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I have visited many commercial businesses run out of shipping containers, from cafes to clothes shops, in fact there is a shipping container hairdresser in my town.
There is even businesses that sell all-in-one small business set ups where you have a shipping container (with windows and stuff built in) stuffed with everything to get your instant business up and running (well, except for the stuff you have to do yourself such as council permissions, power connection etc. This is a popular model for starting a small market garden business in the US. They are called farm in a box.
As long as you get the planning and building permissions councils are usually pretty cool with it (at least in my area).
Shipping container s used as business are not always a cheap option though, they have to be insulated and lined, though you can do that yourself if you are a handy person. The biggest cost is hooking up to power and water etc.