By Pamela Alton

As the on-site manager of a storage facility, you have many responsibilities: telephone sales, customer service, showing and renting units, maintenance, outside marketing and daily management duties, to name a few. One of the duties probably not covered in your facility policy and procedures manual is interacting with your supervisor, district manager or facility owner.

Some managers many never see or hear from their supervisor. Others feel like they almost live with them. No matter which is true for you, there are basic rules in dealing with your superior.

Letter of Employment

When you accepted your current position, your owner or supervisor should have drafted a Letter of Employment that spells out your job duties, compensation package and goals he wants you to achieve at your facility. This is the critical first step in setting up an honest and open communication policy with your superiors. If you currently don't have such a letter, perhaps you should discuss this with your employer and ask that one be drafted.

Job Duties

Obviously, when you were hired, your job duties should have been discussed with you, and any questions you had should have been answered for you at that time. Periodically, you should review these duties with your supervisor. If you are bored and can handle more responsibility, ask for more things to do. If you are overwhelmed with your current duties, discuss how you can get them done by reorganizing your time or prioritizing your tasks. Perhaps ask for some outside help with maintenance or marketing duties. Your supervisor many not know you need help unless you talk about it.

Goals

Try to set aside several times a year to discuss your personal and business goals for the next year, quarter or month. Set your goals high enough to make you stretch, but achieve those goals. Don't allow yourself or your supervisor to set unattainable goals you can't achieve. This will only serve to de-motivate you. Your goals could be increasing occupancy by 2 percent to 5 percent each month, decreasing delinquency levels, overseeing cosmetic repairs at your facility or designing a monthly marketing program. They could be personal goals, such as attending computer classes, Spanish classes, graphic design for your ads and brochures, joining a community club to expose your facility to another market while enjoying the company of people with similar interests. Whatever the goal is, discuss it with your supervisor.

Communication

Communicating on a regular basis with your facility owner or supervisor is a must. Not only does it help you with problems or situations that arise at your facility, but communication will also help you know if you are doing a good job or if there is room for improvement. One of the ways to communicate daily with your home office is to call in your deposit from the day before every morning before 10 a.m. This gives you the opportunity to discuss any problems or answer any questions you many have with your supervisor on a regular basis. Open communication can stop minor problems from exploding into major headaches.

Manuals

You should have been given a company policy and procedures manual to read and discuss at the time of being hired. This manual should have covered such issues as lunch breaks, paydays, holidays, dress code, emergency procedures, lien and auction laws, collections, etc. If you can improve on your company's current manual, offer suggestions. If your company does not have one, purchase one or several that are available on the market today and work with your supervisor to draft a customized version for your facility.

Philosophy and Mutual Respect

You and your supervisor should have similar philosophies with respect to the management of your facility. During your job interview or during your probationary period, these philosophies should have come up for discussion. You will obviously not agree with your facility owner 100 percent of the time. If that is the case, you should discuss your differences openly and honestly. In order for everyone to do the best job possible for the facility, there has to be mutual respect from both parties. Make an appointment with your supervisor to discuss your concerns. Write them down to help keep you focused. Role play with your spouse or assistant manager so you will feel comfortable discussing those "unpleasant" issues.

Time to Move on?

If you feel you can't discuss issues with your supervisor or owner, that you won't be heard, that you resent being micro-managed (after all, why did they hire you if they're always going to second-guess your decisions?), then speak up and tell your facility owner how you feel. Remember: It's not what you say, but how you say it that is the key.

There are times when nothing you say or do is good enough for your supervisor. You are in a lose/lose situation, and that is not a good place to be. If that is the case, perhaps it's time for you to look for a different company that has goals and philosophies that are similar to your own. You are not doing yourself, your facility or your supervisor any favors by doing a minimal job. Get your resume together and begin looking for a fresh start.

Pamela Alton is the owner of Mini-Management^®, a nationwide manager-placement service. Mini-Management also offers full-service and "operations-only" facility management, training manuals, inspections and audits, feasibility studies, consulting and training seminars. For more information, call (800) 646-4648.

By Cary McGovern

In my last two columns, I described why records management is always cost justified and that self-storage is an easy mark for traditional commercial records centers as a source for new business. This article describes why every self-storage operation should offer records-management services. You have many options that range from very low cost and low maintenance to the more traditional high-maintenance, high-cost versions. If you do not offer records-management services you will continue to loose this lucrative business to your competition. It is your choice.

Two Absolute Truths

If there were two absolute truths in the records-management business, they would go something like this: 1) commercial records management is always cheaper and better than self-managing your records; and 2) the best source of new records-management customers is always self-storage. I have been working in the commercial records industry for more than 30 years, and if there was ever a truthful business statement, these are two examples. You notice that I use the word "always" in the above declarations. There is a reason for that: There is never an exception to these two rules.

For a moment, let's agree that I am correct. Then the question has to be, "Why aren't you offering the service?" For the last three years I have spent a great deal of my time educating the self-storage marketplace with some success. I must admit, though, that there is still quite a bit of misunderstanding by self-storage owners and operators concerning records management.

Always Cheaper and Better

In the May 2000 issue of ISS, I discussed the way to cost justify records management. It is very straightforward and quite simple. One of the problems with records management in most businesses is that it takes such a low priority and isn't important until there is a problem. When a problem arises, it is usually in the form of litigation or an audit. Records then vault to the highest level of importance immediately.

Managing records assumes that you know what you have, how to find it when you need it and when to get rid of it. Records management is inventory control. Inventory control presumes two things: First, you take an inventory, then you keep control. In the commercial records industry, inventory control is done as a regular course of action. It is simple when done by using an inexpensive method: bar codes.

Self-Storage Always Loses to Commercial Records

Since we can always cost justify it and it is less trouble for the customer, it is simple to get commercial-records business. Uninformed businesses always look to self-storage to get rid of their "stuff." They really do not know of any other way. You are close by, and storing with you gets their stuff out of the way.

But sooner or later, the volume grows and disorganization occurs. No one in the customer's business wants to go and search for records within a system that lacks organization. As time goes by, it gets worse and worse. The customer looks for a better way. Commercial records is the easy solution. It is cheaper, better and much more professional. Why would anyone want to do it themselves when you can hire someone to do it for you cheaper and better? Commercial records salesmen look for self-storage records customers on a regular basis. I recently spoke to one such salesman who has gotten more than two dozen accounts from one of my self-storage customer's operation before he began offering records-management services.

The Big Self-Storage Excuse

"Records management takes too much effort and I want to operate simply." This is what I hear from many operators and managers, but most of these folks are not aware of the various methods available to them. These methods range from very simple and inexpensive to very complex and expensive. Although there are several models, many entrepreneurs want to jump to the high end immediately because of the revenue projections. It is true to say that records-management revenue always is a minimum of three times that of passive self-storage. Lets review your options:

1. Traditional Records Management: High capital cost, labor intensive and approximately two to three years to break even. This also provides the highest levels of revenue and profitability in the long run. It usually requires a separate facility with a high ceiling, dense storage racking, and an intensive and relatively expensive sales campaign.
2. Boutique Records Management: This method is an offshoot of traditional records management. It implies a vertical market (i.e., medical or legal) and a packaged set of services designed for that industry group. This works well, but also requires relatively high costs for start-up.
3. Nontraditional Records Management: This method was specifically designed for the self-storage market. It requires very little new cost. It can be operated out of your existing facility using existing units. It presumes that you will outsource many of the activities. The net result is very little effort, very little cost and three times the revenue of each unit utilized for records management. It also ensures that you do not lose any of the business to traditional commercial records centers and improves your cash flow--forever.
4. Virtual Records Management: This method is by far the most misunderstood. It requires no additional expense, no work by your staff and no hassle. It requires that you enter into a business agreement with someone who will use your facility as his base of operation. You will lease him one unit at a time and provide access to work space. This agreement can be a partnership in a traditional sense, a resource partnership in the newer sense, or simply a lease relationship.

I have discussed each of these methods in separate articles. These are available at www.insideselfstorage.com (search the archive for my name) or at www.fileman.com. This site also includes many resources available to you at no charge, including the Revenue Calculator, which allows you to determine how much records-management revenue is available within any size unit or building.

Regular columnist Cary F. McGovern is a certified records manager and the principal of File Managers Inc., a records-management consulting firm that specializes in implementation assistance and training for new, commercial records-center start-ups, as well as marketing support for existing records centers. For more information, contact Mr. McGovern at File Managers Inc., P.O. Box 1178, Abita Springs, LA 70420; phone (504) 871-0092; toll-free (877) FILEMAN; fax (504) 893-1751; e-mail [email protected]; www.fileman.com.

By Barry Morris

Some 150 years ago, pioneers with visions of a quick fortune swarmed the area of north central California, which is now Calaveras County, looking to reap whatever they could of the region's rich gold deposits.

In present-day Calaveras, another pioneer has established its own history. While this history doesn't date back to the mid-19th century, Calaveras Mini-Storage (CMS) of San Andreas, Calif., can trace its roots back to the early 1970s, when the self-storage industry was in its infancy and still largely unknown.

To experiment with the almost unheard-of concept, a local contractor in San Andreas built a few rows of cinder-block units at one end of town. These first units were built with additional height and extra-wide aisles, as standards for efficient use of space had yet to be established. Those were also the days before fences, gates, surveillance cameras and public restrooms were a part of the storage business, and the company sign and word-of-mouth were the only advertisements used.

In the mid-1980s, Diana Marler and her husband purchased CMS from its original owner. Marler now runs the business with the help of her manager, Sue Brackett. An expansion of what she calls "typical metal buildings" took place soon after the Marlers purchased the facility, and a second expansion was done three years ago. With the two procedures, CMS is now a 30,000-square-foot, 236-unit facility situated on 2.5 acres.

After being one of the area's first storage providers, there is now considerable competition, including two national franchises--"the big boys," as Marler calls them--establishing themselves in the area in the last couple of years. To compete with this, Marler is choosing to fight fire with fire by planning a third expansion. Another 2.5-acre parcel of land adjacent to the current property has been purchased, and the county has recently approved the plan. A contractor has been hired, and Marler is now in the process of buying the metal necessary for the buildings. When this expansion is complete, the facility's square footage will be nearly doubled.

Small-Town Feeling

In many ways, CMS remains one of the original breed of self-storage facilities. There are no climate-controlled units, and there are no individual door alarms--tenants are responsible for providing their own locks. "We feel that with our limited gate hours (7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily), cabling in our fencing, a resident manager, lights and so on, our security is adequate," Marler says.

Woven horizontally into the facility's cyclone fencing, the hard-to-cut 1/4- to 1/2-inch cable prevents intruders from entering by cutting through the chain-link fence. "I've seen that cyclone fences can be cut and peeled back, and people can get in and out that way," says Marler. "This way, if they're going to cut any portion of this, they'd have to squeeze their body through those five strands of cabling. It's very difficult to cut--they'd have to chew on it for a long time."

Not everything about CMS harkens back to simpler times, though. Today's heightened security needs make video surveillance a necessity. The facility's current system consists of two cameras--one at the gate and another inside the office. With another expansion in the works, plans call for more cameras to be added around the property. "I think it's very important that we keep up on that," Marler says. She also expressed a desire to build a more sophisticated gate system once the expansion is complete.

Marketing Efforts Escalated

In the beginning, the exterior sign and some word-of-mouth from loyal customers were the only advertising CMS owners felt they needed. But with increasing competition and other factors, a different approach became necessary. Today, CMS is prominently featured in Yellow Pages listings, and also advertises once a week in the region's daily newspaper.

But it doesn't stop there. It seems everyone who's anyone has a presence on the Internet these days, and CMS has now joined the ranks of cyberspace residents. The new site at www.calamini.com provides maps and contact information, describes unit sizes, security and other features of the facility, offers photos of the complex and provides special offers for those who mention the site. There are also links to local attractions and visitor information.

Though not done for marketing purposes, CMS has also added a major visual enhancement to its exterior. One side of the facility's original building, a 44-by-20-foot space known as the "Great White Wall," was deemed uninviting to customers as they drove up to enter and exit the facility. To add visual interest, Marler hired Jan Carpenter, a local artist known throughout the region for her window painting, to create a mural depicting the 49er Gold Rush era. Images of an old mining town, a horse-drawn covered wagon and a gold-panning prospector eventually emerged, covering the bottom half of what had been a starkly blank wall.

The mural's theme was obviously appropriate, but was especially so since the area recently celebrated its 150th anniversary. "I just suggested that theme, and Jan took it from there," Marler says. "From her sketches, I knew that she was the one for the job."

Customers Remain Loyal

Contrary to her fears, Marler has not experienced an exodus of customers caused by the presence of new, national storage operators establishing themselves in the area. "That was my big scare," says Marler. "I just thought I'd see customers going away in droves, and I have not. A good part of the reason for that is our manager, Sue Brackett. She's very well liked and respected here, and that really adds a lot of value to this company."

Local ownership is also important to keeping customers. Marler says CMS's business usually comes from within a five-mile radius, and the new storage businesses are both about 20 miles away in either direction. The fact that Marler chose to expand in the face of increasing competition shows the confidence she has in the San Andreas community and in her facility. "At Calaveras Mini Storage, we put our customers first in mind, and we want them to have a great experience while storing with us," she says. "After meeting their storage needs, we enjoy sharing those little extras that help make their stay a more pleasurable one."