SSA Blog

With over 100 hours of video uploaded very minute, 1 billion unique monthly visitors, and 6 billion hours of video viewed every month, YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google.

Certainly, the self storage industry has benefited from adding computers and the internet to their business operations over the last twenty years. The ability to store and transmit data about self storage tenants, the ease of managing financial transactions and the use of social media to engage greater marketing have certainly affected how facility operators conduct their business and have enhanced their bottom line profitability.

In this tough economic climate, automated and high-tech facilities are gaining ground on traditional mom and pop operations. Storage customers expect self-service convenience, climate controlled units, and a fortress protecting their items from the dangers of the outside world. But those amenities don’t come cheap: automated facility owners can charge a premium rate for ultra-modern storage technology and high-security upgrades.

Not all states require that employees who work more than a set number of hours to be given an unpaid meal break. In states that do require meal breaks litigation against employers is common.

I recently spoke with John Eisenbarth, the Vice President of Operations for West Coast Self-Storage in Mill Creek, Washington, to get his take on how West Coast goes about finding the right types of storage properties to manage.

In the self storage industry, it is estimated that approximately 12% of facilities are owned by publicly-traded REITs. The other 88% of facilities are mostly owned by small and mid-sized operators.

When I walked into the fall Self Storage Association (SSA) trade show in Las Vegas in 1996, I wasn’t an owner yet. I was a broker with an interest in self storage. The atmosphere was electric.

The Internal Revenue Service has renewed its warning about an email fraud that uses a corporate officer’s name to request employee Forms W-2 from company payroll or human resources departments.

Keeping your customer's data safe is key and small businesses are not immune to a breach of security.

Growing up, I always had an innate draw towards competition. I learned to channel that energy playing multiple sports throughout the years. The things that I learned about myself was foundational to crafting my responses and outlook to both winning, losing and life.