Storage Business Owners Alliance Makes Industry Debut

Three self storage industry veterans just formed the Storage Business Owners Alliance LLC (SBOA), an organization that aims to help small- to medium-sized self storage owners and operators drive greater profitability.By leveraging the combined “strength in numbers” of its membership, SBOA members can take advantage of substantial savings on everyday expense items such as office supplies, credit card processing fees, and payroll processing, as well as expense items more specific to the self storage industry such as retail supplies for resale.

SBOA’s Founding Members include more than 200 member-facilities such as Sentry Self Storage, Planet Self Storage and the facilities managed by Investment Real Estate Management LLC. “As a 50-store operation, we are thrilled with the cost savings the SBOA offers us to improve our bottom line,” said Rick Yonis of Sentry Self Storage. “Especially in today’s economy, we are pleased to be able to pass along some of savings to customers as well.”

SBOA has established vendor relationships with prominent industry brands such as Site Link (software), StorageClicks (search engine optimization), Janus International (unit partitions and doors), and Michaels Wilder (Yellow Pages advertising). Members also benefit from steep discounts from such nationally known merchants as Staples, ADP (payroll processing), Sprint and Federal Express.

Other notable discounts include the ability to save more than 25% on typical credit card processing fees (North American Bankcard), and a 42% discount on print subscriptions and a 10% discount on digital subscriptions on MiniCo’s Mini Storage Messenger magazine.

Although SBOA’s major focus is expense savings, there are significant revenue-generating benefits as well, including a cooperative program with the U-Store-It Network (Internet lead conversion) and a revenue-generating pay-with-rent insurance program with Minico, Inc. that pays the member an above average administrative fee each month on every tenant insurance transaction.

Future offerings will include a property/liability insurance program with steep savings on annual premiums for participating SBOA members.

The SBOA was founded by Morgan Hanlon, Ian Burnstein and David M. Levenfeld, owners and operators of multiple self storage facilities, who realized an industry need for small- to medium-sized owners to band together to better compete with the larger storage companies.

“The automated features of the SBOA website make signing up and implementing immediate savings as easy as possible,” said Hanlon. “The SBOA allows the owner of just one or a few facilities to enjoy the buying power of a major national company. We believe our members will find the discount opportunities to be extremely compelling.”

Enrollment is open to any self storage facility owner or operator. For more information or to join, please visit www.theSBOA.com or call 508-425-7111.

Add comment February 16th, 2010

Self Storage Finders Launches Web Site Redesign

Self Storage Finders, an online self storage directory, just rolled out its website redesign. This should serve as an example to the self-storage industry — the web is a vital part of your business and will become moreso in the months and years ahead.

The new design is a key factor in order to establish brand awareness, provide clarity of communication and foster business to business marketing and lead generation.The website incorporates sleeker design architecture with clean, aesthetic lines optimizing the overall consumer experience. The simple and clean site design is part of the company’s mission to continuously meet the needs of its Members and potential renters by providing improved navigation, better organization of content, interactive communication functions, user friendliness and current website technology.

The website redesign is one of several tactics Self Storage Finders has incorporated into their integrated marketing campaign. “We are happy to unveil our new website redesign. Being able to stay current on technology advances is a priority for us. As an innovator in the online storage industry, we must give the customer and client a positive user experience. We are confident the new redesign will achieve this objective,” said Brian Barwig, Marketing Director of Self Storage Finders.

“I am very pleased with the new site,” says Barwig. “It is not only aesthetically pleasing but it also has enhanced load speeds and design flexibility.” He adds the site will continue to grow as Self Storage Finders does saying, “We are constantly evolving and adapting while encouraging our Members to be vocal about what they like and do not like about the website.”

Enhancements have also been made to the sites general website directory and blog organization.

We continue to strive for excellence and have designed the site to be a primary source of storage information on the internet – a one-stop resource for potential renters.

All of the updates allow users to more easily find the information they are searching for, in the most logical places, and to support them in their research, evaluation and selection of a storage unit. The redesign will continue to contribute to the value Self Storage Finders customers and Members receive through the company. The redesign is another step in efforts to continually enhance user and Member experiences, as well as to deliver additional functions and features.

The website was redesigned by Fox Web Creations, a Kansas City based company servicing various businesses in several industries.

Add comment February 16th, 2010