If you're ever wanted to run your own small business from home, you might have been put off by a lack of space, or by not wanting the equipment you need cluttering up your living space. But the cost of renting business premises is often far too high for someone just starting out.

Shipping containers are being converted for use in many different ways around the world, from houses and extra bedrooms to classrooms and restaurants. Because of their low cost and versatility, they make the ideal extra space in which to start a business. Here are just some of the operations you could run successfully from a shipping container.

T-shirt printing

Whether you want to use screen printing or a heat press, the equipment to set up a T-shirt printing business can be had relatively cheaply if you shop around. You can sometimes get some second-hand bargains, so it's worth checking eBay and other online sources of used goods.

You'll have plenty of room to set it all up in a shipping container workshop, and it's simple to set up a power supply so you can run everything without extension cables.

Handcrafted gifts

Using a converted shipping container to set up a workroom, you can produce items using whatever techniques you enjoy. Knitting and crochet, woodwork, painting – wherever your talents lie, there's potential for creating products to sell.  Setting up in a shipping container also means you have your own space in which to work in peace.

Fashion design

From on-paper designs to prototype clothing items, you can keep all your equipment together, safely housed in your new workroom. There's ample space for a large drawing board, dressmakers' dummies, a sewing machine, and everything else you need.

Specialist food product

Maybe you'd love to get into smoking foods, or perhaps you have a killer barbeque sauce recipe that's been in the family for generations that you'd like to take to a wider audience. The beauty of using a shipping container for setting up shop is how easily it can be tailored to meet your needs. It's much more straightforward to remove walls, add doors, put in windows or ventilation, and adapt the space to fit your equipment than it is with a brick and mortar building.

Online shop

When you're first setting up an internet retail business, you're unlikely to have masses of inventory on hand. That makes a shipping container just about perfect for your very first warehouse, keeping everything safe and dry to ship out to your customers. You can even make space for a desk and computer to keep on top of sales and promotion.