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Building a Storage Facility? Learn From What Works Elsewhere
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If you are looking to get into the storage industry, you should take a look at some of the things that set one facility in Florida apart from the next. Anybody can offer Hollywood storage units but not everyone brings a great storage experience along with that. There is more to storage than just the units. Having quality Hollywood storage units is a big part of it, but you need to consider some of the other aspects of the industry before you build your storage property.
The first decision is where to build. The location of your storage facility is one of the most important decisions that you will make. You could have the best Hollywood storage units in the area, but if it is hard to get to, you will not be able to rent out all of your spaces very easily. People want to have a convenient place that they can get to when they need to access their space. Location will also determine the security of the facility to a certain extent. If you build in a bad part of Florida you will have to deal with break-ins and other safety issues. Spend a little extra to land in a good area that is convenient for your future customers to get to.
You will need to outfit your Hollywood storage units with great security features to ensure the integrity of you storage facility. The pin access controlled gate may be the most important. There are a lot of companies that sell gates so you should do a little shopping around before you decide which one you want to go with. The other security features that you will want are a security fence, door alarms, and some type of security monitoring systems with video camera surveillance. Do not try to go the cheap route when you are building your units. Spend a little to get good features that will provide a safe, secure location for your customers.
You want your storage facility to be a one stop shop for those renting Hollywood storage units from you. There are a lot of different types of moving and storage supplies that you can offer to the customer. When someone needs a storage unit, they will also need a lock for the space. This will go on the door of the unit and is the last line of defense for the customer from someone that may try to break into your unit. The best locks are called disc locks and will make it pretty much impossible for a unit to be broken into. Not everyone will want to spend the twenty dollars that it costs for disc locks so you will want to offer the less expensive padlocks as well.
Customers will also need boxes when they store with you. There are a lot of different types of boxes that you can offer. The average customer can just choose from small, medium, or large. The wardrobe boxes are designed for customers that want to protect clothing they are storing. You should also put packing tape by the boxes that you sell. Packing material will also be helpful so that they can protect any fragile items that they are putting into storage. You will also be able to make a lot of money from the supplies that you sell.
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Meeting the Needs of Your Storage Clientele
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If you are looking to build Emeryville storage units in California and do not know what types of units to offer, this article should get you started on the right path. The decisions you make about what Emeryville storage units to offer will impact the future of your company so you need to do a little research before you make any final decisions. The variety of units that you can offer is great and there are articles that cover the basics of drive up spaces and indoor spaces.
You need to decide what sizes your Emeryville storage units will be. There are so many sizes of storage units out there in the market today that it can be a little overwhelming for property owners and customers. Some feel that it would be best to offer as many different sizes as you possibly can, but this may just lead to confusion and overkill. It may be best just to stick to the basics when you are building your storage units. Having the largest amount of choices in California may not be a good thing.
The basic sizes are covered in great length in other storage articles, but here is a brief synopsis of the different Emeryville storage units and the sizes. You may want to start with locker size units. They are just like a normal five by five, but they have four or five foot ceilings. The customers that will want these will be looking to store a few boxes or a couple of suitcases. The area that you are in may not warrant having spaces of this size so you will have to decide if you want to invest in storage units that are this small.
The smallest space at most storage facilities is a five by five, but it would have the traditional eight foot ceilings. It could hold about twenty five standard file size boxes, but not really that much furniture. The next size is the five by ten followed by the ten by ten. The ten by ten and ten by fifteen will accommodate callers storing one and two bedroom apartments respectively. The ten by twenty is the first size that is recommended for houses. It can hold most two bedroom homes and is also good for standard vehicle storage. The ten by twenty five and ten by thirty Emeryville storage units are good for larger two bedroom homes and most three bedroom homes. You can offer larger sizes if you like, but most sites stop at ten by thirty. They accommodate callers looking for more space by simply offering a deal on storage units located right next to each other.
The climate controlled storage space is becoming more popular in the market today. Customers have experience or know someone that has experience temperature related damage while storing. A more appropriate name for these units would probably be temperature controlled units. You are heating them when it gets cold and cooling them off in the summer. Obviously, these units will cost a little bit more, but it is a good way for the customer to have peace of mind. Make sure to follow up with great temperature regulation so you meet customer expectations. They will expect the temperature to stay around room temperature so make sure that is what you are doing.
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Offering Your Storage Customers the Variety they NeedBy jeff on February 8, 2011 | Comments Off
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It is getting harder and harder to stay competitive in the California storage industry. It is all about what types of Concord storage units that you offer and the quality of service that you bring along with it. Customers are not just looking for Concord storage units to have a place for their things; most customers are looking for a complete storage experience. You need to be able to bring them options for storage and a wonderful experience along with it.
The first thing that you need to look at is what type of Concord storage units that you want to offer to your customers. The fact is that there are many different types of customers that you can cater to. You may choose to have a mega facility that is everything to all people in California or you may just want to specialize in a few key areas. Either way, it is wise to look at all of the different options so you can decide what is best for your storage company.
The convenience of the Concord storage units is important to a lot of people. The most convenient spaces are the drive up units. Some properties may not have enough room to offer drive up spaces because they will take up some space. The drive up units are nice for customers for a few different reasons. The customer will just be able to pull right up to the space so they will be able to load and unload very easy. This is great for customers who are looking to store a lot of heavier items, such as furnishings from their house. The doors should be roll up and very wide so customers can get in and out very easy. If you have drive up units at your facility, make sure that bigger moving trucks are able to access the drive up access Concord storage units at your property or you will run into a lot of problems in the future. The drive up units will be a little higher in rent because of the added convenience of access.
You need to also inside spaces for customers who are looking to spend a little bit of less. The units are a little harder than the drive up to access. Customers will be able to save a little bit of money on their monthly rent sacrificing a bit of convenience in the process. The units will be accessed by an entry door and are lined up inside of a hallway. The units closer to the door will probably go the quickest so you should probably charge a bit more for them. The great thing about inside storage units is the fact that you can keep expanding vertically by adding multiple floors to your facility. If you are going to have multiple levels, you will need to install an elevator. Make sure to put the elevator by the door so that it is easy to access the elevator. The elevator also needs to be large enough to hold bigger items, too. Install a staircase just in case the elevator experiences mechanical failure so that customers can at least get to their storage units during these times. With a little research about your market, you should be able to figure out what they best setup is for your storage property.
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Staying Competitive in the Self Storage IndustryBy jeff on February 8, 2011 | Comments Off
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You want to make sure everything is in the right place with your Clayton storage units. Owning a storage company in California is tough right now because of the property. You want to make sure that you are offering the types of Clayton storage units that the customer wants. The key to business is making the customer happy. If you are able to do that, everything will fall into place.
The first place that you need to look is the cleanliness of your property. Some people may have the perception that Clayton storage units are dirty. You need to change their opinion by offering units that are well maintained. Normal cleaning will help you in this process. You could have your employees take a quick look around the facility on a daily basis to make sure that trash is picked up. Also, you should maybe consider hiring professional cleaners to clean each storage unit when customers move out. Customers that store with you would then in effect have a brand new storage unit every single time. This is not something that every facility in California offers to the public so it could separate you from the competition and that is what it is all about.
The next thing that you should make sure of is that your employees are treating customers well when they call in to pay for their Clayton storage units or any other customer service issue. Most employees will naturally put on a smiley face when customers call in to inquire about storage because they are in sales mode. Some employees may let down their guard a bit when they find out that it is a customer service call. This is unacceptable and you should hire a company to secret shop your store locations to make sure that they are representing your company the way that you want.
You need to also offer a variety of Clayton storage units to make sure that you are meeting the customer needs in that area. All customers want different things out of storage so you need to offer a good variety to keep up with demand. That could be the difference that makes you the best facility in the area.
All stores need to offer a variety of moving and storage supplies to keep up with current market trends. A lot of companies make their money back on their storage units and get all of their profits from moving and storage supplies. When people are storing or moving, there is a variety of things that they will need. You would be wise to advertise this to the public so they think of you when they need the items. The profit margin would be higher than on some of your storage units. There are other articles that list the different items that you can offer at your facility.
Make sure that you are offering good specials with your storage units. Most properties offer good specials when customers move in so you will need to offer them if you are looking to stay competitive. Most sites only pull specials when all of their units are pretty much occupied. A first month free special is fantastic if you are looking to attract a lot of new clients to your storage company.
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Be on the Lookout for Quality Storage SolutionsBy jeff on February 7, 2011 | Comments Off
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The great state of Texas is only smaller than Alaska. Driving across this vast state takes a long time. One almost needs to go to Olmos storage and put things away to get across the state. Of course, we are just kidding and we are trying to give a shout out to Olmos storage places. This is what we do these days, giving shout outs to all the great self-storage places in Texas. This will be a huge undertaking for there is a whole bunch of them, owned by whole bunch of different owners and companies.
We think of self-storage places because we want them to be successful, as we want all business to be successful in Texas, and the entire United States of America. Storage has not always been on people’s minds of course, and storage is hard for people to relate to some times. Ask the average person about storage companies and the names of some, and they will be hard pressed to name them. This is why a lot of experts in the business do not believe in TV ads. People do not recognize name brands with self-storage facilities. Public could be named a few times as companies in the self-storage industry, but that is about it. They have done some TV ads in the past, but when they do, it is always surprising to see them. They are short and are made to promote specials and discounts.
Olmos storage places probably have never done any commercials ever on TV. It is costly, and if does not generate any revenue, or very little, why do it. It is hard to measure how effective TV ads are on TV unless the TV ad is so good, one can not ignore it. Super Bowl TV ads are very expensive, but it seems people watch them instead of using the remote controls to skip by them. It is hard to measure how many people skip by TV ads with the remote control. We do and we believe many people do, yet they are all over our TV sets. They must believe that keeping a product in one’s mind is a very good idea and they must be able to prove it too. Why else would they spend as much as a million dollars in some cases to do it? Companies like Coke spend millions on TV ads. So do tennis shoe commercials. They pay millions to Michael Jordan to promote their shoes. We do not subscribe to buying shoes with famous people’s name on them for sometimes three hundred dollars. We saw three hundred dollar shoes at a Nike store in downtown Chicago. We were shocked in a way.
Olmos storage in Texas will not charge us overblown prices because famous people have stored their stuff inside their storage places. Good deals exist if you look for them. Careful though, of too good of deals from self-storage places though; there might be a hitch or something beyond that. Maybe they can not rent their spaces unless they are dirt-cheap. Why would be the next question, why is the price so cheap? You get what you pay for some times in life and self-storage spaces are no different. The place could be old and empty, and not very safe. Buyers beware.
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Efficient Lien Policies Make Timely Rent Payments All the More Important
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Things are happening to the self storage industry in California, and that’s to say the very least. In case you haven’t heard, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger just signed an amendment to fix some very old problems pertaining to self storage liens—more specifically, the issuance of lien notices, and the acceptable means by which companies can settle lien disputes with customers. Principally, the amendment makes it easier for self storage providers to send out lien notices; instead of certified mail, they’re now allowed to use certificates of mailing (a cheaper option). Additionally, the amendment allows for lien disputes to be settled in small claims courts—much cheaper than paying the legal fees associated with superior courts. All told, California’s self storage industry is, between its 3,890 facilities, set to save nearly $10 million in the coming year—no small amount, indeed.
Of particular importance, here, is the expedience with which self storage facilities (and companies) are going to be able to deal with lien disputes. Whereas yesterdays disputes were bogged down by long, expensive stays in the superior courts and mountains of legal fees, today’s can be settled quickly, efficient, and most importantly cheaply in the small claims courts. All of this, of course, means that consumers (i.e. tenants) are going to have to start taking their rent payments a bit more seriously. It was hard to get away with skipping your payments in the past; now, it’s pretty close to impossible.
All of this brings a simple question to mind: how can self storage customers make sure that they’re not falling behind on their payments? How can tenants guarantee that they are not going to fall behind on their rent—that they are not going to receive their own lien notices in the mail? Fortunately for consumers, there are some fairly simple solutions to these budget problems.
Don’t rent a self storage unit that you cannot afford. Your belongings are not worth the headache of a lien dispute. If you’re not sure that you can afford your payments, don’t agree to them to begin with. Sit down and work through your budget before the pen ever touches the rental agreement. If, at the end of the day, you should discover that you simply do not have the funds for a self storage unit, then you’re going to have to find another way to deal with your belongings.
Don’t rent a large unit unless you genuinely have to. You don’t have to store everything that you own. Really, it’s just not necessary. Sell the items that you don’t absolutely need, and call in some favors with your friends and family (i.e. make use of their garages, if they’re willing). If you can get rid of some of your belongings beforehand, you can rent a smaller, thereby cheaper, self storage unit.
If you don’t have the discipline to pay your bills on time, set up an automatic payment. Many facilities can draw rent payments directly from your checking account. If you’re forgetful; if you’re dealing with other problems—it might be nice to set up an automatic payment schedule. That way, you’ll never forget that your rent is due.
Now that major companies don’t have to worry about excessive legal fees, self storage customers are going to have to be sure that they are staying on top of their rent payments. Forethought, we’re going to find, is going to define the self storage experience.