As the self-storage industry evolves, day-to-day operation requires a different set of skills that includes customer-service savvy, legal know-how, and sales and marketing finesse. Operators must also define their markets, determine rental rates, choose effective advertising, and understand online marketing ... all while keeping an eye on the facility’s bottom line.
The self-storage industry has boomed over the past several years. As competition escalates and facilities adopt the same features and benefits, its critical for owners and managers to focus on the basics of phone and face-to-face sales...
If youre a typical self-storage owner, youre operating a successful business, and your success can be credited to many factors. Careful hiring of facility staff is one, and monitoring onsite business practices is another...
A topic that frequently comes up in conversations with self-storage owners and operators is staff compensation and incentive programs. Everyone is looking for the norm in these areas, but it seems as though there isnt one. Compensation ranges from...
It would be nice to see more consistency in the area of self-storage training. It seems we’re programmed to train only when performance is down, making us more reactive than proactive. If we look at staff development as more of an investment...
Staff training is becoming increasingly vital for self-storage operations. As competitive pressures rise and the power of the rent increase slackens, many storage companies will look to better training as a tool for improving revenue and prof...
As we begin to close the books on 2007, we are embroiled in the sometimes agonizing task of preparing our 2008 budgets and forecasts. I have written many times over the years about my recommendation to make the budget-building process a team...
As competition escalates in every market, putting pressure on facility operators to improve performance, it becomes increasingly important to ensure your managers are at the top of their game at all times. Knowing they will usually perform better...
Who is the ideal self-storage manager? The answer to this question is complex, depending on many facility-specific factors: job duties, the demographics of the customer base, the personalities of the rest of the team, etc. Its a highly subjective...
