All Forum Posts by: Henry Clark

@Sarah.  Recommend you don't rent out the back lot to "Non-tenants", unless it is massive.  Do charge your tenants for their use.  By having the back lot available for your potential building renters, you expand the number and type of building renters.  Compare your "potential" warehouse renters versus their potential need for the lot storage.  Example:  If you plan to rent to a landscaper or plumber, they will want outside storage also.  Just charge them more.

For financing purposes I always use 90% occupancy.  Get interest only payment to 65% occupancy or 18 months.

Need to analyze your market before you use 90%.  Idaho Falls should have about 3,400 unit market based on population.  Metro 7,800.  I would go count units and sizes for a couple weekends.  Or more specifically check your specific area out.

I always use Sparefoot when analyzing a market to start with.  Do Sparefoot, Idaho Falls.  Select the 10 x15 size.  Then switch to map setting.  Look for the "holes" in the market compared to the population.  

I note two things.  Either most of the facilities up there don't use Sparefoot, or you have a big underserved market.  Also I don't note any of the big REITS.  If this is the case, you need to push hard the next 5 years and build about 10 locations of 300 each.  Not a mega one.  Check all of this with your feet on the ground.  It looks like unusually fresh territory.

One key take away from all of the above.  Most of the REITS and Sparefoot have to strong of an SEO presence for you to battle.  And they have been in place longer.  Also, even if you were the number 1 listing, your drowned out by the 6 to 10 pages of listings.  Recommend you go with Map placement and youtube placements. These pictures standout from the 6 to 10 pages of listings.

I'm not a big online person.  Just started about 4 months ago.  One of you other Tech/Marketing people please jump into the discussion.  Thanks.

30 June 2020, 02:53 PMUpdate:

Facebook for the Storage location, started at zero, have 38 likes and 39 follows. Needed 26 to get our Facebook ads started. So we will see how facebook does. Hopefully get good results like @StacieJ noted.

Sign post, the posts are in. Set back an additional 2 feet from the fence in case we decided to use the next larger sign. See picture below. Should be up in the next week. Saved money, went with creosote poles versus I beams. Will see how it does in the wind. Pretty windy here.

Joined two Chamber of Commerces, "Alignable" forum and plan to check out "Bigger Pockets" forum for adding content and google view/ranking on our Website.
Put our Coupon Program on one of the Chambers and it is showing on the 3rd page.


The "Alignable" is a pretty neat forum, its national, but can be isolated to your local area for your participation. This forum is actually better than one of the Chambers forum and the city forum. Able to host and sponsor the monthly newsletter to get visibility. Our businesses are very local, but this would be a great forum for a regional or multistate forum.

Wow. Just checked to see where we are listed on a (Bing) search and we are on the first page. This is coming from joining "Alignable". This must have a very strong SEO presence. Some how they have us listed on every page in a Google Search.

Our google presence from our website is now on Page 4. Believe this is up from page 7. Both our website and some blogs are starting to show up.

Moved up to 7 versus 10 spot on the Google Map. Also our ad shows first on the google map.

YouTube videos have not started to show. Will have to focus on them more.

The internet is not my area of expertise. So the above might not be communicated as thoroughly or informatively as possible.

17 June 2020, 12:57 PM@Mid, let me see if these upload very well. Getting back to your Lead generation question. Again, keep in mind, I have never cared about the internet on our other locations. This is our first venture into internet marketing and using an SEO firm.

Below are copies of the latest month Google analytics report with our SEO. Can't get them to show portrait. Sorry for the crick in your neck.

This is after two full months, with no/little internet presence before.

Again, my major objectives are:
a. Google Map placement on their listing of locatons next to the map. We are now 10 out of 17 for our town, starting from zero 2 months ago., Hopefully top 6 to 8 next month, and then the top 4 showing on the front page after that.
b. Youtube placement. We are not showing yet. But on your Google search page at the bottom where it says "Other places people searched" we are number 1 or 2.

So Google is starting to recognize us after 2 months and we're moving forward.

Report below: Traffic channels by session; Source/Medium; New vs returning visitors.
Key- New visitor sessions is high and gaining which will push Google ranking. Bounce rate and Session durations are very good. I will let you google those. Some may look bad, but for their "source" they're good.

Next report: Google My Business: Customer Actions and Search/Map views
Key: Google ad calls at 19 was good relative to last month. Total of 1,393 views is a significant pickup from last month and more importantly the Map views.



@Mid Lead generation was your basic question:
a. Road sign, not in place but it will be the best and cheapest as mentioned above.
b. Right now Sparefoot is by far. They have a strong SEO system. There is one new competitor who is very small and are new to the business. They joined Storedge, part of Sparefoot, and they are listed on the first page due to Storedge and Sparefoot SEO power.
c. Again, my goal is not to compete on Website listing, but on Google Map listing and Youtubes as discussed above. My SEO still thinks our website will be on the front page in 6 months. Versus page 7 now.

Actions after discussing with SEO:
a. Let Google ranking keep cooking.
b. Do more renter specific blogs. Doing one on RV/Vehicle parking for tenants. Website visits will improve Google ranking. ***deleted web link****
c. Google Reviews- only had 1. Was primarily working on Sparefoot reviews which help on Sparefoot, but not on Google. Sent requests out. Hopefully get this number up real quick. Again, this will impact Google Ranking.
d. @GM Stacie mentioned Facebook above. Have enough traction on Google now, going to start with $200 of Facebook regeneration ads. If you search during the day for storage and ran across us. Later that night when you check Facebook out our website will pop up. Have Zero "likes" or "follows" on my storage facebook account, which we have not used. You have to have at a minimum 26, for Facebook to allow the ad. Will shoot for 50 today and send the link out to our website and ask for "Likes" and "Follows" to customers and friends. ***deleted web link***
e. Got one lead from Craigslist after a month. Will try it again.
f. Chamber of Commerce. I will send out a member to member Coupon listing. About 15,000 members in total. Should either get someone interested in the coupon or visiting the site to check us out. Again, impacting Google Ranking.

If your a technical person on Google Analytics please add comments. Please communicate data is all relative and we are in month 2.

Thanks.

16 June 2020, 09:56 AMPicture above. I intentionally built at the back of the 8 acre lot, so you don't see any buildings up front. We have 3 phases planned of 230/200/200 roughly. We left the front available in case we switch gear on the last phase of 200. Which we will probably do. A large local group has just purchased some land 2 miles away and plans to build a 430 unit complex. Everything is fair game. However, there are already three large national firms and ourselves here.

Phase 3 along the road will now move to "Contractor Incubator" buildings. I'll do a separate topic on that later.

16 June 2020, 09:50 AM@K, thanks for the second set of eyes. We intentionally don't sell products or do Uhaul at all of our locations. All 7 locations we do Self Service unit rentals over the phone. See youtube of approach for our latest location.
***deleted web link******

On the silly idea, its great. We haven't done our grand opening yet. Once we get the Road sign up, we may do a grand opening. Our front 4 lane road lends itself to high traffic. On the silly side we may put out Free Ice Cream or Free Beer (have to see if I need a license) on a Friday from 4 to 530. Plus pass out our Coupon handouts at the same time. ***deleted web link*****


@M let me try again to get our Google Analytics report for the month of May copied so we can discuss lead generation. The Road sign will be by far the cheapest and the highest generating avenue once we have up.

May be a little disjointed.  Pulling from communications with other people.  You don't see their notes.

New Storage Facility Status update Month 4 from Opening

15 June 2020, 05:17 PMWe just opened our 7th storage location in a 1mm metro area. The others were in towns of less than 5,000. Totally different marketing approach. See my prior topic on "Big City Marketing" at:

**deleted web link**

Going to expand on 3 approaches I took and then what the status is on Rent up. This will not be the norm for anyone else, but you can use it as another data point to see how you are doing.


Approach Road Sign:
I was so worried about the Internet and Sparefoot ranking, that I forgot about my road sign. Have a 13-15,000 Vehicle per day traffic count. The contractor and sign are all set. Just got the permit approval. Will be $15,000 installed. Be about $1 per vehicle on day one, then keep dividing each day. Will be my cheapest advertising and most focused, since these folks drive by here.

Kept it simple, they are driving 55 mph:

Roof line over the top.
company name
Phone number

Start small and do your Big mistakes early. Still learning. Never had a road sign before. Building signs, but no road signs.

Approach Sparefoot:
Whoopee. Just ranked number one in the four "Sort By's": a. Recommendation, b. Reviews, c. Price, d. Distance- zip code.
A lot of hard work went into this one. Primarily it was learning who was keeping score and how. Although this sounds great, most of the other competitors are 12 miles away on the other side of town, thus they are not true competitors. But on the internet, they get in the way of my local people seeing me.

Several of you have mentioned you don't like Sparefoot or other consolidation groups. We would all need to compare time and place for our units. I will compare against myself. Today, I will take every marketing avenue possible. Have a large monthly payment to make and I'm the one making it. The faster I get to my breakeven of 65% occupancy, the faster, I am not putting cash out. This location is in a large Metro area with a lot of competition. My other locations, we own the market. Three years from now, we might not use Sparefoot. By then we will have started our "Vortex" of old customers returning or new customers being referenced by our old customers. The location will Feed itself.

Approach Internet:
Again, we have locations in rural and now in a major metropolitan area. Both take a different marketing approach. In the major Metropolitan area, Sparefoot or a similar product take the lead because it is all about SEO (search engine optimization). Although I found and have one of the best SEO persons in the market, he can't compete against a large marketing group. Even if we get to be the number one listed on an internet search, there are still 10 more pages for someone to look through. It all bleeds together, even if your number 1. That is why I am pushing for YouTube and Google Map listing. These have pictures and stand out from the many pages of Google listings. The following YouTube cost $750. It is higher from other SEO firms. Our SEO monthly costs are significant, but it is part of playing in this larger market and also speeding up the Rent up period.

*** deleted web link*****

The Google Map listing, we just have to keep working our SEO magic. The large REITS and organizations key off on Google listings more than youtube or Map listings. We were at zero; and
now are at 10th out of 17 after 2 months on the map listing.

On Google under "Searches related to Self Storage in xxxxx city" on the first page, we are the number one suggested site to look at next. This is versus not listed 2 months ago. So our SEO is working.

We joined the two Chamber of Commerce's in our Metro area. Did a special ad on their websites. These are showing up on Google searches because of these two cities powerful SEO presence. This also created a great back link to our website.


Not shown is the Google analytics report for our SEO efforts on our Website. Couldn't get it to copy or show correctly. Although I am a numbers person, these reports are all "relative". To get Google to rank you higher, I can't tell if we are good or bad. So I ask my SEO how I can increase Organic Growth external of the Internet. He handles online and I handle Organic links to our website offline.
Currently we are doing a Coupon drive $100 credit for the renter and $50 for the Referrer. ****deleted web link******

They have to go to the website to print off a Coupon, they turn in with the rental agreement. This drives Google ranking on our website. Just started, so have to see how this works. Not allowed with any other Internet (Sparefoot) or other (AAA discounts) discounts.


Rent Up Period:
Attached is a Monthly Webselfstorage report. We opened in February. Half way through June we are at 12% full. My normal expectations on my other locations would be 30% full by June/July. Note this is for outdoor driveup storage and not a Climate Controlled building, which might prebuild 4 years worth of capacity.

		Occupancy
Month	Total	Begin	Ins	Outs	End	Chg +/-	SqFt	Rented
6/2020	229	21	8	0	29	8	11.72%	12.66%
5/2020	229	11	15	2	24	13	10.08%	10.48%
4/2020	229	6	9	1	14	8	6.40%	6.11%
3/2020	229	3	4	0	7	4	3.54%	3.06%
2/2020	229	0	4	0	4	4	1.91%	1.75%
1/2020	229	0	0	0	0	0	0.00%	0.00%

Then we would pick up another 20% in the fall. Not worried about is this a bad location, or other issue. The way I do market studies, ***deleted web link*****
there is more than enough clients here.

Key thing I am doing, is to make sure I have everything, I can control covered:
a. Mow grass and keep trash free.
b. Answer every phone call promptly.
c. Monitor Sparefoot pricing and availability
d. Work on SEO non internet Organic tools. Coupon program, Chamber commerce program, Customer reviews, evaluating Free Move in truck program,
e. Street sign
f. Evaluate pricing during rent up period. There is another new location on the other side of the city and they are renting for 1/2 price of everyone else. That might be the correct approach and then raise the rents. Don't know. Not an approach I'm taking. But don't know what their shoes are like financially. Luckily they are not my competition since they are so far away.



Hope this provided a base line for any new locations during rent up period. Please don't consider the above as good or bad. Just another data point to consider. We have another location 40 miles away that we added a new building to. It was 100% rented out in 2 months during the exact same period. Both locations are strong market areas for new locations or additional units.



For any Future Readers, this was during the Covid period.

Currently in a holding pattern.  Have about 2 days of work left.  Contractors have pulled off working on another project.  Will have them lay out the corners of the buildings so we can see how the whole project looks.

For Future Readers, we are in the beginning of the Covid period.

You've heard Self Storage is recession proof.  That is true for existing storage.  Out of 800 rentals, we only lost one account because they lost their job.  One of our other locations we just completed phase 1  230/ phase 2 200/ phase 3 200 however is at 17% occupancy.  I am used to 30% first spring, 20% first fall, another 30% second spring and then the final 20% second fall.  March and the beginning of April were close to zero activity.

You might ask with one location in rent up, why are you starting another location with all of the "Uncertainty" in the world.  It is based on my market study; should have 3,600 units, but only has 1,400.  About 25% of the 1,400 are old and dilapidated.  I'm adding 630; another company 430; another company 200 more.  The new site is also in a hilly, hard to zone location, making it hard for competition.  Plus it is in the higher income.  We will do part of the build out this year.  Finish most of the units next year.  Even with a 330 unit location, your a small player with the construction, paving, sewer, electrician and other contractors.  Do the work when Mother nature and the contractors allow.  Costs in interest, but you get done.

11 July 2020, 03:37 Day 18.

1. Construction Insurance. Didn't cover this topic earlier. Your normal Storage insurance companies won't cover this. We use our State Farm office. About $250 for $2,000,000 coverage. Pretty inexpensive.
2. Been really dry, which is good for the dirt work. Have about 2 days left to finish the ground. Have a meeting next week to discuss re-orienting the buildings so we can get more units on the space.
3. Picture one shows Soil retention fence and grass mat along the front road. The Soil retention fence is plowed into the ground and staked. This cost $2.35 per foot. Actually not to pricy considering you would need to buy the fence, posts, plow the fence in (equipment), and then attach to posts. Got lucky and found a local road contractor. They also do grass seeding and grass mats, but we did this ourselves to save money.
4. Grass Mat costs about $70 per role. This will save on the bare soil eroding and causing a rough lawn mower ride and also to keep dirt from washing. Mid July is one of the worst times to plant grass. Normally I plant week 1 or 2 in August for fall seedings. Since the dirt is already loose and it is dry (won't sprout) went ahead and seeded and put the mat on. If you do a lot of matting buy a Staple driver or stick. This will save your back so you don't have to bend down to the ground. Load staple and stab into the ground.
5. Picture 2. Putting grass mat on back side hill, after seeded with Oats and Brome grass. Oats for quick germination. Brome grass since it will seed by the roots later. If we didn't seed an area very good, the Brome will fill it in, through the root system.
6. Picture 3. Putting a 6 inch drain tile in the ground. We were going to continue the ditch down the hill. But this will cause a severe rut where it drops about 20 feet. The tile will get the water down the hill without eroding. This ditch is catching water from above the site and diverting about 3/4 of the water from coming through the facility from the hill above. The prior owners had a ditch there, that we just cleaned out and removed the trees.
7. Picture 4 shows the storm pond. We built a construction entrance over the head of the pond. This will be taken out when we are completed. On the back right side of the pond will be a pipe connecting to the City storm drain. There should be no water in this pond normally, so it will probably fill in with cattails. It should empty out within about 8 hours of being filled.
8. The Engineer has to calculate/certify the Storm pond size versus the drainage area. This pond serves two purposes. One so water does not run off too fast downstream, due to our "Concrete footprint". Second, is to trap sedimentation to a small degree. Luckily the Storm drain pipe we attach to is on our side of the side walk and we don't have to cut the sidewalk.
9. Make sure your contractors are getting the city inspections as they go.
10. Picture 5 in the center is the end of an 8 inch plastic pipe. It brings the water from the adjoining apartment complex parking lot, onto our ground. You have to let the water flow, the way it is supposed to, so I can't stop it. Originally both properties were owned by the same people. Our engineer had this 8 inch pipe replaced or connected to a 24 inch drain tile. I'm nixing that and having it reconnect to an 8 inch drain tile and getting a bid to bury it and run it down to the storm pond. This was going to cost about $20,000 to run 380 feet. The quote should come in near $3,000 with the 8 inch versus 24 inch pipe.
11. Picture 6 is 3 inch "clean" (without the fines and dust) rock (recycled concrete). Once the grading is done, we will have this hauled from our other location to this new location and spread it. This will be the work surface on the dirt so we don't get stuck or track mud onto the street.

Have some more water items that we are getting quotes on and discussing with the engineer. Want to go with more surface drainage versus the Storm sewer system he developed which is quoted at $80,000. I had not planned on that since we are on a hillside. Will go over them once discussed with Engineer and get quotes.

Although the storage unit builder is listed as the General Contractor, I'm covering most of the items other than the building.

If you have any questions or suggestions, just ask.