Interest-Rate Trends
If you’re a self-storage owner, here’s a question you may not be answering correctly: What is my largest expense item? The answer is typically either payroll or property taxes. In actuality, for many owners, it is interest expense. Here’s the point: Interest expense and ...More
November 1, 2003 Bill Walton
Posted in Articles,
Finance
Charting Your Course for 2004
As we approach the end of another year, it’s important to look forward and prepare to make next year our best ever. Whether your goal is to buy your first storage facility, expand your business, sell your portfolio, or distribute a new product or service, this article will ...More
November 1, 2003 Scott Duffy
Posted in Articles
Storing For Hope
Airline Ambassadors, a nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid around the world, has always relied on the generosity of others to provide free storage to warehouse and track its many donations. When they learned they would lose precious storage space last ...More
November 1, 2003 Amy Campbell
Posted in Articles
Back to the Basics!
As I travel around the country, I continually drop in on self-storage facilities. As you might expect, I see the good, the bad and the ugly. There are some incredibly well-managed facilities, and those that need a complete marketing overhaul. Those that do it right ...More
November 1, 2003 Fred Gleeck
Posted in Articles
Compiling Your Loan Package
The loan-approval process can differ from lender to lender, but one thing is consistent: First impressions are lasting. The key to any business meeting is the initial presentation, whether it be physical appearance or quality of information or both. The following is an ...More
November 1, 2003 David Smyle
Posted in Articles,
Finance
The Worm Has Turned
Low interest rates have been the best friend a self-storage owner could have over the last couple of years. It now appears the long, downward trend in interest rates has turned and is beginning to head upward. It was a great ride on the way down, and the relative value of ...More
November 1, 2003 Michael L. McCune
Posted in Articles
Standards and Best Practices
The commercial records-management industry has been entrepreneurial from its very beginning. The trade association, PRISM International, has become the only independent unifying source for the industry at large. Vendors, software companies and consultants have done their ...More
November 1, 2003 Cary F. McGovern
Posted in Articles
The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act
Last year, when you opened your holiday mail, you most likely found a greeting from your insurance company regarding your storage policy and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA). You received this because shortly after the terrorism attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, ...More
November 1, 2003 Amy Brown
Posted in Articles
Applying for a New Manager Position
Each and every day, self-storage manager résumés cross my desk. As a director of manager placement, one of my duties is to oversee the staff that places managers at storage facilities nationwide. I receive about 20 to 30 résumés a week from managers looking to make a change ...More
November 1, 2003 Larry Truitt
Posted in Articles
