WOMEN IN SELF-STORAGE
facilities in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas became challenging after having children. Quill welcomed a daughter, Bella, in 2005 and a son, Aidan, in 2008. “It was too much to travel with my family,” she says. Not being able to travel for work
surely felt like an impediment to her career advancement at the time, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Her progress wasn’t being stifled; the winds of change were merely carrying her in a better direction.
Career Shift A few months after the birth of her son, Quill decided to seek local employment. She joined York, Pa.- based Investment Real Estate LLC (IRE), which was headquartered only a few miles from her family’s home. At that time (late 2008), IRE owned approximately 15 self-storage facilities and managed another 20—all of which were in driving distance of the compa- ny’s office. “John Gilliland [president and CEO
of IRE] was looking for someone to grow IRE’s third-party management business,” recalls Quill, who was hired to assist with its expansion. “It was a little scary,” she says about
leaving Extra Space for a smaller company, “but it was exciting too.” Although she initially felt qualified for
the position, with several years of expe- rience under her belt, she realized she was still had plenty to learn. However, under Gilliland’s guidance, she received an insider education on the “ins and outs of third-party management.”
"We had time to make mistakes and absorb them. We had time to build a strong team." - ALYSSA QUILL
Unfortunately, the Great Recession
and tighter lending standards put a damper on IRE’s growth plans. By 2010, Gilliland was looking to sell the third-party management division of the company. And Quill, assuming that she would be out of a job, began polishing up her resume.
“He didn’t think of me as a buyer,”
she says. “I didn’t even think of myself as a buyer.” Gilliland did have someone else in
mind for the 21-property management portfolio: Jay Hoke, who had been one of Quill’s co-workers at IRE. Gilliland offered the management con- tracts to Hoke, but starting a new company wasn’t something he was prepared to do alone. Instead, he called Quill and asked her to become his business partner. “He saw something in me that I
didn’t even see in myself,” Quill says, adding that she will be forever grateful to Hoke for recognizing her potential. Despite her interest, Quill needed
some time to discuss the opportunity with her husband. “I didn’t have the money,” she says about putting up half the purchase price. “And I didn’t con- sider myself an entrepreneur.” To appease her analytical nature,
she completed numerous forecast sce- narios to play out the what-ifs before making a decision. Since her husband had a good job, Hoke had plenty of rel- evant experience, and she and Hoke had both worked with the properties’ owners through IRE, Quill didn’t let uncertainty deter her from pursuing the venture. So, the Quills determined an amount they were comfortable putting forth, Hoke matched it, they took out a loan for the remainder, and SAM was formed on May 20, 2010.
Growing SAM For the first three years after its inception, SAM “didn’t grow much,” Quill says, pointing out that banks weren’t really lending after the Great Recession. So instead of concentrat- ing on immediate growth of their newly acquired management portfolio, they focused on building a strong founda- tion that would set the company up for success and future expansion. Before taking on additional man-
agement contracts, Quill implemented operational standards for SAM, such as an operations manual and various training programs, thus enabling SAM to provide more consistent and
24 Self-Storage NOW! SECOND QUARTER 2024
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