Hello, everyone. My Name is Carol and I have been in the storage business almost 11 years now. My spouse was going to have his leg amputated and I needed to settle down and quit selling RV parts across the west coast. I stopped by a storage unit to check to see what the job was like and I had a new job within 2 weeks. Honey did not have to have leg amputated, But I'm still working in the Storage Business/U-haul. Went from a 350 unit to a 664 and soon to be 1800 units. Love the work/customers and bennies.

And I am a Red Hat Society Lady!!

The Sun is shinning today - So hope all can get out and enjoy your
weather

Hello Carol,

Does your spouse work with you?

Welcome from Southern California!!! Down in the Antelope Valley area.

Glad to hear that all is well with your husband.

We only have about 650 units and soon to add about 75 covered RV sites.

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Wayne
All American Self Storage
Palmdale, CA.
webmaster@all-americanselfstorage.com

Hello everyone,

Carol, glad to meet you and hope your husband is doing well also.
many of you seem so experienced in storage and quite accomplished, i must say. Very admirable. I just started in the storage buziness. I got a job through a familly reference in a storage facility; I am the new junior manager on site I am still learning the ropes and I really want to razzle and dazzle the owners of the company by increasing their occupancy.

The facility is only 6 months old now and we desperately need more tenants.

I was planning to go down to the university to solicit to students and hand out flyers. I dont want to waste precious time doing it the wrong way.. I am a hard worker, diligent and a great apprentice i just need a little direction, where do i start? PLEASE HELP!

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Thank you for your time,
Monique

Monique --- READ EVERYTHING ON THIS SITE!!!!

That is the best advice I can give at this time. There are so many good ideas here, and you never know which one will work for you till you try it. Some will work great and others - not so well. You just have to keep trying.

Welcome to the fun world of Self Storage!

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Wayne
All American Self Storage
Palmdale, CA.
webmaster@all-americanselfstorage.com

Thanks for responding I have been reading the forum all morning. There is a lot of information and lots of good ideas.

I was thinking to start with marketing to students in Universities which are nearby, how did this strategy work for you? Obviously I will try all of the ideas to figure out what works, as you suggested, but What do you recommend as a starting point?

waiting to hear from the expert!

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Thank you for your time,
Monique

LOL -- trust me I am no expert -- by a LONG SHOT!!! I am just very opinionated

We have not marketed to the collage as we do not have one in the area.

We have done mailings to current tenants offering $25.00 off for referring new tenants -- that worked for about two months, then you either need to do a new mailing or think of something else. People have a VERY short memory. If it is not in front of them constantly they forget.

We are in the process of making changes to our advertising locally so I have been working with the owner -- we bounce ideas off each other to try and decide what may work. Nothing is 100% these days.

Someone else stated on this forum that what works here may bomb there. (they actually put it much better!) You can't be afraid to try. I come up with as many ideas as I can and then bounce them off the owner as it is his money I am playing with

Good luck with the flyer's -- I hear that collage students are great for renting smaller units. Wish we had a collage around as we have a lot of smaller units to rent!

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Wayne
All American Self Storage
Palmdale, CA.
webmaster@all-americanselfstorage.com

Thanks so much for your advice. As I impliment them I'll let you know how the progress is going...and maybe if i ever come to your level i can bounce ideas off of your head too lol

there's a lot of information on this site, just trying to soak it up.

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Thank you for your time,
Monique

How's the weather in Northern Cali??? Im from New Jersey and today's so gloomy outside

the numbers of units you talked about are very impressive, and one can see a genius mind was behind it all. Im very new to this job, would you mind giving me some direction? im 26, just fresh out of college like 2 years ago, im a hard worker and will greatly appreciate your thoughts...

how's your hubby doing?

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Thank you for your time,
Monique

Good afternoon. Monique. I used to work for one of the big 4, and a property that was in my district had a large Florida college in it. FSU.
The managers that worked for me in Tallahassee would market like the dickens at the school. Also FAMU. The had permission to palce a table in hallways, in the student union. They worked very hard to do this. They would take reservations there, by phone in the office or however they could get them. All of the leases were done in advance of the end of school (I forgot to mention that the best time to do this is at the end of the spring term). They would do up to 240 to 250 leases. They entered all of the reservations into there system. On the day that students moved in, the leases were completed. ( I offered to help but they seemed to think I would mess up their way of doing things). Lots of new tenants. No discounts. Prepaid for the summer so no collection problems, but...... when school started agin, we sold a bunch of stuff. Some students don't return for whatever reason. Some shared a space, and one would not return, etc. Lots of auction spaces.

Bob Taylor