Management • Section 13


a smooth seamless opening with all the necessary items in place on time and in budget? With a checklist of course!


E Operators can create a new store checklist by working


backwards from the start date and getting the whole team involved in the details. It’s essential to make sure all the various items are covered and done in an orderly manner. Pre- opening activities will include the following:


• Establishing unit prices and facility hours of operation. • Performing competitive survey of comparable facilities.


• Outlining marketing programs for unit lease-up including lease specials by month with specific goals to include all first year on-site events and outreach programs.


Operators can create a new store


checklist by working backwards from the start date and getting the whole


team involved in the details. It’s essential to make sure all the various items are covered and done in an orderly manner.


• Joining the national and state self-storage association.


• Establishing fee structures for late and other charges within your state specific rental agreement; check with your state association for the latest version of the state’s lien laws.


• Creating facility policies and other rules and regulations.


• Hiring and training employees and staff including office, site, and relief managers.


• Establishing a printed form package specifically designed for property.


• Designing and ordering staff uniforms. • Establishing facility delinquency and auction processes.


• Designing advertising/marketing items and collateral materials and determining placement and implementation.


veryone will have worked hard to get a new facility open and ready to show off for the public, but with all the de- tails needed to make this happen how does one achieve


• Creating facility brochures, flyers, business cards, and operational signage as well as assistance with the main signage.


• Setting up computer systems for data input of units and prices and choosing a software vendor for the operating software.


• Preparing market surveys, demographic information, and standard revenue/expense projections.


• Projecting negative cash requirements to carry the store through lease-up and to include in loan.


• Determining the design, layout, and specifications of facility office and/or apartment.


• Identifying and specifying equipment and hook-ups required for telephones, flat screens, computers, and security monitoring systems.


• Developing store logo/identity to be used throughout image programs.


• Getting a web presence that is a responsive site per Google’s latest algorithm and can interface with your storage operating software; use a reputable storage web designer.


• Configuring retail area and ordering boxes and supplies.


• Determining if a truck rental dealership is needed to build traffic to your new site and if adequate parking is available.


• Ordering all the promotional items needed to execute the marketing plan for the first six to nine months.


• Joining your neighborhood business association, which is often the local chamber of commerce, and then participating in the activities and hosting some of your own at the store.


• Choosing which units will be ADA compliant and ordering kits for each unit.


• Subscribing to Mini-Storage Messenger magazine and other industry publications.


To begin, make sure your plans have taken advantage of the gaps in services that exist within the marketplace. Your feasibility study should have noted these deficiencies in the market, and you want to make sure that those gaps have been included in your new store office and unit design. Examples would include a conference room accessible 24/7, coffee


2018 Self-Storage Almanac 145


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