A Critical Mass Moment

Sometimes a Friday is just another day of the week, then there are days like today. I manage a small storage that we are growing into a medium size storage. With that growth comes more business which is great. Then all of a sudden you get a critical mass moment (we will call this a CMM).

Friday morning started out fairly normal I did some paperwork and then left the facility to help count money at the Car Wash. As I was leaving I received a request for help from a friend of mine, not a real problem He needs my help for about two minutes and he is willing to come by the storage. I have 55 minutes to travel one mile clear the bays and get back to the office. I should be back with about 20 minutes to spare.

When I got to Access we got right to work for about 5 minutes then we ran into a problem locking up one of the bill collectors. Once we got that put together a customer had a problem with a wash bay. Then almost immediately another customer wanted to pay a bill. When ever one of us stops the collection or the count then both of us have to stop. It is call two deep coverage and makes sure we get the most accurate count, with the highest security. High security does not make for quickest count.

We get back on track and the customer who paid the bill is now having trouble opening her door. Ok we stop again and we fix this, and back to the collection. As we get into the office I get a call from my friend that he has arrived at my office so I tell him to give me 10 minutes and I will kick it into high gear. High gear makes me 10 dollars off on my count. It was not a hard fix but at this point I had to throw in the towel. I called my friend and apologized, but work needed to come first. Dave is great and didn’t have a problem. I finished my count and got back to the office in time to kill weeds.

Killing weeds is a calming activity.

The I actually went to lunch with my youngest son. I don not take many lunches and this was a special treat.

Back to work! All I have left on the to do list is close out this day and make sure I am caught up on all deposits. No problem, its 2:15 and I can get this done in about 45 minutes. First I just need to help this customer who pulled in at the same time as I did. 20 minutes latter she has seen all the space sizes, knows the prices and specials, and leaves to go talk it over with hubby. Then the phone starts, and the parade of payments. Someone I talked to weeks ago comes in to rent a space (Yea!!). When the dust settles it 4:30 and I still haven’t started close out. (My eyes are bugging out a little) I love the business we are having but it is hitting as a CMM.

Ok time to get tough I jam out my close out, swing by Access and pick up Johns close out and off to the bank.

Have you ever had a Star Wars moment, that is when you look at something and say “ I have a bad feeling about this”. That is me pulling into the bank. The line at the commercial window is long. And I get a text from my wife to meet another friend of ours at the storage to talk about a special storage need. Not a problem the line is actually moving! I can be there at this rate by 5:30.

This is what it looked like at the time of the text.

This is what it looked like 13 minutes latter.

And this is what it looked like 15 minutes after that…

5:40 I finally left the bank, and our friend had to wait till 5:45 till I got back to the office. I love having business, I love making the company money, but I hate making anyone wait.

The last chapter…. My wife had pizza and wine for dinner. Now that was sweet.

I will never play quarter slots again!

Today I had a special treat. I spent a large part of the day at Access Storage taking inventory of the car wash. Wash bays check, vacuums check, auto wash check, jobs done. Unfortunately that’s not what they meant. If you think about it what does a car was have the most of? Quarters. Every machine accepts quarters, or gives quarters. So there are a bunch of quarters to count. 11 am to 4 pm I spent counting, categorizing, or re-cording quarters. I met John at Access at 11 am and I think I actually said this should not take to long. I am thankful that John was there or I would still be counting. By the time we were through our hands were blackened and probably quite toxic. I really don’t want to go into totals because I want to be able to sleep tonight. Lets just say we counted thousands of quarters.



I wanted to say that I will not be blogging about my upcoming auction. Some how the computer did not send out the final lien notices when it should have. This is the certified letter that has to go out on time.  Not a real hard fix the new program did not have the right switches set. So what does the manager of a self storage facility do when the paperwork gets messed up.? Simple, set a new date and restart the process. Never take the chance on your auctions it is better to start again then to put about a questionable auction. I will let you know when the new date is set.

Cookies rule

ookies! What is happier than fresh free cookies?  Well, in the world of Bob cookies are king.  Several years ago I was chatting with some friends trying to figure out what to do for my birthday and that is when I figured out cookies, I would go home and bake myself cookies.  Well that did not make as happy as is sounded so I started giving the cookies away, and Unofficial National Bob Day was born.  The first two years I baked a lot of cookies, but how many cookies can on man make?  So every year I keep expanding and asking more people to bake cookies and give them away on March 19^th.  Last year we went International cookies were made all over the US, England, West Africa, and Japan.  We celebrated Unofficial International Bob Day in The Middle East and somewhere in the Pacific Ocean with our troops. 

This brings us to the present. Unofficial international Bob Day is Monday if you can bake some cookies and give them away please do and let me know.  I love the fact that one crazy guy’s idea and go all over the world.  So for all the people of the world, go celebrate Bob and his love of cookies.

The first round of baking, three dozen Chocolate Chip, three dozen Snickerdoodles, and t.hree dozen No Bake

The Crap Hit the Fan Today

Can you guess what this is?

　



If you said “Gee Whiz Bob, that looks like the start of a Police Report”. I would say “go to the head of the class. I would then make fun of you for saying Gee Whiz.

This was a tough weekend for me. I had some situations happen that made me really check my gut reaction. Well Monday is here and it is time to go make things happen at the new storage facility… or is it? When I woke up this morning I had no idea that two very low life’s had broken into 18 different units or vehicles last night. I can’t show pictures of the effected units or even tell you how it was done. (We need to remember the privacy of our tenants). Now is the time to talk to about how to protect your belongings while they are in storage.

First do not let everyone know that you are using storage. The fewer people who know is best. If you use a moving company pack in unmarked boxes. Instead of writing mom’s good china, or Dad’s antique guns just mark the box with color so that you now all blue marked boxes go to dad’s study and green is for the kitchen.

Next Pack your unit to the gills, I mean fill every space possible. When someone opens the door it should be a solid wall of unmarked boxes and they should say “Whoa! I do not even want to take the time to figure this out”.

Go spend some money on a good lock. The cheapest lock you should look at is a Disk Lock Spend 10 to 20 dollars. Every space that was broken into last night was a standard lock. With the exception of on that was a school gym locker. The truth is locks keep honest people honest, so use a lock that will keep the most people honest.

Finally get your self some insurance. Self storage companies do not carry insurance on your property. You can sue a storage company for your losses but you will lose. When you sign a contract with a storage company you are in an agreement that the company will not carry any kind of policy for your stuff. Have I made myself clear No Self Storage Provider Will Cover You Stuff With Any Kind Of Policy. Now some Companies will offer a pay with your rent Policy, these are not bad policies so look closely at them, but they are not the provider or the insurer they are only a go between. The big point make sure you are covered with some kind of policy. Check your homeowner or renter policy to see if they cover you. No mater what it is your responsibility and no one else.

The Game of Life

Here is a lesson for all who may read this.  In the “Game of Life” that is the Parker Brothers game, the idea of the game is to make more money than anyone else and beat your opponents to the finish.  That is a board game people.   Get the clue that life is not a game.   The one with the most toys does not win.

Pardon for the rant but I seem to be in a power struggle at work and I did not start it.   I have a fellow employee in the company that feels like he is not needed in his current position and is trying to gain some form of control in the storage branch of the corporation.   Now the old me wants to say “I didn’t start this fight but I will sure end it”.  Now here is where my internal struggle hits.  My gut still wants to fight fire with a small thermal nuclear device, but I spent last fall at an adult leadership course put on by the Boy Scouts of America.  This course is called Wood Badge and is one of the most compelling classes I have ever taken.  I will not go into great detail on the overall course, but I want to tell you about one lesson. 

“The Game of Life”

Here are the rules of a simple game.  You have two paddles on red and one green. On the count of three each team lifts a paddle in the air.  That is all the rules you are given and the game starts.   After the first round the scoring board is brought out and the scores are counted.  For example the scoring board for a game with two teams would look like this.   Two red paddles are raised both teams lose 100 points.  If a red paddle and a green paddle are raised then the red paddle wins 500 points and the green paddle loses 500 points. If the two green paddles are raised then each team gets 50 points.   Now the motto of this game is “Win All You Can”.  How do you see this game going?  When I played it we had eight teams with a very complicated scoring board, but the concept stayed the same.  At first we were just throwing up paddles at a whim and going into the negatives fast.  Then a group of instructors ran across the room holding up one word signs which read Win All You Can. As soon as they passed they ran backwards so the message read Can You All Win.  Slowly two tactics emerged one group started only holding up the red paddle while the other seven groups were holding up green.  The seven groups started trying to get the eight group to join in but they were winning and they kept holding up red by the end of the game seven teams where dip in the negative and one team had thousands of points. Who won?  …. No one won.  In life there is no score board and no playing pieces and if you can’t figure out that there is always a win-win scenario, then you will be the one to bring down everyone.  I don’t want to be the one to destroy everything just to prove I am right. 

When I started this blog tonight I had all intentions of explaining my strategies of how I was going to win this battle.  Then I would probably spend some time justifying my decision.  Now here I am at the end of this post and I realize it’s time to lift the paddle.  Well Bob what’s it going to be red or green.   This will be a long weekend figuring out my next move.   I hope you will think before your next move and try to find the win-win scenario.

P.S. If I blow this game for any soon to be Wood Badgers, please forgive me.   Not only did this game hit me hard then, but again tonight.  It is a lesson we all need.

 Make good choices.  in the end it is just between you and God.

A new place to work and another auction!

I am still 4 weeks outside of my auction and lo and behold the owner of my storage has closed on another facility. Access Storage is now under the Avandale umbrella. This is an excellent opportunity and creates some new challenges. Access has a Car Wash included with the property and 4 acres of undeveloped land. Look for a lot to happen here. Oh yeah, did I mention it is one mile from Guardian. This may constitute some running between facilities for me, but that is just good business.

Now for the challenges! The office came complete with contracts, cameras, a comfy couch for the customers and no employees. Usually when a company is taken over or bought out the customers and their pay comes as part of the deal. We are not sure when but there are no employees so day one we start behind the eight ball. Also on day one we find out that Access Storage is in the final days of an auction of it’s own. I don’t understand this auction first of all there is no paper trail that is easy to follow, and there is only one space going up for auction. The facility is only 55 to 60 % occupied so why push only one unit why not wait for more units to accumulate. To top this problem the customer has notified that he has retained a lawyer to declare bankruptcy. What a pain in the ass this is. Now that we are trying to put together an office on the fly, we are now in a horse race. The race is this, when the lawyer gets the paperwork into the court house we will be notified and have to kill the auction on this space. So who is faster the lawyer and his paperwork or Access and the calendar. If Auction date gets here without our notification of the bankruptcy then the sale goes on.

The best thing about the new facility and it’s location so close to us, is that we can run the two stores in tandem. And I get free car washes !!! Yeah!!