Mini-storage facilities were formerly largely utilized by those who wanted a place to temporarily keep extra home things. The mini-storage facility met the demand for low-cost storage while a person was relocating, attending college, or serving in military services. Today, mini-storage facilities serve almost every element of our society:
• Students: Mini storage supports the student population by storing bicycles, furniture, and a variety of other goods that would be inconvenient to keep in a dorm room or apartment.
• Renters: Due to rising rental prices, many individuals are opting for smaller flats. Extra furniture, appliances, and household things may be safely stored in the mini-storage.
• Homeowners: Homeowners must often make the most of every square foot of their house. Attics are often turned into additional bedrooms, while basements and garages are transformed into family areas. Mini-storage meets homeowners’ demands by offering storage space at a fraction of the expense of a room extension. Typically, homeowners and renters account for 60% of a mini-business.
• Recreational vehicle owners: Many towns prohibit the parking of recreational vehicles in driveways or on the street. Owners in other areas are unwilling to expose their trailers, yachts, and motor homes to the weather and vandals. Mini-storage offers these folks a secure storage option at a lesser cost.
• Collectors and enthusiasts: People who collect vintage or classic vehicles sometimes utilize mini-storage to keep their collections. Supplies are often stored at the facilities by hobbyists.
• Company owners: More and more business owners are resorting to mini-storage to relieve overcrowding in their offices. Mini-storage is being employed by retail enterprises to turn spaces that were previously used as stock rooms into sales floors. Mini-storage is used in the light industry to hold extra goods until they can be dispatched. Mini-storage units are being used by office managers to hold company equipment, data, and business forms. Businesses account for around 40% of mini-storage leasing.
How to calculate the number and size of units?
What will be held in the various storage units is the single most critical element in choosing their size. As an investment in your mini-storage company, it is beneficial to be knowledgeable of your community’s storage requirements, such as:
• The community’s population: Whether you construct in a tiny rural town or a huge metropolitan location, the population will play a significant role in selecting the size of your facility. The general rule of thumb in smaller areas with no additional storage facilities is one unit for every 100 inhabitants.
• Analyze your competition: Other storage facilities in the region will vie for your business. If a community’s storage market is saturated, consider expanding to a neighboring region where competition is less fierce. If you discover that there is still demand in a certain neighborhood, go to your competitor’s facilities. Determine which unit sizes are always occupied and which are often vacant. Examine the rental rates and hours. All of this information will provide you with a significant competitive advantage over other mini-storage facilities in the region.
• Know your community’s storage needs: Is the neighborhood near a recreational area? Is it a university? A business park? Any of these would almost certainly influence your community’s specific storage demands. Boats, trailers, and motor homes would very certainly need to be stored in recreational areas. All of these would need higher sidewalls and bigger units than a normal mini-storage structure. University students would often utilize smaller storage facilities to keep belongings during the summer. Larger units would often go unused in this kind of situation. If you construct your facility with commercial storage in mind, you should consider adding additional security elements to secure the tenants’ merchandise.
These elements influence a good location for a mini-storage facility
Visibility and security are the two most important considerations when selecting a construction location. Location is less significant than visibility. If the general public can see your building, they can figure out how to get to it. Visibility both attracts new customers and reassures current customers that their kept products are secure. If your facility is near a major highway, for example, you should anticipate some “drive-by” business. People see your facility and remember it when they need to store anything. A prominent placement also permits individuals who currently use your facilities to drive by on occasion to reassure themselves that everything is in order.
The second major consideration is security. You would not want to start the company in a high-crime area or at a location so remote that your customers do not feel secure going there. The more people that pass by your facilities, the better.
