Best Money-Making Tips for Self-Storage Facility Owners

Investing in a self-storage facility is a great option for anyone looking for a low-maintenance property with a strong future outlook. Self-storage facilities are recession-proof constantly being utilized by people across the country — regardless of the economic state. 

However, investors can’t simply buy the property and expect to start generating money right away. It pays to do some industry research and learn some tricks of the trade to help you take your business to the next level. The following tips will help you make the best decisions for your future properties to maximize profits and guarantee long-term success!

Create a website

If someone’s thinking about renting a storage unit, the first thing they’ll do is turn to Google. They’ll look up things like the benefits of self-storage, where facilities are located, and what types of amenities the units offer. To make sure that you’re attracting the highest amount of customers, you need to prioritize building out your online presence.

Creating and maintaining a website will be a major factor in your company’s success. With a well-designed website, interested potential customers can easily view regular business hours, the facility’s address, unit sizes, pricing information, and other details they need to know before they decide to take the next step. Self-storage owners who neglect to create a site (or neglect to regularly update their site) will likely be overshadowed by more tech-savvy competitors.

Stay organized with management software

If you want to streamline every aspect of your self-storage business, investing in facility management software is a must. These systems allow business owners to remotely track key information and manage dozens of important business functions with just a few clicks. Most software systems will enable you to:

• Schedule recurring bills for clients
• View available units
• Set up dynamic pricing options
• See each customer’s balance
• Check details of individual units (type, location, size, etc.)
• Increase facility security 
• Process transactions 

Management software systems will make it simple to stay updated about everything going on with your facility, from which customers have payments due to storage availability. While buying software on its own won’t necessarily boost your profits, it will certainly leave you with more time for marketing, reaching out to interested clients, and researching your competitors!

Add new amenities to your units

Building new features onto existing units is one of the easiest ways to increase the value of your storage facility. Depending on where your company is located, you can cater to consumer-specific interests and needs. For instance, if you’re near a popular beach or campground, offering boat or RV storage may be a great way to drive more revenue into your business. 

Climate-controlled storage is an excellent way for your storage facility to stand out to all customers. People who are worried about their valuables being damaged by unpredictable temperature changes will be far more comfortable trusting your business to protect their things… and they’ll be willing to pay more for this extra peace of mind, too! A unit that proactively defends against high humidity levels, extreme temperatures, mold growth, or rust buildup will be worth a lot more than a simple unit without any climate control.

Sell extra supplies or services

If you want to increase profits, think about every step of the average self-storage user’s journey. In order to move all of their belongings to your facility, they’ll most likely need boxes, packing tape, and other packaging materials. If they’re moving items like furniture, they might need to rent a moving truck or hire movers to help them with transportation. Instead of letting renters go to other businesses to purchase supplies or rent equipment, you can hire professionals to provide these services through your business!

You could get as creative as you’d like when it comes to selling additional products or services. You might try buying a few moving trucks and renting them out to tenants, or you could simply sell packing supplies during regular business hours. Lending other items, such as platform carts or dolly carts, can make the moving process go much smoother for tenants as well. 

Work with the right investment partner

Our team at TyMac has nearly 2 decades of combined experience in the self-storage industry, and we’re committed to helping investors find the best possible opportunities. When you partner with us, you can expect friendly and open communication, highly-researched properties to consider, and consistent returns on your investments. 

If you’re ready to get into the self-storage industry, fill out this quick investor questionnaire and begin your investment journey today!