By Esther Au Yong

FOR small-business owners who take on several roles, managing time and keeping promises to customers can be a challenge.

Some retailers have addressed this issue by tapping on the flexibility of self-storage, which typically features hassle- free and secure 24-hour access, allowing business owners to access their goods any time of the day.

Ms Alicia Leong, owner of online mother-and-baby store Mamalicious, said: "Once, during a weekend, a customer needed a nursing shawl urgently as she was leaving for a holiday.

"I processed her order in the morning, picked up the shawl the same morning and delivered it in the afternoon. The happy mummy left for her holiday in the evening."

Ms Leong commits to one-day delivery for all orders in Singapore, so it is vital to be able to retrieve her goods quickly.

"Being just a five-minute drive away (from the self-storage facility) helps me cut down travel time and serve my customers better," she said.

Ms Leong, 32, initially stored her products - including children's games, wall stickers and baby apparel - at home. But as her product range grew, she found that she needed a bigger space for her inventory.

"Self-storage facilities offer various sizes to suit my needs," she said.

"If I need a bigger space as my business expands, I am also able to move to another locker or unit without worrying about any penalty."

Ms Leong currently rents a 50 sq ft (4.6 sq m) space at Jumbo Locker in Jalan Pemimpin in the Marymount area. She has been paying rent of about $250 per month for four months now.

She is not tied down to a long-term lease, unlike for commercial warehouses, and has the flexibility to change the size of her storage unit or to terminate her contract if she needs to.

She is issued an access card for secure entry and exit, and she locks up her own unit with her own padlock.

"Besides the access cards, the company has security cameras all over the facility. They take great care in ensuring a safe environment for our possessions," she said.

The only challenge she faced was how to maximise the available space in her unit, during the setting-up phase.

"In the end, I put up shelves to make full use of the space in the unit, which is also easier for the retrieval of my stock, compared to if I stack my boxes on the floor," she said.

"Other than that, self-storage ticked all the boxes I had when I was looking around for a place to store my products."

For more my paper stories click here.