Section 6 • Management
self-storage facility. Managers are hired and trusted to run multi- million dollar assets, so you want people capable of delivering profits and watching the expenses so the property can achieve the success you are expecting. It’s understood industrywide that today’s self-storage man-
agers must be skilled professionals; gone is the caretaker role of the past. This type of manager has gone the way of first-gener- ation facilities that served as a placeholder until the land could be used for some higher purpose. Fittingly, the job benefits en- joyed by self-storage managers have grown in correlation with their required talents and abilities. While some operators reported paying their managers on an
hourly basis ranging from $11 to $29 per hour, most tend to pay on a salary basis. At the low end of the scale, full-time manager salary ranges from $15,000 to $20,000 per year with an on-site apartment included as a benefit. While some operators report paying an annual salary as high as $60,000, the overall average for a full time manager tends to be approximately $31,872. In addition, nearly all of the owners surveyed 92.9 percent)
reported paying bonuses to managers. Vacation and holiday pay for managers is also common at 97.6 percent and 96.5 per- cent, respectively. Sick pay is also a benefit for nearly 80 percent of managers. Health
Table 6.2 – Benefits Offered To Managers
Benefits Percentage Who Receive
Bonus 92.9% Vacation 97.6% Apartment 48.1% Holidays 96.5% Utilities 49.4% 401K 52.8% Medical 80.5% Dental 72.4% Sick Pay
79.7% Eyecare 66.7% Source: © 2014 Mini-Storage Messenger Management Survey
Managers As Marketers As reported in detail in the 2014 Self-Storage Almanac, custom- ers choose self-storage facilities to rent from based on a variety of options ranging from security, climate control, and moving trucks, to ancillary products available, business centers, and other business services. While amenities can help sway custom- ers toward one facility over another and can act as a motivating force enticing customers to sign a lease, it takes savvy marketing to bring new tenants through the facility doors. This is especially true in highly saturated areas where the competition to sign new customers is fierce.
While some operators reported paying their
managers on an hourly basis ranging from $11 to $29 per hour, most tend to pay on a salary basis.
Although a handful of facilities hire staff specifically dedicat- ben-
efits are enjoyed by 80.5 percent of managers, and dental (72.4 percent) and eye care
benefits
(66.7 percent) are also more preva- lent than not. It is important to pro- vide an above av- erage package to retain and attract top talent.
ed to marketing, these duties typically fall to managers. Not only should managers be willing and able to implement and execute your marketing strategies, they must be able to convert leads to sales. In the earlier days of the industry, most self-storage operators were looking for good caretakers. As self-storage has become more retail in nature and the manager’s job descrip- tion has moved more toward a salesperson, today’s managers should provide the skills you need to execute your strategic di- rection for the future. Modern facilities need dynamic salespeople who have the
ability to develop customer relationships that go beyond the first day of introduction. Your manager should be able to help the customer not only recognize their needs but successfully satisfy them. With regard to the types and methods of advertising being
used, we see more and more of these activities taking place in the digital world. Use of the stores’ websites ranked number one in the survey, with referrals coming in second and social media in third place. This is a dramatic turnaround from the past and its prevalent use of Yellow Pages, which has now disappeared. While in the not too dis-
Chart 6.2 – Benefits Offered to Managers 100
80 90
70 60 50 40 30
tant past facilities were able to depend on an ad in the Yel- low Pages or little more than a highly visible location to bring new tenants to the store, to- day’s self-storage owners and operators must exploit a mix of advertising media to keep cus- tomers coming in to fill their empty units. In general, how- ever, there are four basic lead sources for most operations:
self-storage Bonus Vacation Apartment Holidays 74 Self-Storage Almanac 2015 Utilities Source: © 2014 Mini-Storage Messenger Management Survey 401K Medical Dental Sick Pay Eyecare
• Phone calls • Visits to the facility
Percentage
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132
