» Self Storage Businesses

York Mills storage places in Ontario, Canada want to raise revenues and increase their amount of customers.  How do they do that?  The most important first step is to train their managers in the fine art of sales.  In the past, storage places in the storage industry would hire husbands and wives to run a self-storage place.  The man would generally fix things on the storage property, while the wife would run the office and do all the paper work.  They were not sales people, and the company or owner of the storage property would not have any kind of sales training at all.  It was all word of mouth, or potential customers driving by the storage place and seeing it, going to the yellow pages and looking up the closest storage place, or friends and family or neighbors answering their questions about storage.  That was basically it.  No marketing or marketing departments to worry about or no spending on advertisements.  This appealed to many buyers of storage places because, think about it, less expensive, no sales training needed, no sales people needed to run a storage place.  They would hire older couples that were married most of the time, and give them the key, say goodbye, and let them go at it.  These kinds of businesses were called turn key businesses.  You turn the key of the lock on the door, and open it up.  That was it.  The couple would learn the paper work, learn about the business, fix things that broke, and answered the phone.  The owner would go away, and watch the flow of money come in.

If a storage place like the ones in York Mills storage areas in Ontario, Canada did this, they still could be successful because of location, location, location.  In the storage industry, location is really everything too.  Storage places built by apartment complexes, in big cities, by senior citizens homes and other places that lack storage spaces, will be and were successful.  If this married couple can at least keep it half-full, they can break even and survive.  A storage place with three hundred storage spaces to rent and can rent one hundred and fifty of them, they will make it.  Rent more of course, and a profit can be seen.  There is little overhead in the business a time or two ago.  The managers can fix gutters and broken storage space doors and learn other things, can keep the place going rather easily.  The managers learned to do this.  Some did become good sales people because they cared.  Some managers were paid a bonus for how many they could rent.  Most storage places in the world are half-full depending on the size of course.  Can you get rich with a three hundred storage space building?  Probably not, but you can survive and make a profit.  All business must first survive, than make a profit.  If a new owner or company can do this, they are happy.  A lot of single owners of storage places in the past were thrilled they made it.

York Mills storage places in Ontario, Canada could have been like this too.  They were happy with very little invested, and a good return on their money.  Everything is all right.

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Woodbine Heights storage places in Ontario, Canada are thinking about marketing their products to the world.  The storage industry is a very difficult industry to market for a number of reasons we will try to discuss here.  How do you market storage?  Many companies in this business do not advertise on TV, radio, or the newspapers.  They do advertise in the yellow pages here in the United States of America.  The yellow pages are a book that has all the phone numbers of a particular area like a city or town.  The yellow pages can be very expensive to use but in the past, the expense had to be taken.  If a person needed storage, he or she would go straight to the yellow pages and look up under the section of self-storage, or storage, and find the closest place for them, than call the place or go in person.  This brings up two important points, the person on the phone and the manager of the storage place.  These are two vital areas in which a storage place must excel in, to get all the customers that want storage, and call their place.  The person on the phone might be the very first contact or step, in the sales process.  That person on the phone must be a good salesperson, not a person who thinks the phone is a bother and really does not want to talk to anybody.  Hard to believe, but we have all been there before.  You call a business, wanting to know about their product, and they sound like they do not care.  Wow!  This has happened too many times in the past.

We hope Woodbine Heights storage places in Ontario, Canada do not have this attitude.  A lot of companies now have call centers with pros answering the phone instead of managers of the storage places.  This makes sense in a lot of ways.  You can not loose customers because of bad customer service from people who answer phones and talk to potential customers.  Sounds like common sense but you would be surprised.  Train the managers in sales too.  Train them to answer phones like a salesperson.  Be a salesperson through the whole process.  A sales person is not a dirty word.

It should not be a dirty word to Woodbine Heights storage managers either in Ontario, Canada.  All businesses need good sales people period.  Let us say that again:  All businesses need good sales people.  Can you name any business that does not?  Think about it.  Even movies are pushed by the movie stars in it.  Movie stars have to be good sales people too don’t they?  You will see them march on every late night TV show promoting their movies.  There they are answering screened questions about funny things than Bam! Here comes the movie clip and talking about the movie.  We expect it do we not?  Why else is this famous person on TV, who does not want to be there, but is there promoting a movies.  They promote books too, and new toys and everything else.  Be a good sales person for the company you work for.  They pay you to make revenue for them and you should at least know something about sales.

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Windsor storage in Ontario Canada has many of the same problems concerning how to market their product as other storage places.  Many in the storage industry use customer service surveys to try to find out what the consumer wants or needs from a storage business.  Sometimes the survey is only asking questions about a specific storage area or place, instead of the big picture.  Many storage companies will even pay the consumer for taking the survey or give them a discount on next month’s rent.  Surveys can help.  Most people do not lie on surveys or make things up.  Surveys have always been an important tool in measuring your consumer or customer’s thought processes.  It is difficult to measure and market the storage industry to its potential customers.  Many storage companies have tried numerous things.  We have seen products with the name of the storage place on it, but no one knows how effective it really was.  We saw pens, and key chains but do people really want a key ring with the name Windsor storage on them?

Windsor storage in Ontario, Canada may not need or use all that stuff like that.  Is it a waste of money to try different things though?  There is an old saying in the business world that do not do it if you can not measure it.  We believe in some of that philosophy.  Spending money should be thought out and planned as well as can be in this industry.  Marketing that gets you no where is a waste, and if can not measure the results, than maybe the whole idea is wrong to begin with.  Many storage places have no marketing department at all, which of course, saves a whole lot of money,  Business like Coke in the United States of America, will spend millions of dollars a year in advertisement and marking.  Coke is a word that is known throughout the world though.  It sounds like a lot of money, but percent wise, it may be a small amount compared to sales.  In the storage industry, what percent of revenue and sales should be going to marketing if it is so hard to measure?  This is a hard question to figure out.  Many in the industry say zero and this is why.  Most storage places build next to their potential customers.

Windsor storage places in Ontario, Canada are like that to.  They build their storage places in neighborhoods instead of in far away and out of the way places.  People see the storage place within a few miles of their home, and store their belongings there.  People who are moving or relocating may use the World Wide Web or Face book to find a storage place to move their things into, while waiting for their next home.  This is why marketing has been going to the Web more and more, and putting their marketing budgets in that direction.  Makes good sense though, knowing what we know.  If advertising does not work, and you depend on word of mouth or location, location, location, than good managers are necessary.  This has been a big change in the storage industry too.  Windsor storage in Ontario, Canada may feel this way too.  It is a hard business to market.

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Okotoks storage units in Alberta, Canada had a small problem the other day.  Now, these problems do not often happen, but on occasion, they do.  We have seen these types of problems in other storage places around the world, but not so often.  It is how the manager or managers handle the situation that makes it a bigger problem or a smaller problem.  We prefer smaller problems to bigger problems, but that is what a lot of other people would think to.  Some people think problems make you a better problem solver, like practicing a violin over and over again.  We do not want problems all the time though, just a few to practice on.  This is why so many people put such a great emphasis on experience in management.  A manager who is brand new may make some mistakes because every person is a little different from another, or so we thought.  Great salespeople feel different we think.  They can group people in certain categories and sell them accordingly.  There are problem solving models to follow though, and these may work for most people.  Some people rely on instinct, but facts seem a better way to go, but some people have great instincts and are very successful at using them.

Okotoks storage units in Alberta, Canada have a few problems that need to be solved.  The problem-solving model should help in this area.  It id divided in four and sometimes five steps if you want to include that extra step as the first step.  The first step could be observation.  We should look at the problem first; a lot of us would say to be able to understand more clearly, what is going on.  The next step is identifying that there is a problem.  If one can not see that a problem exists, well, that problem will never be solved.  The third step is to define the problem.  What is the definition of the problem?  What is the problem exactly?  We need to corner the situation and define the problem so we may approach it directly and solving the wrong problem would not help the situation.  This seems easy, but it is not.  Even people, who hold important jobs in the world, sometimes identify the problem in a wrong way, or think it is something different.

Okotoks storage units in Alberta, Canada can solve problems.  The problem-solving model helps them work it out in almost any situation or thing that is happening.  After we know exactly what the problem is, we can come up with various solutions to it.  What are some of our options?  What are some of our choices to make this problem go away?  After we have thought of some ways to solve the problem we just have to choose the right one to see if it works.  You will solve a lot more problems with this problem-solving model than without it.  We suggest using it.  It has helped most managers in the world to use and think about this approach when solving problems of all kinds.  Can the mangers at Okotoks solve their problem using this?  We think so, if they use it right, and remember to identify the problem correctly.  That is a very important step in the process.  Good luck and good managing.

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Normandy Heights storage units are located in the great place of Saskatchewan, Canada.  These storage units must have a price tag on them to rent them.  What should the price be of a certain size self storage unit?  This is what we will try to discuss in this blog, the pricing of storage units.  Without talking too much about supply and demand, it is always a good place to start to understand why business price the way they do.  In the United States of America, we have a free enterprise system, which is based on consumer demand.  It is called supply and demand where in a perfect economic model, the supply equals the demand.  For example, if you are selling widgets you need to make enough widgets to meet the demand or the quantity of widgets the consumer wants.  No use to make a hundred of them if only ten people want them.  A company tries very hard to get this number right, because too much inventory of a product kills a company.  You do not want warehouses full of a product nobody wants.  This sounds so simple but it is very hard to reach that point, the point on a graph where demand and supply are equal.  This is a perfect point and one that satisfies business and consumer.  This can be very hard because how many candles does consumers want or need?  Marking surveys help with the answer and also measuring sales help too.  It gets very complicated and that is why people can go to school and earn a PHD in economics.  This supply and demand curve effects how companies price an item.  If consumers perceive the price is too high, you have changed the demand for it in a very negative way.  If consumers believe the price is too cheap, they will not buy it either.  It must be junk at this price or we can not wear these shoes because all my friends know we paid very little for them, and we are not cool anymore.

Normandy Heights storage units are located in the great place of Saskatchewan, Canada.  Pricing is very important to them too.  Competition can hurt each other too though, and one must be careful in pricing based only on your competitor’s prices.  This is where sales pros can make a difference.  Yes, Joe Blow down the road is cheaper, but have you seen what you are getting?  Our storage spaces do not leak, we have a safer place for your family, and we have better managers and storage units.  They are too cheap for a very good reason.  They can not rent their units.  Do not get fooled by all this and rent your units too cheap.  It will hurt you later.

Normandy Heights storage units in the great place of Saskatchewan, Canada think about pricing.  They have to.  It can make all the difference in the world if you price wrong.  It can kill a business in so many ways and there are a whole lot of unintended outcomes when you do.  Just like our supply and demand curve, you lose business if you do not at least try to make it all come together.  We will talk more about pricing in later blogs so good luck.

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Maple storage units are located in the great place of Ontario, Canada.  We want to talk about the roles and tasks of a self storage manager, or the team of managers that run a self storage facility.  There are many to be sure, and a good manager will not waste too much time dong other tasks that might be less important or sitting in the office waiting for potential customers to come in.  There are usually two managers on the property so for them both to be in the office when business is slow is not a good way to manage one’s time.  A manager should be better than that.  A manager should lead by example and show the customers and all co-workers that this is how a good manager looks like, a manager who knows how to use the limited time he or she has, and make money.  Every business must make a profit and survive, not in that order.  In the United States of America, it is profit that drives the market and consumers will buy your product if they want or need it.  It is simple and brilliant all at the same time.  Let us go back to some of the tasks a self storage manager should be performing everyday.  The first thing a manager should do in the morning is go walk or drive a golf cart around the property to look for junk or dirty places for him or her to clean.  They can pick up cigarette butts, trash or even may have to move furniture left by a customer who moved out.  It is so easy to fall behind if a manager does not do this morning task everyday they are working.  It is also good exercise and is good for you to get out and feel the fresh air.  A good clean property is good for the potential customers, renting customers and for your own pride.

Maple storage units are located in the great place of Ontario, Canada.  They have managers who clean storage units.  They also need to keep the property clean.  This morning task should be done every morning.  Walk or drive a golf cart around and see what is going on.  Somebody could be hurt on the property, someone could be trying to break in a storage unit early before the office is open, or dangerous things and items could be around that could hurt a kid or somebody.  We have seen all these things happen before.  Keep your property clean.  Before you open your doors for business, be ready for business.  A hundred cigarette butts on the property is nasty especially for non smokers but it shows a lazy manager.  If you are storing thousands of dollars of stuff, American dollars, in a storage unit, you do not need a lazy manager trying to protect your stuff.

Maple storage units located in the great place of Ontario, Canada should be clean.  There is no excuse for a dirty property and we hope we see few on our trek in Canada.  We have seen some that are pretty dirty in other countries we have visited so beware.  Do not rent from managers who keep dirty places.  They may be unsafe too.  Dirty properties welcome crime.

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Lakeview Park storage units in the great place of Ontario, Canada have numbers on them.  This may seem to be a very simple thing to do, but it is not as simple as it appears to be.  The managers of the self storage place most often have little say in how to number each storage unit.  The numbers are usually already in place before they come, and sometimes the numbering system the previous people put in, are not very logical or useful.  Consider a self storage place that has over a thousand storage units in it and if the numbers take you in a hundred different directions with no rhyme or reason, it can be an awful waste of time for managers to deal with it.  Here is why.  A self storage manager must do walk throughs and lock checks and lock pulls a couple of times a week or even more.  We talked about those in an early blog on the subject, so we will move on with this topic.  A manager needs the storage property to be flowing or ease of doing those walk throughs.  A manager, who leaves the office to do this, should not be gone so long as to hurt business.  If the numbers of the storage units flow in a good way, the manager should be able to walk the whole property in a reasonable time frame.  If the numbering system is all out of whack, and managers must search for storage units to check, it could take way too long to do this walk through.  We managed a self storage place just like that where we had to turn corners, back track and try to figure out what the system the people who numbered this storage place used.  We found none.  So the walk through took so much extra time, that it probably hurt business.  Anytime you are selling a product you should spend over ninety percent of your time selling, not walking around badly numbered storage places.

Lakeview Park storage units in the great place of Ontario, Canada are numbered too.  We hope they are numbered in a good way.  If you lose thirty minutes per walk through times four days a week, that is a lot of time he or she could be selling in the office with their partner or doing other things.  In addition, if that manager gets sick and misses a day of work, the substitute may have to do a walk through and it takes him or her three hours, well three hours out of an eight hour day is quite a lot.

Lakeview Park storage units in the great place of Ontario, Canada do walk throughs too.  You have to be able to run a very good business.  It also helps to prevent crime and other things like that.  A good manager should know his or her property as best they can, so number the storage units in a flowing way.

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Forest Glade storage units in the great place of Ontario, Canada are doing well.  Every storage facility needs a good manager or a pair of good managers.  In the storage industry sometimes a managing team will be put in place and they manage as a team with no clear leader or one above the other.  Often it is a husband wife team, but most self storage places and companies are trying to get away from that for reasons we will discuss in later blogs.  In this blog, we will discuss some of the manager’s duties.  One of these tasks a manager should do once in awhile is a lock pull.  A lock pull is what it sounds like-you pull on locks to see if they are properly working and actually locked.  This is a very good thing to do, more than once a week, or in some cases, more than once a month.  We have seen some managers actually do this from their golf cart, but we suggest they walk the entire property, and tug on every lock, including locks on vacant units, property units and customer storage units too.  If a manager does a lock pull a couple times a week, he or she will have much more control and knowledge of the property.  Let us give a few examples of why lock pulls are so important to a manager and the company they work for.  Let us say a thief is on your property and he or she is a very smart thief, who knows the storage industry so well, and has seen this manager being lazy or the property is dirty, and other warning signs like that, that indicate to the potential thief that this particular manager does not care enough and stealing from him or her is easy pickings.  So the thief cuts a lock, takes things out of the storage unit he or she desires, than takes the cut lock and puts in back on the storage unit, and fits in it as to look like it is still on the storage unit correctly, and working.  He goes away.

Forest Glade storage units in the great place of Ontario, Canada, have managers we hope, that do lock pulls.  In the case above, if the manager of this storage facility does not do lock pulls; he or she will never know that a valued customer of his or her was robbed.  If the manager had done a lock pull he or she would have caught the cut lock, called the customer that moment and maybe some evidence could be found on who might have done it.  At least the manager knows that there might be problems on the property and keep his or her eyes more wide open.  All evidence is gone if weeks or even months go by and the manager has never done a lock pull.

Forest Glade storage units in the great place of Ontario, Canada need good managers.  A good manager does lock pulls.  He or she does lock pulls to achieve control over his or her property.  Sometimes a customer is in a rush, and thinks they locked their lock, but they did not, so their storage unit is unlocked.  A lock pull can stop crime in this case.

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We used to let the police dogs practice on our storage facility parking lot.  The police one day drove by our place of business and asked us if they could train the German Shepards because of all the space we had on our property.  Bloordale Garden storage places are up there in Canada and may do the same things we did.

It was fun to see the dogs come in and the police officers and women all padded up to train the dogs.  Do you know police dogs are treated just like police people?  If you shoot and kill a police dog in the line of duty, it is just like shooting a police officer.  That is a death penalty in most places in America, but I do not think Canada has a death penalty.

Do not mess with police dogs.  When we were kids, we lived by a police officer who had two white German Shepards tied up in front of his garage.  They were very beautiful dogs, but if you got too close, they would bark their heads off at you.  It was scary when you were a little kid, but when the dogs were off the chain, they were very nice, and we petted them and chased them and threw balls for them to catch.  The police officers would stand far away from the dogs they were training on our storage area and call them.  Attack, they would yell, and the dog would be flying at them, and the police officer would hold out his padded arm and the dog would tear into it.  It was fun to watch.  Another police officer would yell halt and the dog would stop the attack.

Bloordale Gardens storage might have done the same things we did.  It is always good to have the police on your side just in case you need them to help you.  In the storage industry, people could get a bit testy at times.  Moving is a stressful time for most of us, and arguments do occur.  We have called the police a few times but they never brought dogs.

We met the dogs that were training and they were great up close.  The police officers kept great care of them.  Their coats were shiny and clean and the teeth were perfect on them.  Our dogs do not have the best of teeth.  I would not be surprised if the police dogs had nice breath too.  Our dogs do not.  You have to back away sometimes.  The vet says to brush their teeth, but that is very hard to do.  Dogs do not want their teeth to be brushed.  They want food in their mouths, not a toothbrush.  A couple of weeks went by and the dogs left.  They will come back next year.  For now, they must go and fight crime.

The Bloordale Gardens storage places should think about this too.  I know Canada has the Mounties and other rangers.  They have dogs too?  I think they do.  I saw a movie or two about it.  I like dogs and now I like police dogs too.  I just do not want to have to explain to a police dog why I am in my underwear in my yard walking my own dogs.  They might not understand.

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In order to be a success in the North Toronto storage industry, you need to have a good company image. This is obvious, but many companies struggle with this. The first thing that you need to do is to develop a mission statement. Companies spend months developing a good mission statement. The companies that do benefit because they then have a concise, clear company message that will serve as a guideline for everyone in your company. A little propaganda can go a long way. Some employees may thing that it is corny, but the message will be clear. Clear messages mean successful North Toronto storage companies.

The goal of your mission statement is as follows. It should be direct. A good mission statement will say what the company is, what it aims to be, and how it intends to get there. Here is an example. Storage brand X is a customer driven storage company that will do anything to make the customer feel important. Storage brand X will not stop in striving to make every customer feel important. Storage brand X will strive to continue to grow as a responsibility to our customers and to our dedicated employees. This states your goals and it lets the employees know that the North Toronto storage customer is what matters. A mission statement is the best way for you to communicate your message to your employees.

The way that North Toronto storage companies communicate the company message to customers is through advertising. More specifically, through a slogan. A slogan can make a big difference is your company image and you should spend time figuring out what a good message would be. You may choose to focus on a few different things. Obviously, the customer should feel valued when they think of your company. Also, your slogan needs to be memorable so that it stays in the customers mind. That way, when the eventual time comes that they need to get a storage unit, they will remember you first.

There are a few different slogans that you can use for your North Toronto storage company. They will hopefully separate you from the other Ontario storage facilities. Cleanliness is only the beginning. This will let the customer know that your company places importance on a well maintained facility. Some customers in Ontario may have had a bad experience in the past with a company where their belongings were damaged. This will give them peace of mind that your company values cleanliness and will do everything in their power to protect their belongings.

If you are a big enough company, you may want to consider bringing in outside help to assist you in developing a good mission statement and a great slogan. There are plenty of people that you can find that are experts in marketing. You can hire new employees to develop a marketing department. This is great because you can make necessary changes to your company message as the need arrives. Another option would be to hire a marketing consulting company. They will be able to find ways to communicate your company message at a smaller cost than starting a whole new department in your company. The problem is that they may not be there when you need them. Starting a department may prove to be the most effective.

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