So, let's throw some ideas together and help each other out! How do you advertise for your store, warehouse, retail space, specific items?

I don't advertise as I don't have a store, but I googled "portable store signs" and the pic below is only one example of many that are available. One the size shown would give some exposure if you had an area near the street where it could be displayed (and secured). Multiple tenants would help defray the cost.



I once owned one of these on wheels and pulled it from KS to Texas where I used it for a year before selling it and moving to California. Worked well in the location in which I had it.

We’ve all complained about facilities, their policies and their managers at one time or another, but today I have something good to say about a manager.

I have to preface this by saying I bought my first locker 10 years ago from this fellow and though he has been moved around a chain a bit, he is back at his first location and he came through for me today.

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I bought two lockers at his facility last week and we were all told we would have until end of business Monday (yesterday) to clean out the units. The regular manager was there which I was happy to see and he agreed to let me have an extra day if I needed it (through Tuesday), but that’s not why I’m complimenting him.

No, it was because he went out of his way to let me have Salvation army come in to take away some of the big stuff AND when they wouldn’t take a mattress with a tear he let me put it and the box springs into a “garbage” locker they have for …. Garbage.

This 10 x 30 was about 1 foot deep front to back with trash and I added the mattress to it.
He didn’t have to do that and many managers wouldn’t have. In fact, before I saw him out on the grounds I asked a female helper inside if the facility had a manager’s locker (old discarded stuff) I could put it in and she said “We don’t have anything like that.”

So, a good decade long relationship paid off…not a biggie, but saved me from getting it somewhere to dispose of it. Dump runs…zero !

Good topic, and refreshing to see it not started by Movieman or Travis.

Yep, good topic and some good ideas about it. As to who DIDN'T start the thread, also good; the folks who are keeping this forum alive are the two you mentioned, you two also and folks like calcoastgal, alias300, alloro and a few others.

Imagine if even 1/10 of the over 3,000 members here posted something; not going to happen of course, just the way it is.

The following was a response to a thread about the top 10 storage auction forums/etc in force today, but I figured it should enjoy its own presence here, so here it is.

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One measure I would be interested in seeing is the percentage of storage facilites that currently use ANY online auction sale technique as opposed to the ten's of thousands who somehow see the "old" (read "tried and true") technique of having a live body talk to other live bodies about buying a unit.

The following figures are hypothetical but may give an idea of the "impact" online storage auctions currently make on the rest of us who go to auctions....whether frequently or infrequently.



Remember, the figures used in the spreadsheet above are hypothetical; they use the appx # of storage facilities in the USA (according to the SSA), an easily identifiable number like 1,000 or 100 (or 4) for a number of auction listings on any of the current online auction sources and a simple math equation to show what the percentage of those auctions are as a relationship to the number of facilities available to have auctions one way or the other.

The spreadsheet above does NOT represent the fact that not all facilities even have auctions, etc. It does not have anything to do with "SEO" (search engine optimization) etc. It is simply my assesment of the potential of the business...or possibly the LACK of potential based on what I reasonably believe is the current state of the industry.

Here's a report from the Self Storage Association which documents statistics they have acquired regarding the self storage business.



2013 (Mid-year) SELF STORAGE INDUSTRY FACT SHEET  (as of 6/21/2013)

 •The self storage industry has been one of the fastest-growing sectors of the United States commercial real estate industry over the period of the last 35 years

•There are now approximately 48,500 “primary” self storage facilities in the United States as of year end 2012; another 4,000 are “secondary” facilities (“primary” means that self storage is the “primary” source of business revenue – US Census Bureau)

•There are approximately 59,500 self storage facilities worldwide as of Q4 – 2012; there are more than 3,000 in Canada and more than 1,000 in Australia.

•Total self storage rentable space in the US is now 2.3 billion square feet (as of Q4-2012) [approximately 210 million square meters].  That figure represents more than 78 square miles of rentable self storage space, under roof – or an area well more than 3 times the size of Manhattan Island (NY)

•U.S. self storage facilities pay a total of more than $3.25 billion in property taxes to local government  jurisdictions.

•The distribution of U.S. self storage facilities (Q4-2012) is as follows:  32% urban, 52% suburban and 16% rural

•The average revenue per square foot varies from facility to facility; however, here are the data for Q1 2013:  $1.12 PSF for non-climate controlled and $1.42 PSF for climate controlled space..

•Occupancy rates for self storage facilities as of Q1 2013 were 85.3% up from one year when the occupancy rate was 83.5%

•In fact, 8.96% of all American households currently rent a self storage unit (10.85 million of the 113.3 million US HHs in 2012; that has increased from 1 in 17 US HHs (6%) in 1995 (18 years ago)

•At year-end 1984 there were 6,601 facilities with 289.7 million square feet (26.9 million square meters) of rentable self storage in the U.S.  At year end 2012, there are approximately 48,500 “primary” self storage facilities representing 2.32 billion square feet

•Nationally, at year-end 2012 all self storage facilities employed more than 172,000 persons, or an average of 3.5 employees per facility

•The average (mean) size of a “primary” self storage facility in the US is approximately 46,500 square feet

•The top-5 self storage companies, including the 4 public companies (Public Storage, Extra Space, Sovran and U-Store-It REITS – Real Estate Investment Trusts) plus U-Haul (a public company/ non-REIT), own, operate and/or manage some 5,800 self storage facilities, or about 11.9% of all US facilities.  Several public companies are now getting into third-party management of facilities owned by other investors.  Hundreds of facilities are now being managed by the three public companies that have moved into this service area.

•In addition to the public companies in the industry (above), there are more than 110 privately-held firms that own and operate 10 ore more self storage facilities.  In addition there are som 2,450 firms that own and operate from 2-9 self storage facilities.  Lastly, there are approximately 30,800 firms that own and operate just one facility.

•There is a total U.S. self storage space capacity of about 21 sq.ft. per American household

•There is 7.3 sq.ft. of self storage space for every man, woman and child in the nation; thus, it is physically possible that every American could stand – all at the same time – under the total canopy of self storage roofing

•About 13% of all self storage renters say they will rent for less than 3 months; 18% for 3-6 months; 18% for 7-12 months; 22% for 1-2 years; and 30% for more than 2 years.\

•Some 68% of all self storage renters live in a single family household; 27% live in an apartment or condo.

•Some 65% of all self storage renters have a garage but still rent a unit; 47% have an attic in their home; and 33% have a basement.

•Some 47% of all self storage renters have an annual household income of less than $50,000 per year; 63% have an annual household income of less than $75,000 per year.

•More than 1.5 million self storage units nationwide are rented to military personnel (6% of all units); however, in communities adjacent to domestic US military bases, military occupancy can be from 20% to 95% of all rented units.

•SSA members value military personnel as self storage customers and traditionally extend special incentives and discounts to those with a valid military ID card, such as: 10%-30% dicounts off rental rates, free months of rent, gift certificates, free use of moving truck, "one-dollar move-ins," no rent increases while deployed overseas, waiver of security deposits, administration fees, etc.

•It took the self storage industry more than 25 years to build its first billion square feet of space; it added the second billion square feet in just 8 years (1998-2005)

•During the two (2) peak development years (2004-2005) 8,694 new self storage facilities (approximately 480 million square feet of space) were added.

•83.9% of all US counties (or 2,634 out of 3,141) have at least one "primary" self storage facility.

•(And here’s a stat that SSA is rightly proud of) – 95.4 percent of current SSA direct members say YES! They would recommend SSA membership to other self storage owner-operators.  (There’s still room for improvement, though.)
 
SSA Sources:
 •Quarterly SSA surveys of member and non-member companies conducted by Conquest Communications of Richmond, VA

•SSA FOCUS - Financial & Operational Characteristics for the United States (2009) - Full year 2008 data. (Go to selfstorage.org - "Quick Links"; go to FOCUS data)

•“Financial and Operational Characteristics of (U.S.) Self Storage Facilities” – February, 2009

•“Self Storage Demand Study” – © 2013 Edition

•“Self Storage: Analyzing the Competitive Landscape – A Market Inventory Study ” – © 2006
 
The above facts are merely a light sampling of industry data available.  Much more detail may be gained by reviewing the above SSA studies. Copies of these studies are available for sale in SSA's selfstorage.org (see Online Store- Publications).
 

Ah, it's just a default setting that comes shipped in the O/S.

Imagine the alternative of getting no updates at all. LOL! I think then people would complain security problems

Of course, and maybe it IS to our advantage to have it automatically update, but my Norton 360 easily allows me to decide WHEN a backup is going to occurr. Therefore, it doesn't happen at 7 a.m. when I am on the computer but at 1 a.m. when I am not.

Adobe is another one that wants to update all the time, but at least it pops up with a suggestion that I do that...I'm just suggesting that MS should make THAT their default...give me the choice up front instead of buried somewhere.

MS (or Apple) is like eBay...what other choice do we have?  Well, there is LINUX, etc.

The first two weeks of August have been SLOW for me.  The number of estate sales is off right now and I don't explore EVERY yard/garage sale like some of my cronies do, so that is part of it.

The "piece by piece" auctions I go to haven't been that productive either, but it's like anything else...CYCLICAL. It's just like finding that great locker as opposed to the run of the mill locker.  I've gotten a lot pickier in buying both areas than I used to be...I am just not as interested in volume of goods as I am in quality.  So far that has been paying off.

You?