it as an art gallery.
This applicable if your warehouse is small and well – located. Please note that if your warehouse is located far away from the city, using it as an art gallery may not be your best option. If you do, you may have to deploy extra resources to promote the business.
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Use it as a Barber School
Another viable business that you can start with your empty warehouse is a barber school. You might not be the one to run the school if you don’t have the capacity, but the truth remains that having a large space will be to your advantage.
You can be rest assured that your services would always be in demand not only by young people or old people who could not make it to the university or college, but also graduates who would want to just learn how to barb hair.
The truth is that if your barber’s school is well – equipped and staffed and it is government approved, then you may not have to struggle to persuade students to enroll in your school.
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Start Beef Jerky Business
Beef Jerky business is yet another thriving business that you can start with your empty warehouse. A beef jerky production company can be located in any part of town as long as there are people living or working there and the local authority issues permit.
One good thing about starting a beef jerky production business is that if you are diligent enough and you have good marketing strategies, you can build the business from selling your products from your city to other cities all across the United States.
A beef jerky production business might not be entirely easy to start, but it is a straight – forward business that can generate huge and steady profits if well positioned and properly managed.
A clothing line business is one of the many businesses that can be started from an empty warehouse and the owner of the business can still penetrate the world market once the design is good and it meets a need in the fashion market.
Entrepreneurs who intend starting a clothing line business can start their own clothing label from their empty warehouse on a small scale and service a customized market.
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Start a Doggie Daycare Business
Another good business that you can start with your empty warehouse is doggie daycare business. Come to think of it, a warehouse that is in top shape and not too far away from residential facilities should be the most ideal facility to run a doggie daycare business.
If you are looking towards starting a doggie daycare from your empty warehouse, then you must be ready to renovate the facility to comfortably accommodate dogs.
Poultry feed mill is yet another business that can be started from an empty warehouse facility. One good thing about making use of an empty warehouse to start a poultry feed mill is that no matter the location of the warehouse, you can still make headway with the business as long as you have mapped out workable marketing strategies. A poultry mill is a production facility where different poultry mashes are produced.
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Horse Breeding Business
Horse breeding business is yet another business you can start with your empty warehouse. This is most suitable if your warehouse is in the outskirt of town and of course in a place with rich vegetation.
Basically, horse breeding has to do with the reproduction of horses, and mostly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals.
Another ideal business that you can start with your empty warehouse is laser tag game center. Laser tag is a kind of tag game that is played with lasers.
In playing laser tag, infrared – sensitive targets are commonly worn by each player and are in most cases, they are integrated within the arena in which the game is played.
Each player tries to hit players of the opposing team by shooting at their sensors; it is indeed an action-packed game where players wear electronic vests and ‘tag’ each other.
A leather belt manufacturing company is yet another ideal business that you can start with your empty warehouse.
A leather belt manufacturing business can be started even in a small warehouse in any part of the world and the owner of the business can still penetrate the world market once the design is good and it meets a need in the fashion market.
Entrepreneurs who intend starting a leather belt manufacturing business can start the business from their empty warehouse on a small scale and service a customized market.
Another viable business that you can start with your empty warehouse facility is a monogram company.
Monogramming business involves artistic designing of gift items by cresting 2 or more alphabetic letters on the gift item. The gift item could be cups, Tee Shirt, Towel, Bags, Wedding Invites, Caps, and Jackets et al.
If you have an empty warehouse facility that is located close to a residential estate, one of the many businesses you can start with it is to open a paintball game center.
Paintball is a sport in which players compete to eliminate opponents by hitting them with gelatin capsules containing water soluble dye (i.e. paintballs) propelled from paintball guns.
It is one business that have continued to yield profits because of the lucrative nature of the business and the legislature that still favors it.
A tradeshow booth and equipment rental business is yet another suitable business you can start with an empty warehouse. This business is ideal if your warehouse is located along a major road.
Trade show booth and equipment rental business is all about renting out trade show booths and other relevant public-address equipment that are used by corporate organizations, government, groups and individuals who want to organize or participate in a trade show.
Another good business that you can start with your empty warehouse is welding and fabrication business.
Basically, welding is a fabrication or sculptural process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by causing fusion, which is distinct from lower temperature metal-joining techniques such as brazing and soldering, which do not melt the base metal.
So, if you are looking for a business you can start with your empty warehouse is to launch a welding and fabrication business.
Caustic soda production business is yet another viable business that can be started in an empty warehouse facility.
One good thing about this business is that no matter the location of the warehouse facility, you can still do pretty well as a caustic soda production company especially if you have a good distribution channel.
Even though starting a standard caustic production company can be capital intensive for an entrepreneur that is just starting out, but if you are able to conduct a thorough market research and feasibility studies before launching the business, you are sure going to breakeven before most businesses.
Insecticide production company is one of the many businesses that can be started in an empty warehouse facility. If your warehouse is in the outskirts of town, then you can start this business with it.
Just ensure that you get the needed permits from the appropriate authorities in your city or state before launching your insecticide production business.
Part of the products that you are expected to produce include pesticides and agricultural chemical products, such as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, insect repellents, sheep dips, fly sprays and flea powders.
Another good business that you can start if you have an empty warehouse facility is liquid air freshener production business.
If you are a would-be entrepreneur who is looking for a good and profitable business venture to launch in your empty warehouse most especially if you are considering starting your own low budget business in the chemical industry, then liquid air freshener production is one of the businesses that you can start.
With a little start-up capital, you can successfully set up your own liquid air freshener production company.
There is a large market for liquid air freshener and if you want to stay competitive in this industry, you must ensure that you come up with unique and pleasant scents.
A bounce house is one option you can choose from if you want to leverage on your empty warehouse to start a business.
This is applicable if your bounce house is located close to a residential estate with the right demography.
A bounce house contains inflatable/bouncy castles which are temporarily inflatable structures used for recreational purposes, particularly for children to catch their fun to the maximum.
Another ideal business that you can start from your empty warehouse is freight packaging and logistics company.
Basically, a freight packaging and logistics services company is responsible for providing packing and crating services for the transportation sector of the economy.
A freight packaging and logistics services company also provides consolidation of freight consignments, trade document preparation, packing, crating and otherwise preparing goods for transportation.
The bowling alley business has always been in trend. It never goes into extinction. A bowling alley is yet another interesting business you can start with your empty warehouse.
Please note that this type of business is ideal if your warehouse is strategically located and you have enough cash to put the needed facility in place.
Bowling basically refers to a series of sports or leisure activities in which a player rolls or throws a bowling ball towards a target.
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Start a Martial Art School
If you are a professional in martial arts, you can generate huge profits from your empty warehouse by simply establishing a martial arts school to teach people martial arts. Martial arts is an organized system of combat practice, which is practiced for various reasons.
Another ideal business that you can start from your empty warehouse is an auto repair garage. Starting an auto repair business does not mean that you will be directly involved in repairing people’s cars.
As a matter of fact, it will pay you to hire a professional auto mechanic to man the business for you.
The truth is that people will always visit an auto workshop if indeed they want their vehicles to continue to ply the roads.
People visit auto garages for different reasons; it could be for routine servicing, major repair works, or for refurbishing their cars.
For whatever reasons; auto repair garage will always translate to money for the owner of the repair garage.
Carpet cleaning business is yet another viable and of course profitable business that you can start with your empty warehouse.
Please note that this type of business is ideal if your empty warehouse is close to a residential estate. A carpet cleaning business of your own is one of the easiest small businesses to start.
You will find the initial start-up costs well within your reach, and the margin of profit most astounding.
It’s an easy business to operate, and yet one that can be called necessary to today’s standard of living.
All over the world, women are always particular about their hair. This is one of the reasons why you may want to consider using your empty warehouse for the sale of these.
You can start by being a major distributor to big manufacturers, whilst retailers come and buy from you.
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Organize Sales
You may consider this type of business towards the end of a season. That means you can begin to have a sale for winter clothes, shoes, phones etc.
You can target a particular season if you want to sell clothes for instance. The warehouse is a good place to start this as there will be enough room for people to move around.
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Start a Disc Jockey Training School
The disc jockey business never goes into extinction as there are more and more people who are taking to the trade now. In fact a lot of people have become household names by becoming DJs.
This is one of the reasons why you can consider starting a training school from a warehouse. Train up and coming people who may be interested in this trade.
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Start a Car Accessory Business
Car accessories are always in demand. This is because of the fact that more and more people have cars now.
This is one of the reasons why you can consider starting a car accessory business from your warehouse.
One of the businesses that you may want to start from your warehouse is a dog crèche. This might still need you to do some partitioning so as to accommodate several segments of a standard crèche.
Health is wealth and that is the reason why a lot of people are taking their exercise routines really seriously.
The warehouse is one of the places that you may want to start a gym a from. You have to be sure that you start with a few basic equipment.
If you have a knack for crafts or if you have garnered the knowledge of soap making, you may want to consider starting a soap making business from an empty warehouse. Whilst you churn out soaps to be sold, you should also consider training people too.
Yet another business that you can start from your warehouse is a beverage making business. It is one of the profitable businesses that you can look to start from your warehouse.
Please do remember that you will need to get a license before you start this type of business. This is so that you do not get clamped down by the authorities regulating the industry.
If you are so good with crafts, then you may consider starting a crafts business from your warehouse.
You do not have to look for another type of space, the warehouse is a very good place to do this. Some of the crafts you can make include pottery, basket weaving and many others.
If you are looking for a business to start from an empty warehouse, you may want to consider a unisex salon. In the united states of America, the beauty industry is one that is taken really seriously.
Some of the services you can offer include, braiding, weaves fixing, eyelashes fixing, amongst many others.
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Start Building materials Sales
One of the ways to put to good use an empty warehouse is to start a business there. One of the businesses you can start is selling building materials.
You will need to stock up your warehouse and be sure you do the right publicity. Your warehouse should also be in the midst of a busy area so that you can attract customers.
If you are into cleaning and you are looking to diversify, you may want to consider starting a dry cleaning business.
The dry cleaning business does not need too much capital to start, and it promises a huge return on your investment.
You will need to have the right washing machines to do this as well as have the right attendants in place.
There are tons of people who for some reasons want to take off their tattoos. This is one of the reasons why you can also consider starting a tattoo removal business from your warehouse because the space would afford room for all the things that would be needed to effectively run a tattoo removal trade.
A warehouse, if well equipped would be a very nice place to have musicians come and record their songs.
You may also consider putting the interior of the warehouse in good shape so that it fits the purpose for which you want to use it.
Yet another business that can be started on a very wonderful note from the warehouse is a screen printing business. It is a very profitable business as more and more people are doing well in it.
In starting this business from a warehouse, you will need to have the place partitioned so that you can separate the various processes involved in screen printing.
In conclusion,
It is pertinent that you note that even though you are starting these businesses from a warehouse, you will still need to have some cash at hand that will be used to fine tune the warehouse.
Some of the businesses listed above may need wall partitioning and the installation of machines and equipment that will make running the business a whole lot effective.