December 31, 2011
The New computer system comes on line December 1st. You know it might be kind of sad that I get geek out over new self storage software. Well laugh if you want but the new system is internet based and has enough bells and whistles to keep me happy for quite awhile. Since the 15th I have been double entering everything that happens. Once in the old system then again in the new system. This is why December is the month to do something like a switch over. Decembers, in general are notoriously slow in storage. So for the first time in 20 years I had a hopping December.
It is great to have a good rush of business… But… in the middle of this level of reconstruction it has caused a few hassles. First let me say I like this kind of hassle , I just felt kind of bad for Adam ( the on line software trainer who was suppose to be training me). It seemed like every time we got into a training session a customer comes in to rent a space or they have some life changing problem that needs immediate attention. After 15 days of hit and miss training and updating I think we are ready to go live with the new program. Now lets find out in the next month or two if I am still excited about it.
A year ago we had just finished building our add-on and I went from being a 100% occupied facility of 101 units to a 33% occupied facility of 306 unit. Through the last year we have reconfigured the facility to be 284 units and we ended the year at 73% occupancy. Not bad.
The major hassle is the little things, like, the quick projects that won’t take long, or the change in procedures on the out going software that will only matter for 12 days, or the quick project that won’t take long, or the e-mail after e-mail after e-mail going over the same thing, oh yeah that quick project that won’t take long. Yeah, yeah, yeah
Oops I did not mean to get sarcastic.
2012, I see some really good growth happening at Guardian Storage. The facility has room to grow and increase in sales. And if we go to 100% or even close I will start pushing for P.O. Boxes.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain
Today was not a banner day at the storage. Well maybe it was better than I think, but it did kinda suck for my flags. Some day I will start paying attention to the wind advisories.
I fly two flag everyday, from wall mounted holders, currently it is the American flag and the Oklahoma flag. I realized I might be having problems when I looked out the window and could not see the Oklahoma flag. I did find it in the bushes with a broken wooden flag poll. It must have been one serious gust of wind to snap a three quarter wooden flag pool. Now I am not the kind of guy to panic about the wind, I grew up in Oklahoma. I also don't like being told what I can or can not do, Knowing that the Oklahoma flag was on a old flag poll that was already slightly damaged, I figured that the wind would not be strong enough to break a second Flag poll. So I quickly pulled out the Marine Flag, that was just finished being patched up, and placed it out on the wall. The wind was really kicking up and I as I stood in my office watching the Red and Gold colors of the Marine Corps flag stand straight and proud I new that that flag poll was not going to break. How right I was, for 10 minutes latter I was picking the Marine Corps flag up from the parking lot where it had had finely landed and realized that where-as the flag poll hand held up fine the metal flag holder had snapped in half. With this I did give in and bring in all the flags for the rest of the day.
Moral of this story... The Marines are tougher than steel and don't you forget that.
The other bit of news is that we just had an auction on the 15th, and I don't get people. People really think that "Storage Wars" are real. What a load of crap. Hollywood can cook up some real stink but this is to much. People! think about it, would you even show up to an auction if you didn't have a clue what was going to be there? You are not going to buy a space for $20 and make a million from it. You can make a very good living buying and selling peoples junk, but it is like any other business, it takes time and you have to know what you are doing. Never, never, never try to bull shit a storage manager, they have already seen it and they simply don't care. I will defiantly have to go into more detail latter on auctions. How to stay out of them and how to be a buyer in one.
I fly two flag everyday, from wall mounted holders, currently it is the American flag and the Oklahoma flag. I realized I might be having problems when I looked out the window and could not see the Oklahoma flag. I did find it in the bushes with a broken wooden flag poll. It must have been one serious gust of wind to snap a three quarter wooden flag pool. Now I am not the kind of guy to panic about the wind, I grew up in Oklahoma. I also don't like being told what I can or can not do, Knowing that the Oklahoma flag was on a old flag poll that was already slightly damaged, I figured that the wind would not be strong enough to break a second Flag poll. So I quickly pulled out the Marine Flag, that was just finished being patched up, and placed it out on the wall. The wind was really kicking up and I as I stood in my office watching the Red and Gold colors of the Marine Corps flag stand straight and proud I new that that flag poll was not going to break. How right I was, for 10 minutes latter I was picking the Marine Corps flag up from the parking lot where it had had finely landed and realized that where-as the flag poll hand held up fine the metal flag holder had snapped in half. With this I did give in and bring in all the flags for the rest of the day.
Moral of this story... The Marines are tougher than steel and don't you forget that.
The other bit of news is that we just had an auction on the 15th, and I don't get people. People really think that "Storage Wars" are real. What a load of crap. Hollywood can cook up some real stink but this is to much. People! think about it, would you even show up to an auction if you didn't have a clue what was going to be there? You are not going to buy a space for $20 and make a million from it. You can make a very good living buying and selling peoples junk, but it is like any other business, it takes time and you have to know what you are doing. Never, never, never try to bull shit a storage manager, they have already seen it and they simply don't care. I will defiantly have to go into more detail latter on auctions. How to stay out of them and how to be a buyer in one.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Why Storage
The number of reasons people get storage is as numerous as the number of people who have storage. The real question is after 20 years why am I in storage. Of all the things that I could have gone into, all the different carrear choices How I ended up in storage is a great mystery. How about why people do the things they do in and with there storage. My name is Bob I started in storage 20 years ago doing maintenance in Southern California. I have been managing storage for 10 years and I now work in Oklahoma
In the last twenty years I have seen many strange and stupid things from people renting space and not using it for six months to finding a three week old dead body. Storage can be very strange.
Today I sent a nice letter to a customer informing them that they are locked out of their space for bouncing a check on me. Ok not a big earth shattering day but damn people can't you balance your check book. Ok, it would not be such a bad thing except it was check number three. I know, don't yell at me. what am I accepting a third check from someone who has bounced two checks on me. I don't care if you say she had a good story that she told real well, or I was just looking for the good in others, after 20 years I should know better. Well it's back to the basics for this tenant, cash only and locked out until that cash is in hand.
By the way When I thought about how stupid it was for me to take that check I snorted very loud which started my wife laughing and made me realize what a real big bone head move it was. Well at least my honey got a real good chuckle out of it.
I wonder what story I will get from my tenant when they get the mail? Maybe I will snort for them as well.
Lesson for today is don't bounce checks on your storage. It makes for cranky managers and cost you an extra $35 in fees.
Alright my first post is down and I survived it. If I can keep this going maybe I will tell the story of the first dead body.
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