Self-storage companies are becoming more popular as a business choice these days because of the ever-increasing demand for them. With houses becoming smaller a typical family is going to need somewhere to store excess furniture.
If you have considered creating a self-storage company but have had no idea where to start here are some good tips to put you in the right direction.
1. Examine the competition
Before you go off and start a self-storage business you should examine the competition in your area and see what they are doing and if there is room for a new storage company to operate in the area.
Just because there are other storage units in the area it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t start one there, in fact, it shows there is a need for the service. You should look at the competition and see if they offer their services to a particular customer and if they don’t maybe you could.
For example in a university town you could offer special prices for students, student storage is a massive industry to tap into and doing so could give your business a huge boost.
If you are not in a student town you could make offers for local businesses that your competitors are not catering to.
If there aren’t any storage businesses in your area don’t automatically think that having one there could be good for business. Think of the population and other potential reasons in which a storage business wouldn’t work there before jumping into a new industry.
2. Decide on your business
Storage can come in many forms, shipping containers, warehouses and even mobile storage are all different businesses and will need a different level of investment.
Scott Evans of PinkStorage.co.uk opted for a shipping container business and had this to say “For our business, metal shipping containers made sense as we could purchase more of them as our business grew. A warehouse, on the other hand, would have limited the amount of growth in our locations”
3. Storage Security
Your storage company will have many different users who will need access to their storage containers at different times of the day. Now you could hire staff to work shifts to secure your storage unit 24 hours of the day, but in 2020 a lot of storage companies are turning to tech to help run their locations.
You could consider using a lock and key but if a customer loses the key or makes a duplicate of it it doesn’t help with your storage security. A lock and key is the easiest way to secure your unit as well as the cheapest but if you want a good reputation as a storage unit business you are going to need to invest in the latest technology.
Tyler, a security specialist from Firewalltechnical.com says that “Securing your valuables with a fingerprint scanner or iris scanning technology is much safer than a traditional pin code system that can be brute-forced or a lock and key which can be copied by previous owners.”
4. Marketing your business
When your storage business is up and running you are going to need to decide how you are going to market it. There are a wide variety of options you can choose from and all will produce results at different times.
Printed leaflets posted through letterboxes in your local area could be a cheap option when starting out whereas online ads can be more expensive but can get you results quicker.
Mike a social media expert from sosociable.co.uk says that “social media is a great way of marketing your storage business as you can target your potential customers very easily. Think of who needs storage and Facebook can help you reach them. You could target new parents as they often run out of room in their homes very quickly.”
With over 92% of the internet in Europe having social media accounts you can see why advertising your storage business on websites like Facebook can help you get customers quickly.
5. Find a reliable seller
Branding is vital to any business and it’s the same for storage companies. When purchasing your storage units you are going to want your units to be the same colour, have the same features and cost the same every time as it allows you to budget for growth.
If you don’t have a reliable supplier of storage units you are going to end up with storage units in different colours, with different security measures and it will cause you teathing problems.
Try to find a storage supplier with good feedback that has been around for a while as they can also help you with any storage questions that you may have.
Conclusion
The self-storage industry is one that is growing very quickly and if you are thinking of getting into it too it’s a great business to be involved in because after the initial set up there isn’t too much work that needs to be done and you as a business owner can focus on growing the business and opening more sites.
