Annabel Gatto, Co-Founder and CEO of Suitably, a New York City based professional womenswear brand that offers seasonless wardrobe staples, shares her start-up experience in this guest post. Suitably’s products are thoughtfully created for evolving professional contexts—by prioritizing what women want and offering a simplified shopping experience.
Manhattan Start-Up Utilizes Self Storage
Living in Manhattan presents its own set of challenges to running a business. Prior to our launch in February of this year, our manufacturer provided us with a packing list with the number and dimensions of the boxes we were about to receive. We tallied up the cumulative size of the boxes and quickly realized there was no way we could do the fulfillment out of our apartment. In the beginning, we wanted to operate as lean as possible and as a new Founder, I wanted a hands on experience. We set out to find a safe and reliable solution that could both store our inventory and receive returns for us. After evaluating many storage options in the New York area, I chose Manhattan Mini Storage. A few aspects that stuck out to me about Manhattan Mini Storage that were integral in the decision process were:
- Spacious: there were a variety of large unit sizes available, which is not always the case in New York City, and Manhattan Mini Storage made it easy to move into a bigger or smaller unit based on our needs.
- Package receiving: finding a storage facility that received packages was critical to us. We knew we could not have returns flooding our front desk! Manhattan Mini Storage’s package receiving service offered a streamlined way for us to handle customer returns at no additional cost to us.
- Clean and temperature controlled: on site there is a full-time staff to keep everything exceptionally clean. In addition, the facility is temperature controlled which is critical for Suitably as it protects our garments against damage from heat & humidity.
- Safety: it’s a safe environment to move thousands of dollars-worth of inventory each day. I also always feel safe when I am there and never have to worry about our products.
- Accessibility: Suitably is open for business every day and it was important that we found a storage facility with great hours.
- Well managed: the employees are the best! They’re always extremely efficient and helpful anytime I need assistance.
Based on Suitably’s current sales volumes, I will go to Manhattan Mini Storage once or twice a day to pick the items that have sold that day. As a founder of a newly launched startup juggling every aspect of running a new business, I feel very lucky to have found Manhattan Mini Storage. They’ve surpassed all of our storage needs. I like to call them Suitably’s fulfillment center!
The products, prices, and available services mentioned in this video do not reflect our current offerings.