Four Businesses You Can Run Out of Steel Buildings

Starting your own business comes with a lot of expenses, not the least of which is the monthly rental you’ll end up paying on the place where you hang your shingle. One way to cut down on that cost it to work out of your home, but space and safety considerations may make that impractical. If you’re starting a new business that doesn’t fit into your living room and isn’t a good fit for the typical office building, steel buildings can offer you options that you won’t find any other way. Not sure that your business would work well in a steel building? Here are four examples of actual businesses that people have successfully started and run in pre-engineered steel buildings.

Wood Workshop

The basement or garage may work fine for a hobby woodworker, but if you’re serious about building furniture, signs or any other wooden product to sell, you really need a separate workshop setup. The open floor plan of Quonset buildings makes them an ideal choice for a workshop business. There’s plenty of room for woodworking equipment and wood storage, while still providing open space for unfinished projects. If you want to sell out of your shop, it’s an easy matter to put up a flexible wall to provide a reception and display area.

Produce Store

If your farm business has outgrown the wooden roadside stand, a steel building is the logical next step up. Steel buildings come in many sizes, and can often be expanded by simply adding another kit to the back as you need more room. You can wire it for light and refrigeration, and choose a design with a garage door or barn doors at the back to provide easy access for bringing in more produce for sale.

Chicken Coops

Selling eggs is a time-honored way of making extra money in rural communities. Modified steel buildings make excellent chicken coops, as proven by an urban group called Urban Hens, at the University of Colorado in Denver. The group has modified basic Quonset buildings by removing the bottom half of the walls to provide circulation and air, and outfitted the inside with shelves for nesting hens. Best of all, the steel buildings transformed into chicken coops are attractive and unobtrusive.

Indoor Beach Volleyball Court

Steel buildings have often been used to house sports arenas, especially ice skating rinks and roller rinks. Because steel buildings don’t need floors or basement foundations, they’re the ideal choice to use for indoor sports venues, such as an indoor volleyball court. The arched dome roof gives plenty of overhead room for serves and volleys, and the sandy beach can be dug and filled directly on the ground beneath the dome.