OK, I made another mistake.
I wrote and filmed a different post for this week. Then I came down to our new facility in Florida today and left the camera with this week’s video in it at home.
In that episode I wrote about anther mistake I made around the upcoming Self Storage Association (SSA) convention in Las Vegas.
This just confirms that my wife is right about all the mistakes I make.
But the good news is that you can make mistakes like these, and more, in self storage and still win.
Why?
Because you will have a team to manage a self storage facility.
One of the most successful posts I’ve written was about the managers we have at our facilities. I want to offer to you again because they are critical to our success. One of the managers interviewed has since married and moved on. Some of them were at a facility I sold and have moved with me to a new facility that’s in the lease-up phase. But what they talk about is timeless.
In my humble opinion, it’s the difference between success or failure at a facility.
For example, the first manager you will see in the video never saw the feasibility report we had done on her facility indicating there should be a 15% difference between first-floor and second-floor rents.
It’s a very good thing she didn’t see it because she priced all the units at the same (higher) rent and got it. She also leased more per month than our feasibility report indicated.
The employees you have are the difference between success, doing ok, and failure.
Below is the original article. Enjoy “Meeting Our Managers”.
Reposted from September 3, 2015:
It could be said that the most important people in the self storage business are the Managers.
At least in our case, that’s how it works.
The public sees them as the face and personality of the facility, not the Owners. Customers, for the most part, don’t even know we exist.
When we build, expand, or take over an existing facility, it’s the managers that are the source of the net lease up results. Sure we train them and give them resources, but it’s the Managers that go out and get the results we need.
I thought it might be interesting to meet a few of ours. Watch this video and notice what themes that emerge around what it takes to successfully manage a self storage facility.
I learned the hard way not to show up unannounced and tell our female managers “I’m going to film you today.” They did get few minutes notice so these weren’t completely candid interviews. The longest prep time was overnight for one of them. But these are not scripted answers. They did get some time to think about it, but not a lot. Also, they didn’t talk to each other about what they were going to say.
This isn’t all of our Managers and they were not handpicked, they were just the easiest to access geographically. I could have videoed any of the other Managers and the same type of themes would have been discussed.
This is not by accident or coincidence either. It is by design.
For our business plan, we are seeking self-starters who have
- People skills ,
- Sales skills, and
- Take ownership.
We are also seeking a cultural fit.
You won’t get the type of performers we have for $7.95 to $10 per hour.
I can’t tell you the number of times I have looked at a facility and the Owner is paying the least amount possible for a Manager. Many even subcontracting them out to maximize the return they can get on their facility. If the Manager is sick, they are off with no pay, no benefits, no health insurance.
It is not that Owners who choose to employ this way are bad, but they are defining the skill set and culture of their company by those decisions.
That may be a perfect fit for your business plan and I’m not suggesting we have figured out the “right” way to successfully manage a self storage facility. The real purpose of this exercise is to get you to think through your plan and strategy.
Our strategy is to have the most expensive facility in any submarket. To achieve that goal, we feel it’s a requirement to provide high-quality customer service. To ensure that quality, we need they types of employees you saw in the video.
But that is our strategy. What’s yours?
Have you written out your plan or strategy?
I suggest the following:
- Write out your facility or company’s overall strategy. Why do you exist and how do you want to be perceived by your customers and the market?
- How is your facility or company different? What can you uniquely offer the market that your competition isn’t offering?
- Even if YOU are the “Manager,” what is needed on the front line to fulfill what you have crafted above?
- And finally, what environment or company culture do you want to create for your customers and employees? A culture is going to be created whether it’s by design or by default. Go on and create it.
So how about those Managers?
