The majority of owners do not do the basics for maximum cash flow. And that is good news because we can be located down the road from them and charge $30 or more for a unit and rent more units!
If you do these hard 12 items a year (one a month) I will bet donuts to dollars that you will be amazed at your increase in profits in 2023!
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Raise your Street rents every January. Even if you raised them prior in the year, even if it is just $3.99/month. Even if you have a ton of units to rent.
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Raise your tenant’s rent every year on their yearly anniversary. Raise them to street rates. This should mean that the minimum raise is $3.99 or more
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Review/practice your walk-in and phone rental scripts with your manager
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Have a third party do a secret shop for your managers. And provide you with the recorded in office rental, and on-the-phone rental. Then YOU personally grade them via your company’s grading worksheet. Continue the process monthly until they get a score of at least 90%
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Do your income taxes. Obviously, they only need to be done once a year but you must prepare. This starts with a yearly meeting with your accountant. It looks like same-year bonus depreciation is being reduced yearly by the IRS. Are you doing component depreciates vs straight line 29 year to save big $$$$. What write-offs are available to the owner’s benefit; retirement matching; health insurance; vehicle; hiring your young kids; home office supplies( computer?), cell phone, making large expenses this year or next year, and so on.
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Full Spring Spruce up of the landscaping and facility.
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Third-party review of operation procedures and updates of manuals.
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Third–party review of money flow to make sure no theft is occurring and system and reporting is efficient.
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Prepare and execute a monthly marketing calendar.
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Annual reviews and upgrades to your website.
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Annual review and upgrades to your social marketing
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Require and confirm every tenant is charged for insurance.
Bonus item 1: And lastly a couple of my personal favorites: auto-pay for everyone, no discounts permitted, and administration fee for each rental.
Bonus item 2: Think Retail. Have your locks priced at $19.99 and on sale for $14.99.
If you want to have a 15-minute call to learn how Storage Authority helps insure the above items and more are accomplished at your facility and how we help you find land and get your facility built please send me an email or call me – no appointment needed: marc@StorageAuthorityFranchise.com or 860-830-6764
Get more information on Storage Authority Franchise at www.storageauthorityfranchise.com
This article was orginally posted on the Storage Authority Franchise Blog on 24th December 2022
Marc Goodin is President of Storage Authority Franchising www.storageauthorityfranchise.com. He owns 3 self storages he designed, built and manages. He has been helping others in the self storage industry for over 25 years. He can be reached at marc@StorageAuthority.com or directly at 860-830-6764 to answer your franchising, development, marketing, sales and operations questions. His best selling self storage books are available at amazon.