Keep up the pace

Welcome to the self storage blog.

If you have ever heard me give a presentation, then you know how I see the development of the self storage business. It started as a construction business. It didn’t much matter where your piece of land was. If you built a storage facility right, you could fill it up and flow cash. Then the business developed enough where this was no longer enough. You had to get a good location to attract customers. This is when storage became a real estate game. In order to succeed you needed to find the right location at the right price and become adept at handling the entitlement process. As things became more competitive, people found out that they had to focus on operations and run storage like a business. This is when store management software became important and when managing the properties really became important.

As more and more people got into the business it became clear that storage had to become more than just a space to put stuff and it became a retail game. It has not been that long since storage facilities started selling boxes and packing supplies. Now any new facility or any renovation includes lots of retail space with a retail feel.

But this too is becoming old hat. Storage is now becoming a sales and marketing game. You have to be able to get people to think about you and then get them to rent with you.

It was not long ago you could have caretakers run your properties and you could get away with it. Now in order to compete, you need to make a leap into hiring sales oriented people and creating a real marketing strategy.

We have gone form the build it and they will come era to a build it and they won’t care, unless you give them a reason to care and then ask them to rent with you era. Are you keeping up?