Starting A Container Self Storage Business: A How To Guide

I always say to people with self storage, just start with the thought that it's going to be a great success. I've not really found or spoke to someone who's started self storage and it's not worked for them.

I remember just thinking like I'm landing the beach here and I've just, you know, each customer is worth a couple of grand probably you know, on average or a thousand or two thousand pounds. I've just made a couple of thousand pounds probably here. What a great business.

Yeah.

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of our podcast and thank you for joining us. Today we're joined by fellow podcast star Lewis from Cleveland Containers. So welcome Louis, thanks for joining us.

Hi Gavin, thanks for having me.

So let's start by, can you explain what is your role at Cleveland Containers?

So I'm the marketing director at Cleveland containers. Been there 10 years in September. Now the starting point for anyone looking at getting self storage and containers, kind of leading our Box plus package, which store is a part of an all in one service that can help people who want to get into self storage, basically set up a site and run it hands free. That's why I like how, I like the idea of running a self storage site completely hands free.

Yeah.

And that's what draws a lot of people to us and starts that conversation. They've seen Box plus, they want to donor, they don't have to manage the site because it's a lot to a lot of people. Self storage is kind of an add on thing to what they're doing.

Yeah.

We get a lot of property developers come in who are obviously on with big projects but have got a plot of land that they want to use in some way and think, oh, why not give self storage ago? Because container self storage is kind of low cost entry and if it doesn't work out then you just sell the containers or I always say to people with self storage, just start with the thought that it's going to be a great success.

Yeah.

We speak to so many people and they start self storage with like nine or 10 containers and before they know it they've got hundreds.

Yeah.

So and if you don't start right it's, it's a bit of a nightmare to, to catch up on it and yeah. Then correct all the things you did wrong in terms like laying out the site, the systems you use, the security. Just get it right from the start because before you know it, it's gonna, it's gonna take off. I speak to so many self storage and hear like what's worked for them. So I've got so many things that could just work for them. Like for example, a great example, Stormill. Very rural location on a farm. You would never know it was there. It's in like a really, it's not an exciting place. It's, it's not like a well known place. All very like, it's like suburbs of, suburbs of York. Okay, anyway, so. And he was like, oh, I'll give it a go. Started with 10 containers, was like, was had about half them full and was like on the fence of it. Do I, what do I do? What do I do? I mean his site could only take about 50, 60 boxes anyway, so I said to him, oh well, have you thought about a flyer drop? So he did that. He filled the first 10 up straight away, got another 10. I was like, right, what, what next? Have you tried PPC Invest a few hundred quid of that? He was like, oh, I don't know how to do. He gave it a go and within six months he's now got. His site is full just from the, just like the little nuggets of. Try this, try that, try that. Anyway, so I've gone off a bit of tangent now, but any box it's, We've just, we speak to so many storers, hundreds every year looking to get into it. We supply over 500 self storage in the UK with containers. We just, we just get, we get to speak to them and see what's working for them and hear their stories and their journey. So we built Box plus, we were part of the SSA and there's a lot of amazing supplies in the ssa but I think it can be quite daunting for someone looking to get into. It's like who do I speak to? Yeah, because I think people like to be people, people like referrals. People like to know that if I get a recommend to someone they'll look after me because they've looked after that person. So I basically just looked at the ssa, who we, who we've dealt with, who we know in sports. Like if you for example, trying to come be a part, basically you give our customers something back and we'll refer our customers to you. Yeah, we all do better if we look after each other in the self storage as a supplier.

When you're getting started in self storage, you know there are, there are like you've been in it for so long and I've been in it for quite a long time now. Stuff can. Some stuff kind of seems quite Obvious, like. So, like you're talking about PPC advertising, leaflet drops, like signage on the road, stuff that is quite obvious. But if you're new to the industry, you just, you haven't, you haven't heard those things before. So I suppose you're. You're trying to kind of just give people pretty straightforward advice. Things that have worked for hundreds of other sites and that's all part of the Box plus program. So there's obviously in the uk, there's two main types of self storage. I know there's other stuff, but mostly like there's indoor storage and there's container storage. There's a few things in between and drive up some stuff. But most of those businesses are in one of those too. What makes container storage such an attractive business, would you say?

I think the biggest thing, what I hear when I speak to people is they can, they can do it by just whether it's quite low cost, you can just dip your toe in. So if you've got a site, you don't have to then like fit it out. You don't have to spend. I don't know, I don't know how much an indoor facility, but I think roughly 100k plus you're looking at to put like a ground level in or. Right for an indoor setup. Whereas containers, I always say to people, why not just start with 6? They come in twos, it's cheaper to deliver. So I know, why not start with 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. 10 containers, do some free advertising. Do you go on some local Facebook groups, go on marketplace advertising there. People will message, people will call, see how it goes.

Yep.

And then you can just go from there. So you could, I always say, just start with, start small, start with 10 containers.

Yeah.

Do your free advertising and just see how it goes there. It's just it. It a lot cheaper to get into, I think, than an indoor site. You're lost a lot less commitment. You put 10 down for whatever reason. Doesn't work. You just haven't got the demand there. It's very easy just to get rid of the containers and do some outs of the land.

Yeah. You can sell the containers on. So what do you bought them for?

We buy back containers or just flog them on ebay. It's quite easy to get rid of them.

Yeah. So ultimately it's a smaller upfront investment. We were going to talk about what it's like, how to find a site. So if you're a new operator coming to self storage, you're going to go and do what we've just talked about. So dipping your. Dipping your feet in getting into a container site. We're going to go through kind of some of the things that you would recommend considering when you're getting started. So we're going to start just with the search for a location.

Yeah.

So I suppose sometimes it comes down to where you live. You know, if you're living in a place, you do want to find somewhere six hours away, if it's your first site, somewhere close by. But apart from that, like, what are the key factors? I'll include that as well. What are the key factors to consider when looking for land for a facility? And are there any kind of. Any red flags, things you should sort of stay away from? One of the things I. Somebody told me recently was, and I hadn't thought of this because I have never done a container site was make sure you've got power for the gate.

Yes.

And I just thought, obviously. But then I would potentially have gone to go somewhere that didn't have power.

Literally just a gravel site.

Yeah, yeah.

So you got. Put power in and.

Yeah, yeah. So there's one little thing but like. Yeah. So what are some of the factors that you would think about when you're looking for land?

Start with what to avoid. I mean we, we speak to a lot of rural people and farm. Farm owners and landowners. If you're in a greenbelt area, it's. That's not ideal really for self storage. Most councils will probably object to it. They don't like metal boxes in the greenbelt area. So that we've tend. We tend to find. If you're in the area, avoid that. I've not really found or spoke to someone who's started self storage and it's not worked for them. There's always. So there's always. There's always a way to advertise yourself. Store site. Whether you're in a city center or you're on the outskirts of a town or you're completely rural. Yeah, there's. There's always a way to make it work. I think the biggest thing to look for, I always say joint, flat, hard, standing ground. Obviously you don't want to be on slope, you don't want to get. You don't want to be bogged down by loads of groundworks to start with. Just cash. You don't want to spend. So start. Hopefully you can find a site that's right. Hard, standing, level, levelish. Even if we. Containers need to be dead level, otherwise you're going to get Problems with the doors and you don't want any customers complaining about the, the doors are stiff on a container. Good roadside presence.

Yeah.

Along a road so you can advertise along there. Good passing traffic. Like the Ibox example there. They managed to put a container on top of a raw. Along a road. Massive. Stick it up the side of the container and just have people calling and just driving and just signing up. Good roadside presence, definitely. You mentioned utilities on there because you want, you want. If you're going to do it unmanned, you want electric gap.

Yeah.

You need some in wi fi on there as well. But it depends what the. What footprint as well. We've seen, we've seen all kinds of sites you want to, you want to site with decent access and entry.

Yeah.

The trucks that are going to bring these containers on. If you get arctics on site, that's ideal. You know, you want decent entry and exit and how many containers you're going to get on there. It's like, what is it going to be worth it? So you don't, you don't want a site that's on your small site costing you a lot. Then are you going to get the returns, how many containers you can get on there? So for example, I always say an acre, an acre of land. Say you've got a square acre.

Yeah.

You could probably get 100 to 120. 20 foot containers on there.

On. On ground. On the ground floor.

Yeah, on the ground floor.

On the ground, yeah.

So depending on like how you. And then if you do want to go to, if you want to go two stories with toppers, maybe you're looking at 90 to 100.

Okay.

You need to put some bricks in there. So it's for fire eggs. For the, for the second, you've got a set of stairs going up to that, to that upstairs unit. You want to be no more than six to eight containers before you do another a break of a set of stairs coming down and then into your, into your next room.

Okay, I'm gonna ask something that I've, I've. I've seen bits of. I've no bits of the answer, but I don't know the full answer, but it's always intrigued me. For a second floor for containers. What are the different ways to do that? Because I assume I've seen sometimes people, let's say you have a row of 20 foots. Can you put a row of 20 foots above it and then have a wheelie set of stairs that people wheel out and kind of lock in place? I've also seen a thing where people kind of on the second floor set it back a little bit and maybe put the 20s sideways and have a walkway which obviously it's quite a nice way to do it too but then you've got less space. What are the different ways you've, you've seen it happen?

All the ways you've just said. I mean yeah, you can just put a, a bog standard 20 foot on top of a 20 foot and have a set of stairs and platform and one wheels and reel it around. I think a few sites do that.

You need to, you need to have pretty good ground then like ground you.

Probably want flat ground cuz them set of stairs can be pretty heavy.

Do the customers move the stairs around?

Yeah, the customers move the stairs and.

There'S no like cuz that sounds to me like a bit dangerous.

I have not heard anyone run into any issues.

There's no, there's no problems with it. Like it's not like I think I get you're not breaking some health and safety regulation.

You can get, you can get stairs and stairs and platform in like the, the, the, the construction world. Yeah, you can get like a set of stairs box and a set of stairs. You know the treads aren't filled in, the sides aren't like kind of meshed than the handrails and so you can build a set of stairs to like to building rags on non building rags.

Okay.

I, if I was gonna, if I was in, if I was a self storage operator and I've got the general public on my site I'd be. And I was going too high. I'd make sure I've got really good public insurance and I just build a set of stairs to building regulations that.

Are, that can be.

So you still wheel them but you'd lock them into place. But then you'd have like the treads filled in. You'd have the, the handrails meshed as well so people can't fall. Like you've got kids, you don't have a kid falling through the. Yeah the handrails into the floor. So I just, just build a decent set of stairs so you can do that.

Um, okay. So one of the things that I really don't know a whole lot about and it's one of the, it's one of the things that when I've thought about doing container storage here in Northern Ireland, the first thing that blocks me in my head is planning and regulations.

Yeah. Yeah.

Like what, what should, what do new operators need to Consider. I appreciate you're not an expert in this either, probably, like, but you. I know you have people that you can put people in touch with, but is there anything like. I don't know, where do you start?

We get asked a lot. Can I, can I, can I, can I start? So storage, about planning and I, I just go, well, it's up to you. We would obviously always tell people to go planning first, but yeah, if you, if you say, I don't know, say the best scenario is say you're a farmer and you've got like a bit of a. You've got like a concrete pad that's not being used. You could, you could start with 10 containers and you could just class them as like storage that is ancillary to the farm.

Yeah.

So you could just see how it goes.

Yeah.

But then as soon as you go to like, 20, 30, especially 50 boxes, you really want to get planned permission because. Yeah, the council will find you eventually. As soon as you start making enough noise and start roadside advertising. FLYER drops. Yeah, you know what I mean? Advertising boards around your local town and stuff. The council is going to find you and come knocking.

Yeah.

So it's always best to just get planning straight away. And then we've got a planning partner, ET Planning. Emily and her team are great. We recommend so many people to them. They can do like a free, free, like a free half an hour consultation.

Oh, yeah.

And basically look at a site and give you like a green, amber, red light to basically say, like, this site would probably get planning. It might be a bit tricky, but you could get it or just. No, there's just no point.

Right.

I know you could be in a flood zone.

Yeah.

But a lot of the things that hold a plan application for self storage we found is it's your traffic, it's, it's all, it's all that. It's all to do with. You might need to do. What do they call, like a traffic management survey? Just calculating how many vehicles are going to come in and out of the site on a daily basis, what type of vehicles are going to go on that site? You know, if you've got a site along a, like a skinny road, but you need a truck to turn into there.

Right.

Are you going to cause, are you going to cause an issue with that? When, when trucks are coming to the site to. Just to deliver the containers, when to start with, when you first grow in?

Yeah.

So I'd recommend just, just, just if you got, if you got a site looking to do it, just Speak to a good planning company.

So in general, like, think about planning. It sounds like the best approach, if you know if you're prepared to invest upfront, is to go ahead and get planning before you do anything.

Yeah.

But there is an argument if you're trying to kind of do things a bit more incrementally and keep costs down to start, put down 10 containers, check there's demand, check that if you've got 10 containers, you've had them for a year and you've only released two of them, no point in spend, whatever it takes. And the worst case there, I presume the worst case is you could get kicked off at some point and maybe you're only moving three containers, whatever. So it's not the end of the world.

Sometimes it's easy to ask for forgiveness and information. Sometimes with councils, we found that. I think if I've got a site, I always say to people, the good thing to do is just who are your competition going? Score the site, open up Google Maps, type in self storage, who comes up first or top five, give them a ring.

Yeah.

We speak to so many. Self storage, container, self storage especially. We've got waiting lists.

Yeah. Yeah.

But it's mad that they're not putting the prices up. But if you're a container, self storage, you should never have a waiting list because you should be increasing your prices.

Yeah.

I always say people anticipate to operate this 80% occupancy, keep increasing your prices every six months.

Yeah.

Ring around who. What are your competition doing? Have you got a wait? And so they've got a weightiness. There's obviously demand in the area.

Yeah. The waiting list. Their waiting list or your customers.

Yeah, exactly. Why is it their witness is your customers, what they're doing? Can you undercut them? You don't have to be the cheapest. What more could you offer?

Yeah.

So many people now are offering like free move ins. Yeah. A free van hire to move in or. I don't think you need to do. I think 24 Access has kind of been and gone as a, as a USP on container sell store sites. Why not? Like.

Well, because. Because a lot of people are offering it already or because people have stopped offering.

I think people have stopped. I think people have stopped offering it. It's, it's, it's a bit of a headache to offer that. I think because of security. We're speaking to people and it's like, well, you can offer it if you, if you can offer it. If you can run your site completely Hands completely hands free.

Yeah.

You offer it but don't do it for free. Make it an added service.

Yeah. One of the things you mentioned there was about price increases as well and people running waiting lists. And we hear this a lot from customers too. And one of the features we've just released last week is our price increase tool or price optimization tool really. But it's really a lot of like my uncle runs a self storage business near where we are here today and he doesn't touch prices and it's because he's, you know, he, in the town that he's always lived in, he probably knows half the customers. He's been collecting cash all this time. Like he won't use store cuz he just wants to just, he wants to run it the way he wants to run it. But you know he's charging a price that he was charging 10 years ago.

Yeah.

And like in the, in the meantime his power bills have gone up. He's, you know, his, his phone bills like they're increased every, every six or 12 months. All the services he's paying for on that business or going up. But he's kept his prices the same. And you know, I do say to him, you know, you could put your price up by 50% or 70% here and because he's, he's always trying to.

Be in line with what's going on around him.

Exactly. He's, he's always trying to be completely full. Like if he's got an empty container he sees it as a, as lost revenue. And you know, whereas what you're saying there is, you know, at the end of the day we're running businesses here and if you've got more demand than you have supply, then it's up to you to maximize your business if that's what you want to do. But certainly price looking at your pricing for new customers, looking at the pricing for existing customers is something we'd always.

Yeah.

And you'd always encourage just because at the end of the day you're paying more for your services. You should charge more for your product as well.

Definitely. I think the one thing I like about store as well is from seeing what our customers are using it for. Join the early incentives. Not 50% off your first month.

Oh yeah.

I think the best customers for container self storage are small businesses. I mean once they're in, why would they leave? As long as you offer a decent service.

Yeah.

So doing things like, I don't know, your first three months could be half price or your first, first Three months free for like a small business and trade. Because then it's like a good PR piece as well. Support people like companies who support local businesses.

Yeah.

I always say people are. Drink car washes. Car washes. If you could partner with one of them. How many think. I might think how many local people every week go to a car wash? Like a hand car wash. At the end of the car wash, they give you. They give you an air freshener. What about the end of the car wash? They give, they give you, they give you a flyer as well.

What a brilliant idea.

And self storage and. Oh, do you know there's a self storage on the road. Take a unit out and come back and get a free car wash. And it was. What does that car wash cost? Fiverr.

Yeah. Tenor.

What is. If I'm. If I'm a car wash and I get approached by Self Start, I'm a self software. Say, hand this flyer out to everyone who gets a car wash. If they come and sign up, I'll, I'll give you a. I'll give you a tenor. And then come and get a car wash or whatever it is. You just, you could just spread your word so quickly and easily they hand you an air freshener. Why can't they just hand a flyer at the same time?

I know. I actually wonder why car washes haven't thought of this already. Like a pack of local business promotionals.

Just they're washing cars. Why not partner with local businesses and handle.

I would even, I mean, if I was. I still have, I've sold one of my sites, but I still have another site and if I was, you know, if I was off talking to local, like, I'd give them, like, I mean, I'd be better to give them the first month's rent, you know, so if you've given them like 50, 100 pounds, 150 pounds for somebody to sign up, you know, it really becomes worthwhile for them because you'd imagine there's a reasonable conversion rate in that. Great idea. So if there's one thing from this podcast, it's go and speak to your local car wash on a different idea. A similar but different, different idea that I never did because it seems more of it is people always say, O when there's a death in the family, it's a big time for self storage. So go and speak to your local funeral directors. But I never did that. I always felt, imagine rocking up to a funeral director and saying, you know those people whose family members just died? Well, I want to make money out of them. Can you give them these flyers for some reason I never did that because I didn't quite. I didn't have that conversation with somebody who ran a funeral home. But. But at the same time maybe, maybe it's. It probably is a perfectly fine thing to do. Maybe there's somebody listening who's done it.

I've heard of that one. But it's one of ones where I don't really want to go. I wouldn't push it because it's kind of a morbid.

We've sort of moved into kind of marketing a little bit here because it's the area probably that interests both of us the most. Like how do you do this? So what are the most effective marketing strategies? It sounds like, like, like if you're running a self storage business. Google my business.

Google my business.

Number one.

Number one. Okay, that's what I would do. And then number two, if I was doing a self storage business, I would be on Facebook Marketplace. It's a really free place to advertise. Join your fit, join your local Facebook groups. We've got a village Facebook group and on a Monday you can advertise.

Okay, it's a Facebook marketplace. So you're talking about like just like put a picture of your container on there. Yeah, put a picture, say 20 foot container available for 20 pounds a week. Whatever, whatever my. The price is. Phone number.

Yeah, that's free. Join your Facebook groups. So you can then you can post personally directly to people in your. In your area. Do an offer, do an incentive on there and then if you want to start spending some money, fly a drop. It sounds old school but everyone we speak to who do it have got immediate results and who do they do it with?

Because you can do it through all.

Romeo normally that's why I'd send them to. It's to get a QR code in there, put a discount code in there, hopefully restore and you can then tie it back to that campaign so you actually see the impact it's had from there. Yeah, good. Roadside presence.

Yeah, obviously if you don't have it though. If you don't have it.

If you don't have roadside presence.

Yeah, but if you have the. If you have roadside presence. Make the most of it.

Yeah, make the most of it. Obviously we've spoken PPC and how much Storm will have benefited from. From doing Google Ads. If you really want to. If you want to grow rapidly.

Yeah.

You want to be top of Google. Yeah, Google Ads. There's not many keywords you need really self storage near me.

So it's about doing stuff that seems quite simple to you. It might not always be simple to the person listening but there are ways to get advice on how to do it. So your box plus program is one way get in touch with you but it's really about doing these quite simple things well and not like you can get distracted by other shiny new things that come along but do these important things well first. Okay. So moving on then to actually other revenue streams for self storage. So if you've got a self storage business maybe today or you're opening up one beyond traditional storage what are some creative ways to generate extra revenue? Is that something you've seen much of?

So what we've seen a lot of some cell stories do is like they convert a container into sort of a mini business but a business that draws a lot of people to it like footfall. So for example a barbers or a pop up cafe or something along those lines. Some of them where people are going to come to it on a regular basis. So they're not only coming to your self store site for that small business but then they know there's a self store site there when they do need it or they speak to one of their family members or friends in self storage. Oh I go to that barbers and they're on this self store site. So why don't you go speak to them. You just create more awareness.

So the barber is actually in a container.

Yeah, barbers in a container. So you could, you could convert a container into a small business that Ross people there as long as you've got the parking space. Yeah for people to come and that sort of stuff.

What about any, any add ons or anything that, that you've seen work particularly? Well sort of maybe touched on those but like I suppose things like helping people, I don't know giving people 24 or 7 access ways to. There's I've heard all sorts of different ways like just adding on or a couple of percentage to your revenue. 1 Add on by the way just to answer my question for you, maybe give you a minute or two to think about it but you know there's. There are a couple of our customers they have a charge. Well actually I know the Dean Dean Booty does a, I think it's a 20, 2010 or 20 pound contracting fee whenever a customer signs up. So they, they pay a fee when they sign up which I presume is non refundable. There's a nice way to like increase revenue by probably I imagine a percent or so. I know some customers of ours who they give you the option to pay an extra monthly fee in order to have no notice period.

Okay.

And that works quite nicely because people who think they're going to be there for two or three months, they want to have that, they want to have the flexibility but they might end up being there for a little bit longer. They still have the flexibility but you know, maybe maybe just paid a bit more and if your business is pretty full and you're able to move people in and out quite quickly even if they can move out with no notice period. Maybe if somebody else who can move in a couple of days later anyway.

We get asked about the time like padlocks on containers. You can get a really cheap padlock on a container or you can get like a really good one which is insurance rated. So offer you could, you could, you can buy padlocks in bulk and then you could, you could basically charge people for want a cheap one or an expensive one you're an insurance rate run for. You could buy a cheap one for 20, 30 quid or you can buy an insurance written on for 90, 90 decent margin on them. We've got a couple of container sites now who have started putting power in their units and, and dehumidifiers and, and, and lighting.

So final question with getting started because I think we've covered quite a lot of stuff here about kind of getting into self storage, looking for your site kind of things. I think about foresight marketing, launching it, everything else. Are there any pitfalls that you think you know it's just, just make sure and don't avoid. Here are some common mistakes that we see people making.

Common thing I see is people who don't invest in the right systems to start with and then before they know it they've got a spreadsheet that's as long as their arm.

So I think what you're saying there is one of the most common pitfalls is not using story.

Yeah, yeah it really is. I didn't want to be, I don't know I don't want to sell it too much and people I think I've got some side hustle with store on the go.

Oh and we definitely don't know. Definitely not.

But it really is though like see so many people who are, who don't think they need it. You think they can just like oh how are you going to, how are you going to sign people up? Oh well they'll just get them to fill out a Form and, and then I'll just set up a standing order or they'll come and drop cash offer. It's just before you know it, you're going to be in a right mess and the cost of your time is a big thing. You don't want to be manually doing invoices. You don't want to be running people off a spreadsheet and going every single day who's paid, who's not paid.

My uncle who won't be watching this, I'm sure, because I don't think he knows how to watch a podcast. But if he is, apologies. But he likes running his business that way and he's got standing orders or cash, but it's kind of a full time job for him. But he's okay with that and that's fine. Some people want to run their business like that for whatever reason and that's okay. But once you get to like 50 or 60 customers. If I was to run, let's say he wanted me to take over his business, like I'd immediately put store in, spend a day calling all the customers, getting their car details, automate all the payments and then I would expect to be spending 95% less time. Yeah, easily on running the business. If you're thinking about trying to run the business efficiently, I think the right systems are really critical to start.

Yeah. Everyone who I speak to pretty much wants, likes this idea of running it hands free. We've got a customer, I can't remember his name. He literally runs his site from a villa in Marbella or somewhere like that.

Just.

And he just looks at his phone and he can see how much money his site's making. And he's in a different country.

It might be a store customer because I know somebody who does that. And I actually used to whenever I started my site. I remember I was in Tenerife for two weeks in January. It was my first, it was my fourth or fifth month since I opened the site. And I went down to the beach and I got two phone calls while I was on the beach. This is. Did I take online bookings at the time? I can't remember if. No, I think I did. But for some reason they were on the phone and I just took the payment details off them. On the phone? Yeah, one person after the other in a half an hour. And the booth just moved in straight away. I give them the access now, they wouldn't need to ring me. And it would all probably happen through store. It would all happen automatically. But I remember just thinking like I'm landing beach here and I've just, you know each customer's worth a couple of grand probably you know, on average or a thousand or two thousand pounds. You know, I've just made a couple of thousand pounds probably here. What a great business.

Yeah. And it's just so much potential. Isn't there still like we. We spoke at the Farm Innovation show earlier in the year like how far we're behind the U.S. what's the U.S. at the moment?

Is it.

Was it 7 square foot per person in the U.S. and we're not even at a square foot yet.

Yep.

That's why I said people on. On box plus calls. There's just so much potential still in the UK for sites to pop up and not. And not be not over over care wherever you are.

So yeah, look, thanks for all that. Let's just shift gears a little bit and talk about. We teased something last week.

Yeah.

The Survivor game.

Oh yeah.

For the. At the UK SSA conference.

Yeah.

Can you tell us a bit more about the plan there?

Really like the idea of this having this like this survival game where we've got to like build a self storage business but then we've.

Stuff's gonna go wrong. Stuff.

Stuff's going wrong. A tornado hit the site or I don't know, flash flood or competitors open down the road and he's offering 50 less than the prices. And how would, how would we combat that?

Because it's probably.

Even though some of the Snyders will be a bit wild, we could. There'll be. Will be stuff in there that maybe is relatable to a lot of people.

Oh yeah.

Competitors doing opening up a new site near you. How would you, how would you combat that? What would you do?

But the most important thing for me from the very start has been that whoever loses has to get custard pies in the face.

He's been obsessed with pies.

I don't know why. I just think it'd be funny.

The first time we started running they're like got to be a pie something got to be a pie.

But I have actually a few people I've spoken to who are going to join the join. I've run it by them and they've said no problem, I'll skip my dinner then. So everyone's, everyone's prepared to get custard pie in the face. It'll be the. Is it going to be. It's night before the. The SSA conference is on the Wednesday and Thursday I think. Is that right? And we're going to do this on the Tuesday night, the night before, night.

Before at the Holiday Inn which is like literally just behind the the conference. Hopefully a lot of people there. We're putting on a free bar, some.

Food, no reason not to come basically. Should be fun. It will be fun. Great. Thank you. So to wrap up going back to something a bit more useful than talking about customer P and face, if you could offer three final piece of advice to anyone listening who's starting out in self storage. What would they be?

Google business profile. Design your site. Just plan from plan straight away that it's going to be amazing success.

Yeah.

Plan for double story. It's going to be amazing. We'll help you fill that site in no time. And last one, you Star.

Thank you. I'll pay you. No pies for you then.

Seriously is like the, it's, it's the one thing that comes up every time I do a Box plus go is I end up talking about Star and having a website and a backend tool that manages it all for you. It's just a no brainer.

Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Okay. Okay, great. Thanks. If you're listening to this and want to get more information from you, Louis or From Cleveland and Box plus where do people go?

Head to clevelandtailers.co.uk we've got a Box plus link in the top of the website or just drop jump on live chat Darcy or Chloe, tell them that you heard this amazing podcast and want to know more about Box plus and then they'll give you my email address or point in the right direction. Yeah. Then we've got like a calendly link that links to my calendar and we can, I can, we can send that to you and you can book a, book a discovery call with me and we can talk about you and your potential site where you're looking to start and we could just go from there.

Brilliant.

Yeah.

Okay. Thanks a lot Lewis. Thanks for joining us.

Nice.

We're good.

Cheers.

Cheers. At Stora, our mission is to help our customers build the best self storage businesses. Self Storage Explained is here to try and bring you the best from inside and outside dentistry to help you grow your business. If you want to find out about more resources, go to Stora Co to sign up for a demo or find out more. Or you can go to Stora Co Academy for lots more resources including our financial model and other in depth guides to setting up and growing your business.