At the beginning of each year, most people are reflecting on where they are and where they want to be one year from now. Whether that's living a healthier lifestyle, exercising more, losing weight or saving money, resolutions are great goals to set for the coming year as they keep you motivated and working towards continued improvement. But what about resolutions for your self-storage business? We've outlined 5 things that you could do this year to better your business than ever before.
1. Clean up your facility
While things like trimming trees and spraying weed killer may not be on the top of your to-do list, your site's curb appeal plays a huge role in customer acquisition and retention. Chances are, if your facility doesn't look well taken care of from the outside in, you won't be attracting the type of customers you want renting from your facility.
Consider implementing a maintenance plan that's broken into weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually and seasonally tasks. This will help you stay on top of routine maintenance as needed. For example, weekly tasks could be things like removing unwanted items left by tenants while annual tasks could be things link getting your fire extinguishers professionally inspected. Download our suggested maintenance plan for more tips!
2. Fill More Units
If you're rented below an 80% occupancy rate and looking to fill more units, it may be time to consider a unit re-mix or upgrades. Evaluate which units are most successful and least successful at your self-storage facility. Should you be offering more 10x10 units? Whether your feasibility study was off or the demographics in your area have changed over the years, modifying your unit mix to satisfy customers could be exactly what your facility needs this year.
3. Replace Old Doors
It's simple, really... people don't want to spend money renting a unit from your facility if the door is hard to operate, or even worse, a safety hazard. If your doors are chalking, chipping, fading, hard to open or hard to close, it's likely time for a door replacement project. But don't worry! There are many rewards and tax saving strategies when completing a door replacement project.
When you replace the doors at your facility, not only will you be able to increase your rental rates, but you'll likely be able to save on insurance discounts too. And at a 6.5% cap rate, you could see a significant increase in value in just one year!
4. Curb Delinquencies
Are you tired of delinquent units? What if we told you there was an easier way to overlock/release and get past-due payments? With smart locks installed on each unit door, units can be remotely locked or unlocked by admins, so site-managers can get vacant units ready for new tenants and overlock delinquent units automatically without having to go on-site and remove a yellow or red lock. This means, if a tenant pays a bill at 8:00 PM on a Sunday, you won't have to send a site manager to the property after hours or have a disgruntled customer waiting for business hours on Monday to re-gain access to their unit - it's all done automatically.
Creating more ways for your customers to make payments is also helpful. Consider installing a smart keypad at the gate that can prompt and process payments. Once a tenant makes a payment at the gate, they'll have immediate access back into the facility and to their automatically released unit.
5. Upgrade Security Cameras
How good is your video surveillance system? If a unit was broken into at your facility, would you be able to know who did it? As an owner-operator, you have a obligation to the safety and security of your tenants and their belongings, and high-quality security cameras are a must. Consider installing cloud-based surveillance cameras that record activity and store it automatically and remotely on the Internet. This allows app based monitoring which is convenient for remotely managed facilities. It's also important to have security cameras located all around your facility and not just at the entrance and exit points.
For more ideas on self-storage resolutions, check out this thread on Self-Storage Talk, where real self-storage owners and operators share their goals for 2022.
