Self Storage Facility...

[russy01]

Morning,

Does anybody run, know much about or have anything useful to say about opening a self storage facility?

Make the following assumptions:

- Building is suitable and already owned outright. Building has loading bays and is very open internally.
- Not much competition locally and area not likely to attract national competition.

Thanks in advance.

[LivingTheDream]

russy01 said:

....
- Not much competition locally and area not likely to attract national competition.
....

I know nothing about it specifically but the above comment is interesting

Either there is demand or not, if there is then I suspect a national will be looking at it, if not....well

[KevinCamaroSS]

russy01 said:

M Building has loading bays and is very open internally.

Surely you need a building with multiple internal storage divisions? Otherwise anybody can access everybody else's stuff.

[russy01]

KevinCamaroSS said:

Surely you need a building with multiple internal storage divisions? Otherwise anybody can access everybody else's stuff.

Nah it needs to be open plan, everybody can store their stuff in plain sight and we'll operate a trust policy between customers... No seriously, of course I understand it needs to be divided up, but my point is that its currently open plan therefore I have a blank canvas.

[Mammasaid]

Used self storage on a couple of occasions, and biggest bugbear is internal access to the individual units.

Either they're narrow corridors that you struggle to carry items in/out, or they're filled with the operator's junk which has to be moved before you can get access to your stuff.

Ideally I'd like external access to each unit that you can just back up to with a van/trailer.

[iphonedyou]

russy01 said:

Morning,

Does anybody run, know much about or have anything useful to say about opening a self storage facility?

Make the following assumptions:

- Building is suitable and already owned outright. Building has loading bays and is very open internally.
- Not much competition locally and area not likely to attract national competition.

Thanks in advance.

Not too much to say, except that if you're running archive storage for businesses you'll likely make your money off access and retrieval fees, not the storage itself. So quote carefully; we pay 7p / month for archive boxes and hardly ever retrieve, whereas some firms pay the same 7p / month plus £1.20 retrieval fees multiple times per day, every day of the week.

[C0ffin D0dger]

Mammasaid said:

Used self storage on a couple of occasions, and biggest bugbear is internal access to the individual units.

Either they're narrow corridors that you struggle to carry items in/out, or they're filled with the operator's junk which has to be moved before you can get access to your stuff.

Ideally I'd like external access to each unit that you can just back up to with a van/trailer.

I was going to mention the place where we store our caravan that also has containers to rent (outside). Ideal because as you say you can drive straight up to them. The place must make a fecking mint, massive farm, got to be over 300 caravans on there at least at £480 a year + the containers. Pretty low overheads once you've got it set up I'd have thought?

[48k]

C0ffin D0dger said:

I was going to mention the place where we store our caravan that also has containers to rent (outside). Ideal because as you say you can drive straight up to them. The place must make a fecking mint, massive farm, got to be over 300 caravans on there at least at £480 a year + the containers. Pretty low overheads once you've got it set up I'd have thought?

Insurance must be pretty hefty for that I'd have thought.

[Zetec-S]

Not much to add, except I note your location as Somerset so if you do set something up which also includes reasonably secure vehicle storage (VW Transporter sized) then you're likely to get at least one customer

[russy01]

C0ffin D0dger said:

I was going to mention the place where we store our caravan that also has containers to rent (outside). Ideal because as you say you can drive straight up to them. The place must make a fecking mint, massive farm, got to be over 300 caravans on there at least at £480 a year + the containers. Pretty low overheads once you've got it set up I'd have thought?

Thats what I was thinking, aside the initial investment its a relatively cheap and easy business to maintain. We dont have large open space for the Caravans, but have a large building available soon (has been leased since it was built) with a big yard that could probs swallow 50 Containers too.

Just looking at simple businesses we could set up to make a few ££ over and above just renting the place out.

[Mr Pointy]

48k said:

C0ffin D0dger said:

I was going to mention the place where we store our caravan that also has containers to rent (outside). Ideal because as you say you can drive straight up to them. The place must make a fecking mint, massive farm, got to be over 300 caravans on there at least at £480 a year + the containers. Pretty low overheads once you've got it set up I'd have thought?

Insurance must be pretty hefty for that I'd have thought.

The beauty of it is you insist the clients pay for their own insurance - & it's not chaep if you buy it from the facility owner.

[C0ffin D0dger]

Mr Pointy said:

48k said:

C0ffin D0dger said:

I was going to mention the place where we store our caravan that also has containers to rent (outside). Ideal because as you say you can drive straight up to them. The place must make a fecking mint, massive farm, got to be over 300 caravans on there at least at £480 a year + the containers. Pretty low overheads once you've got it set up I'd have thought?

Insurance must be pretty hefty for that I'd have thought.

The beauty of it is you insist the clients pay for their own insurance - & it's not chaep if you buy it from the facility owner.

Well yeah, it is a stipulation that my caravan is insured though not with them, nor do they check it. I would have insured it anyway. But yeah I've heard that some of the house contents storage type places insist on you taking their insurance.

[48k]

Mr Pointy said:

48k said:

C0ffin D0dger said:

I was going to mention the place where we store our caravan that also has containers to rent (outside). Ideal because as you say you can drive straight up to them. The place must make a fecking mint, massive farm, got to be over 300 caravans on there at least at £480 a year + the containers. Pretty low overheads once you've got it set up I'd have thought?

Insurance must be pretty hefty for that I'd have thought.

The beauty of it is you insist the clients pay for their own insurance - & it's not chaep if you buy it from the facility owner.

Was thinking more along the lines of the businesses' own buildings and contents insurance - storing lots of high valued items on site makes you a bit of a target. Before you start thinking about other costs eg. will you offer 24 hour access if so how is that controlled, if not are you paying staff to be on site certain hours. Etc.

I looked in to starting a car storage business a year or so ago, so whilst not in the same sector the operational and business model is very similar and the day to day running costs are not to be sniffed at.

[Insurancejon]

The insurance for storage places isn't as expensive as you think, however you have to have control of any hazardous/flammable items

[DSLiverpool]

Russ this guy had some land and went the container route, you could have internal and external ones maybe? It seems to do well and it’s pretty well established even though lots of competition round here.

http://lock-and-store.co.uk/