Seven items you DO NOT want to forget to bring to your Wetlands Commission meetings for a faster approval.

1. A colored rendering is a Must. While many items like the building design or looks are not supposed to be a part of the wetlands commission purview, but a pretty picture goes a long way.

2. Pictorial information about your facility. Pictures of cameras, TV monitors, fencing, access gate, lighting, signage, office, mounted on a single board tells a great story about your security.

3. Know your facilities policy on prohibition of storage of hazardous materials. Provide a copy of your lease provision prohibiting hazardous materials. Provide a copy of the sign to be posted in your office prohibiting hazardous materials. Give an explanation that includes how you know your customers, i.e. a copy of every renter’s driver license, home & work phone numbers, email address, a second contact person etc. An explanation in detail how the staff is required to walk and inspect the site several times a day can help give the commission confidence there will not be a problem at the facility.

4. If you are going to rent units for car storage (which is worth fighting for!) be prepared to explain the steps you will take to insure gasoline will not leak and cause a problem. If you can’t figure this one out email me and I will point you in the right direction. (Hint: look up the requirements for cars in public buildings like a car show in your civic center and include the 2 or 3 safety items in your lease.) Also, you should only rent for cars that are registered and insured, i.e. no problem cars.

5. While you (and your engineer) always had to be prepared to explain the storm drainage design and storm drainage detention design, now it is common to provide detailed (and expensive) storm water quality best management practices. Make sure you personally understand these site features and the required maintenance, so the commission has confidence that they not only will be built but you, as the owner, personally understand the importance of maintaining them.

6. Make sure that you and your engineer have walked the wetlands, even though your soil scientist is coming to the meeting. Your knowledge of the property could help turn the deciding vote your way.

7. Early on in the design process you should have confirmed there are no endangered species on the site. Often the Department of Environmental Protection can provide areas of know or reported endangered species. Be prepared to confirm there are no endangered or threatened species or be prepared to discuss the impact to endangered or threatened species if they exist.

Ten items you don’t want to forget to bring to your Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, which can make a difference.

1. All the items you brought to the wetlands meeting.

2. Bring all the professionals (you can afford), design engineer, landscape designer, traffic engineer, architect and attorney if customary in your town. But a single presenter can do the majority, if not the entire presentation.

3. Office hours and gate hours.

4. Samples of the building materials, including colors.

5. Light photo metrics to show the light does not impact neighbors. A manufacturer’s detail sheet for full cutoff lights is helpful. LED lights cost more to install but will pay for themselves in a short time and save you money for many years. Let them know you are a green builder and will be using energy efficient LED lighting.

6. A copy of a standard lease. You can get one from your state’s self-storage association.

7. Knowledge of your marketing study to confirm the need for self-storage in the area. Again, this should not be part of the commission decision process, but I have had the questioned asked several times. Let them know it’s a benefit to the area as most of your customers will be the people located within 5 miles or less from your property.

8. The owner should attend all meetings and be prepared to let the commission know they are an expert on self-storage and are excited about being a part of the community. Be prepared to make concessions the night of the meeting if necessary to get an approval.

9. Be prepared to rebuff the many myths about self-storage such as; noise; drugs; low value; no taxes; people living in units; used mostly by people from out of town; ugly; self-storage does not mix with residential uses; high traffic, etc.

10. Be prepared to present a traffic study. Traffic is often a concern if there is any opposition. If the Town did not require one as part of your application, I would at least have a simple on page summary for the estimated daily and peak hour traffic generation. This can be very beneficial to show that self-storage is one of the lowest traffic generators and has less traffic than typical retail, office, businesses and even a residential subdivision.

Self-storage is a local business. The majority of your renters will be people from town. Early in the design phase you will have to determine the percentage of climate control units for your site. Often the outside of the Climate Control building will have non-climate control units with doors directly to the driveway.

Storage Authority Standardizes on  OpenTech Solutions

Date, 2018 – Phoenix, AZ. OpenTech Alliance, Inc. announced Storage Authority, a rapidly growing self-storage franchise company is implementing OpenTech’s solutions including INSOMNIAC CIA (Centralized Intelligent Access) at all their state-of-the art locations. Marc Goodin, Co-Founder of Storage Authority, designed and permitted his first self-storage facility over 25 years ago. Marc commented, “By utilizing the OpenTech family of products our customers have more conveniences at their fingertips which means we win out over our competition.”

Having been involved in this industry, Marc can clearly see we have entered a pivotal turning point in the self-storage industry. “We’re now selling what’s outside the four walls of a storage unit, not what’s inside. Furthermore, we are in the people business, somewhere between the banking and hotel industries.” added Marc.

To address this shift, Marc’s strategy for his franchisees is to leverage technological advances to focus on the customer experience and increase operational efficiencies. Some of the ways he is leveraging technology is by having an INSOMNIAC^TM kiosk onsite at every property, outsourcing inbound leads through INSOMNIAC^TM Live! Call Center services, offering customers hands-free access through INSOMNIAC^TM CIA and the Storage Genie tenant mobile app and utilizing OpenTech’s IoE integrations such as HVAC and Al.

Robert Chiti, President and CEO of OpenTech Alliance, emphasized the point, “Every solution we develop is designed with input from thousands of customers and to help self-storage operators work smarter and provide a better experience to their users. In today’s business environment you’ve got to use all the tools available to create a competitive advantage, and at OpenTech we’ve got one heck of a tool chest.”

It all about the how your organize and understand organizing for profits is swiftly changing in todays internet economy. “For a hundred years, we organized the means of production. How do we get the right people, the right machines, the right materials and get this thing built”. Seth Godin

Self Storage Organizing 30 years ago

Once upon a time it was build it any where and they will come. It worked well and made many people rich.

Self Storage Organizing 15 years ago

Then it became build it on main street and they will come.  It worked well.

Self Storage Organizing yesterday

Now many people believe state of the art facility on main street, have a great web site, on going marketing and they will come.  It worked well and made many people rich.

The successful developers were organizers who found the right location and the right people to get their facility built.  They organized the money.  They organized the employees and day to day operation.

Most of us still do this.  It is important and difficult work and will be required for some time to come.

Self Storage Organizing Today to double your profits.

“But now, now there’s a third kind of organization going on, one that’s even more leveraged, because it isn’t easily replaced: Organizing an audience.

How do we find the right people on the right day in a way that creates value for them and for us? How do we deliver the right service to the right audience in the right way? The rising stars of our economy are in this business now, even more than production or finance.

If you’re seeking to build awareness, consider building a community instead.

If you’re working to sell your average stuff to average people (and working overtime to make it cheaper or faster), consider an alternative: serving the most dedicated people with something remarkable“. Seth Godin

Just think about Kmart, Sears, Toys are US, and so many more.  They did not organize for their audience and now they are gone!

Time to get out of the self storage business and in the business of organizing a win win community.

_____________________________________________________

See original post on Organizing by Seth Godin  https://seths.blog/2018/09/what-are-you-organizing/

When people investigate Storage Authority and our franchise system we have found there are four major categories of prospects:

1. Tire kickers.  The facts or nothing we say or do will make a difference.  The are not part of the 1% who will ever own their own business.

2.  Prove to me …… or why do I need you prospect.  Again the facts or nothing we say or do will make a difference.  They had their minds made up long before they called us.  When the conversation of self storage comes up they will be the ones who say ” I was going to do that but the guy down the road beat me to it”

3. Financially not qualified prospect. They often have the desire and are willing to work hard but just don’t have the $400K equity to get started.

4. Professionals looking to make a better return on their hard earned savings and often an opportunity that will make a good six figure income and even allow them to retire early if they choose.

So how does a qualified prospect make a decision?  They typically ask and answer the following questions:

Do I want to own my own business?  – most people do not.

Do I want to work more now (I already have no time) so I can have all the time I want in the future – most people are not that ambitious.

If self storage works like the experts say, is self storage the business I want to be in to make my dreams come true or do I have a better opportunity?  Since Self Storage is one of the very best real estate investments few people have a better option where they can keep their career.

If you got to the last question and the answer was yes the rest is easy.  Do research every week until you decide the pros & cons of doing it on your own or with Storage Authority.

If you want to learn more about franchising you need to read the up coming September issue of the Minico Messenger the article  Why Franchising for Self Storage. It provides both a history and background on franchising, And also explains why the time has come self storage franchising.  But often it comes down to understanding the value of  being a premier facility vs being an average self storage and what it takes to be a premier facility.  The value is in the millions and it takes 10 year of energy in the trenches to become and expert on your own.  You will find this is true in many businesses. If you want to be way above the competition and do not have 10 years of experience from the trenches there are few if any ways to get all the expert guidance and assistance you need.  Here are just a few of the things that Storage Authority provides that you will have a hard tine finding elsewhere

Where else is someone going to work as hard as you are to make sure your a success?  No Where!

Where Else

• Will you have an expert on your side 24/7?

• Get the land expertise you need for pennies on the dollar?

• Get the engineering expertise you need for pennies on the dollar?

• Get the zoning expertise you need for pennies on the dollar?

• Get development expertise you need for pennies on the dollar?

• Get the construction  expertise you need for pennies on the dollar?

• Get the operational expertise you need for pennies on the dollar?

• Get the marketing expertise you need for pennies on the dollar?

• Get the sales expertise you need for pennies on the dollar?

• Get the rental expertise you need for pennies on the dollar?

• Get the customer expertise you need for pennies on the dollar?

• Will you have a partner to call every time you have a question?

• Will you have someone with 30 year experience of real estate, self storage and design experience to review your site plans?

• Will you have someone to tell you your opening rates are two low?

• Will you have someone outline one on one, in a development manual, in a check list the 5 stages of development and help you at each stage?

• Is some one going to share with you the many how to tips and training that can leads to hundreds of thousands in extra profits?

• Will your state of the art management software come set up with over 25 forms and letter, emails, late fees and more?

• Will you be provided with the state of the art website that allows you to stand out and rent on line?

• Has all the research been done for you to insure you have the best vendors in the industry?

• Will you get the expertise and banking application assistance to impress your Bank?

No Where!

If you want to learn more lets talk.  Marc 860-830-6764

Thirty-four items you don’t want to forget during the design process for a better and more profitable facility.

1. Early in the design process determine the parking requirements of the town for self-storage. They can vary from a half dozen to 30 for the same size facility. In some cases, where very high parking is required, parking in half of the 24 isles may be accepted as parking.  You want at least a half dozen customer parking spaces next to the office outside of the fenced in security area.

2. Provide a secure drop box for after hour payments. It’s been our number two request from tenants. If you remember prior to construction you can put it in the office wall. Otherwise, you can add a free-standing drop box.

3. For protection, provide steel bollards at all building corners, entrance gates, and entrance/exit key pads. I recommend 6”- 8” steel bollards filled with concrete. Over the years this will save big bucks and a lot of aggravation. Make sure these are in your original bid package because the change order price of $900 each will kill you budget.

4. Determine if you should put the outside lights on two circuits with timers so you can turn half the lights off after hours or at a certain time. You may also want the front entrance driveway, sign and parking lot lights on a third separate circuit, so you can leave them on all night. LED lights will cost a little more to buy but they will more than pay you back with reduced electric bills.

5. Make sure all utilities are designed to include future phases and are clearly included in your bid request. Make sure your electrical/camera underground conduit system for phase two is brought to the limits of phase one so you do not have to tear up phase one. Make sure the pull cords are in.

6. Have your engineer provide the largest driveway radius permitted at the street intersection for easy site entrance. A 25 to 45-foot radius is recommended. No matter how large you make them some drivers will still drive over the curb.

7. Make sure there is room at the end of the buildings for vehicles to safely turn. Thirty feet of pavement is recommended minimum with 40 feet preferred, and much larger if you need large RV’s or tractor trailers to make the turn.

8. Determine what percentage of climate control units to construct. We have constructed 15 – 20 percent and that has worked well for us in the northeast, but many areas like Florida build significantly more. Check to see what your competition has done. Learn more about climate control/humidity systems. Also, make sure the designer has experience designing self-storage heating & air conditioning & humidity systems. Self-storage systems are designed significantly different from then residential or typical commercial systems.

9. Your office will be a major showcase for your facility and a is a key factor in the success of your facility. It should be located outside the gated area. Visit several other self-storage offices to help determine your office size and layout. We have found that having a large product sale area and large windows helps increase the overall acceptance of our facilities and increase our unit rentals. The offices in our self-storage facilities are about 1,100 square feet, including a single bathroom and a small utility/furnace room.

A colorful bright large retail office and showroom will increase your rentals.  Remember the majority of the rentals are by the ladies. Believe it or not you are in the retail and fashion business and need to wow your customers.

10. Typically an access gate has a security loop installed in the pavement that can detect a car, so the gate will not close on a car. Make sure it is clear who is responsible to provide and install the safety loop. Will it be installed under the pavement or will the pavement be saw cut and patched? It is a much nicer job if the safety loops are under the pavement and not saw cut into the pavement. The gate should also have a safety mechanism, so the gate cannot accidentally shut on a person that meet present building codes.

11. It’s always a nice touch if the appropriate office doors are keyed alike.

12. If you use propane, consider buying your propane tanks versus renting so when you buy propane you can get the best price on the open market.

13. Put the fencing 30 feet or more off the pavement where snow will be plowed to leave room for snow.

14. A 4-foot person gate in the security fence near the office comes in handy for many reasons.

15. Typically the entrance/exit gate needs a clearance past the end of the gate of at least 1.5 times the gate opening. Be sure to check with your gate manufacturer and design accordingly. If you do not have the room you will need a lift gate.

16. In Connecticut you are required to get a CT Department of Environmental Protection “General Permit for Storm Water Discharge Permit for Construction Activities”, if the development (all phases included) disturbs over 5 acres of land. This permit requires several best management practices be incorporated into the designs, including weekly inspections of the erosion control. Often, there are similar or other special regulations in many states. Make sure you have a complete list of all approvals required when you start your design, so you can plan accordingly.

17. In many states, disturbance of wetlands may require a Federal Army Corps of Permit in addition to your local Wetlands Commission approval. Check with your soil scientist and engineer. An army Corps permit can add significant time and costs to your approval process.

18. Don’t forget to have an electrical outlet installed at your sign for your holiday lights. Also, electrical outlets should be installed in the 1 or 2 units of the facility you will use. An outside water nozzle is recommended. Typically, no electricity or lights is provided in self-storage units. You may want to put electric plug in 2 or three 10 x 10 units, so you can rent to pharmaceutical reps who will need a fridge in their unit.

19. If possible, place the larger units on the side of the building that do not have another building on the opposite side of the drive. This will make it easier for cars to access and be stored in these 10′ x 20′ or larger units. Nine-foot-wide doors are nice touch on 10’ x 20’ units for car storage.

20. Include a bank of 5′ x 5′ x 4′ lockers in your climate control buildings. One is stacked above the other. They typically rent out and provide the highest rent per square foot. It is a good design practice to have several different sizes typically from 5’ x 5’ to 10 ‘x 30’.

21. Slat walls in the office are great to hang locks and other products. Built in shelving for certain products is a good idea as well. Make sure they are included in your construction specifications. Change orders are expensive.

22. Review your landscaping plans. In addition to the various trees and bushes it is very beneficial to have a raised flowerbed or two for your clients to admire.

23. Handicap access should be reviewed early on and included in your design. Self-storage units typically have a lip at the door to keep water out. A ramp design and special doors are required for handicap access. The good news is if the handicap units do not rent you can rent them out as regular units. Your Engineer, architect and building manufacture should able to help you out with the handicap requirements. You may also want to do an online search regarding the new HC regulations.

24. Determine if there is any room for outside car storage or RV storage. Even a few spaces can help market the entire facility. Outside parking of vehicles should be clearly noted on the site plans and applications to the town. Typically, you will make more money with self-storage units than outside parking. Outside parking is provided if you have excess land.

25. Some states require two bathrooms, male and female. You may be able to request a waiver from the state for just one bathroom. I got waivers for just one bathroom in my facilities and there are no problems. Access to the bathroom should not require a user to go behind the office rental counter and should be clearly marked.
26. Most metal building manufacturers provide insulation in the non-climate control unit ceilings. This is a must because it helps prevent condensation and possible dripping onto the customer’s stuff. Double check to insure your building includes insulation in the non-climate control unit ceilings.

27. Avoid sheetrock construction in storage units. Sheetrock attracts mold and is easily damaged.

28. If you have a sidewalk directly abutting your office make sure the sidewalk elevation is coordinated with the building design. If the office is a metal building the sidewalk may need to be an inch lower than the office concrete floor to accommodate the metal lip that hangs over the concrete floor.  Even where the building is not metal it is a good idea for the sidewalk to be lower than the office floor by an inch.  Of course, the sidewalk should match the floor at the door for handicap access.

29. Many building codes have recently changed or are about to change based upon what state you live in. Insulation requirements, fire walls, separation distances, climate control building design, multi-story design requirements, handicap requirements are just some of them. Make sure you enlist the help of a self-storage building code expert early on, so you are not surprised.

30. Now is the time to determine your facility management software and gate control companies, website developer etc. Once construction starts you will be extremely busy.  Making sure they are compatible with each other is critical and a must.

31. Provide a driveway entrance light at the street. It’s been our number one request from tenants.

32. Make sure your camera/DVD system has enough capacity/ports for all phases. I recommend two large camera screens in your office. Safety/security is the second concern of most renters.  Meet with your security expert early on and show the camera locations on your site plan.

33. There are significant differences between video camera systems. Purchase high definition systems. And confirm you can view the cameras from your home computer and cell phone. There should be 2 cameras in the office on the customer and on the manager.

34. Several things can differ between building manufacturers. When you order a building, you should be aware of your door sizes and eve heights as both can have an impact on your facility.  I recommend minimum doors widths of 8’-8” feet wide and a minimum building eve height of 8’-4” and you should consider 9’ wide doors and 9’-4” eve heights.

If you want the whole scoop can buy the entire book at Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/Marc-Goodin/e/B0098B0A20