Day 104 - How to Grow Revenue and Optimize a Self Storage Facility: Complete Strategy Recap

Hey folks, we are about to get started. This is the uncomfortable tap dance I have to do to let everybody get their notification and give them a chance to log in. So I hope you're all having a fantastic day so far. Oh, St. Patrick's Day. I'm sure most of you are. Now that I think about it, what a terrible night to have a live. We'll see who the real storage mobiles are tonight and who the, uh, who, uh, had a little too much fun with the, the luck of the Irish today. All right, well, hopefully that's enough time for everybody to get in here, so I'm gonna flip over and get us started here in just one second. That should be popping up. All right, cool. Well, um, Welcome. This is, uh, this was the last section, folks. So it's the, uh, this tonight is the section live recap. Um, of course, I'm Joe Downs with the Storage Moguls. And over the last 14 days, really over the last 100 days, but the last 14 days, uh, we've covered everything from rent increases to marketing to occupancy optimization. Uh, this was the section of the Storage 100 that turns a good investment actually into a great one. And if you want to keep applying these types of strategies with a community of operators, Storage Moguls is your answer. You can join the waitlist now at storagemoguls.ai. I think we still have some free GPT tools to give away, or one GPT tool to give it away. It's a deal analyzer that we built. We use it. It's a quick deal analyzer. I wouldn't buy a deal with it, but it's an awesome quick deal analyzer. And if you register now and get on that waitlist, you'll get it for free. And the community is free to join. And when we launch, we'll have, uh, free AI-powered GPT tools, not just the Deal Analyzer. We have others, uh, and they were built for multimodal storage vertical. A lot of people have asked me what is multimodal learning, and it's, well, it's when you can consume the same information in different ways, like through video or infographic or podcast, uh, with flashcards and quizzes. And it's immersive learning. I think it's adult learning theory, actually, and it's It's how we're teaching folks how to immerse themselves and really become storage moguls. So again, storagemoguls.ai. You can start for free, level up at your own pace. What you do from there is on you. We can only provide the path and the opportunity to level up your game, but you got to do it. All right, let's dive into this revenue leveling up section recap of growing revenue and optimization. This is where the money is made, folks. And hopefully we've unlocked some serious growth for you current owners of facilities. And those of you who are, uh, aspiring storage moguls, just remember them. Uh, Section 7 was all about making your storage business a powerhouse. We drilled down into operations, marketing, and growth strategies. Think about how much you've learned actually about handling problem tenants and optimizing your phone conversions. We laid the groundwork for serious revenue increases in multiple ways. Uh, all right, let's recap the key lessons that will truly transform your business. Um, we kicked off with an important lesson: you've got to fire problem tenants. This isn't just about managing headaches, it's about protecting your bottom line and your own sanity. Remember the Pareto principle: 20% of tenants create 80% of your problems. Don't be afraid to enforce policies strictly. And then let them go. Your peace of mind is worth more than one tenant's rent. And this sets the stage for optimizing your entire operation, which brings us to our next key lesson we covered: rate optimization, which can add a whopping 15% to your NOI, your net operating income. This is where you truly maximize your revenue potential. Here you need to price based on demand, not just cost. So, and then adjust your rates every 30 to 60 days. High demand means premium pricing. Low demand means strategic discounts. But remember, they were strategic. Go back and watch that one. The strategy alone though can add serious cash to your pockets. And speaking of cash, let's look at how you drive leads in for free, because Google My Business can drive 80% of your leads. And this is a gold mine, and it's often overlooked by mom-and-pops. You have to claim your listing immediately and load it with 20 to 30 high-quality photos. Get those 50+ reviews too for social proof. Optimize this before you spend a dime on ads. Most facilities stuck at low occupancy have terrible Google profiles. Fix this first. It's a huge lever for growth. It's often free. All right, let's take a look at another passive income stream because this is where the money is made, folks. Tenant insurance. It's just It's not, not just a nice habit, it's a pure profit generator flowing directly into your pocket. We're talking $5,000 to $25,000 annually depending on the size of your facilities because you're getting 30% to 50% commissions on premiums. It's mandatory for tenants with an opt-out waiver. Mandatory with an opt-out waiver. Requires zero labor from you. It's just training your staff. Income can cover your manager's salary. Or make your operation just more lean. So while Google My Business brings them in, tenant insurance makes them truly profitable. But how do you convert those leads so you can get to the tenant insurance? Despite all the digital advancements, phone calls still dominate. 60 to 70% of rentals start with a phone call, and these convert at a really good 30 to 40% rate. Online leads are very important, but they can only account right now for 15 to 25% of your rentals, and they have— there's a lower conversion rate too. So it's where the industry is headed, but you still need to operate the heck out of the facility today until then. So you don't abandon the phones. Train your team to close those calls. This is a direct pipeline to occupancy. While tenant insurance boosts your bottom line, mastering the phone calls ensures you have a bottom line to boost. All right, folks, that is a wrap on Section 7. Now it's your turn, and I've got an awesome guest with me tonight to help answer any questions you have. Uh, so drop your questions in the chat and we'll answer them live right now. We can talk revenue, marketing, operations, or occupancy. Um, if you're watching this as a replay because Maybe you celebrated St. Patrick's Day. That's okay. Comment below with your questions because your insight helps everyone in the mastermind. All right, please, without further ado, let me adjust my tech here. Hopefully no issues tonight. Please welcome Sydney Wilda from Anytime Storage. I did it, Sydney.

Great job.

My day— I could just drop mic. I'm done right now. Like, it's like this— well, I'm knocking wood. I've had some technical issues during this series, but we are good tonight. Sydney, thank you so much for being here.

Of course, happy to be here.

Did anything that I just covered strike your fancy? Meaning, you know, I talked about In the last 2 weeks, and I kind of just mentioned them a little bit, I talked about problem tenants, phone call conversions, raising rents, rate optimization. Google My Business is one I think most people miss. Websites, Facebook ads. Over the last 2 weeks, does anything, any stories just immediately pop to mind when you hear all those things? And if you want, you could even talk about— full disclosure, folks, Sydney has been a part of teams that manage facilities for my company. So even if you want to talk about— I give you, I give you permission to even speak about, you know, actual situations at our facilities. Good, good at that.

Perfect, perfect. Well, I mean, I think the biggest one is definitely going to be look at your Google Business. That is huge right now with AI taking over and that GEO generative, what is it? Generative optimization? Generative engine optimization?

Yeah.

Engine optimization. With that coming more and more into play, you have to have that ready. You have to have the pictures, the videos, questions being answered, reviews being responded to, because all of that is going to be captured and broadcast in front of people. I don't remember the last time that maybe I used Google just as Google. I've been using AI more and more, but that's what it's capturing everything It says it pulls up the profile and it says, this is here, you need to be looking at this. These are what the reviews say, and it will sum up an entire facility for you, but it has to have all of that to pull from. So when you look at an incomplete profile for a storage facility, there's work to be done there. I mean, that's a red flag, not, not even just to us, but to a potential consumer. It's, you know, maybe your website's missing, maybe your hours of operation aren't there. They call the phone number, phone number isn't updated.

Yeah.

Things along those lines really do make a difference to the bottom line consumer of your facility. So having that is just, it's so more, it's so much more imperative than it ever has been.

Sydney, um, couple things. We do have a question, but, but I want to, I want to finish this, um, Google My Business, uh, topic since we're on it. But first, I want to commend you and congratulate you. Um, you know, I host a podcast called Successful Idiots. It's about AI and the use of AI and I'm just so proud of you that to hear the words, I don't know when the last time I Googled something is. Me neither. The only thing I literally use Google for anymore is Google Maps. I, I can't— which is funny because my whole business runs on Google. Google, you know, email, calendar, chat, Workspace, everything.

It pulls it all in together.

But all of that, but, but I don't search anymore using Google. And that's such an interesting Top of— we had— I didn't even cover this because I don't even know how to cover it yet. And I host a podcast and talk to an AI guru once a week, and actually probably 3 times a week because he's consulting in so many places in my business. But I don't even know how to cover GEO yet. And you're right, it's generative. It's part of the GPT— generative pre-trained transformer— that is, is what a GPT is. So it's generative engine optimization. I don't even understand it yet, but it's coming, folks. Um, quick question on the Google My Business. It's not even coming, it's here. Um, but quick question on Google My Business. When you— I know you've transitioned facilities in your, in your various roles working in, um, in, um, storage management, and I know you transitioned one particularly for us, which is a boat and RV facility.

Yes.

Did you find— I don't know if you want to talk about that specific situation Um, but what do you typically find when you're, you're kind of going from the mom-and-pop run? And I— and folks, if you're listening, I'm not beating up mom-and-pop run facilities. I always have to put this disclaimer on it. When we buy from them, yes, we are taking their, their facility typically from, you know, the, the '80s era into the modern era. Um, sometimes, sometimes it's a, you know, from the early 2000s from a technology implementation standpoint. But that's okay. You know what, my kids— I'm 52— my kids can do more on an iPhone. They could probably 5 times as much on an iPhone as I can. I don't, I don't, I'm not as tech savvy as they are, and I don't expect the 75-year-old to be as tech savvy as I am. And on top of that, they are the pioneers of the business, in my opinion. And I always say, as much as it sounds like I'm beating them up when I'm talking to people like this, we do this, we buy that, Um, they're always walking away from the settlement table with a couple million bucks, so they did, they did something right. Um, long way— long— probably the longest question I've ever asked, so I apologize, but I wanted to set it up this way. What do you typically find in the Google My Business scenario when you take over a facility and we, and we get the digital assets or the rights to the digital assets? What is the typical scenario? Like, what do they have? What's missing?

I mean, a lot of the time the biggest thing that's missing is a link to the website. They're missing the responses to reviews and they are missing the question and answer section. That has been huge. Having that really shows that you are engaging with that and automatically helps Google recognize that you are staying active with that.

So that is so important.

That's what I'm hearing. Yes, exactly.

You're being scored on whether or not you actually engage with people. In, in, I, I'm gonna sound like a boomer if I say online, but in the digital world, right?

Yes. Well, and on top of that too, I mean, we've come across this problem a couple of times now where owners of facilities, they have their access to their Google My Business profile, but they don't know how to access that access. And so we've had to walk people through that, make sure that we can get that. And sometimes it's, it's incredibly difficult and it involves going all the way to Google. So staying on top of it now will help everyone in the long run. But just know that there is that problem that you can run into.

All right. We got quite a few questions here, but I'm going to take— I'm not going to ask them in order because I'm going to ask this one right here that actually is a nice little segue into what we're talking about here. So from Dallas, if a facility had— here, let me put it on the screen for you. If a facility has a poor online presence, Sydney, what are the first 3 fixes you make to drive leads quickly?

I think the big 3 that you need to do in order to drive people to you quickly, you need to update your photos, you need to have your website link on there and make sure that that's updated, and you really need to make sure you have your phone number and hours of operation.

So this is your Google profile. If when I, when I go to Google Maps, right, the only thing I use it for, and I go storage near me and they all pop up and I go to the closest one, that's where you're talking about it?

Yes, you need to have those 3 things there minimum. And I know I listed off 4, but at minimum you really need to have the updated photos, you have to have your website, you have to have a phone number. Hours of operation, just show Google that you are staying active and on top of it. I mean If you have a, if you have a Google Business Profile, you've seen it ask you, hey, are you open for the holidays? If you're not responding to that and actively updating it, Google is going to ding you and you're going to start going back pages. You're going to start going down in the listing scores.

How, um, on the one hand, it sounds incredibly operational to me. Um, so I have a facility. Um, I'm retired. I'm not the most tech savvy. But I'm there. I'm, I'm ready to respond to these questions and whatever you just laid out. So how long do I have to respond before, um, I'm— or is there a window? Like, for instance, an Airbnb. I have, I have Airbnb properties. They, they want us responding within 24 hours. And if we do, we— in fact, we're measured on that. That's part of our know, if you're a Superhost, our response time— it doesn't matter if I'm an hour or 18 hours later, I'm good. I'm within 24 hours, and that's perfect for Airbnb. Is— I don't know if you know the exact number, but do you— do— could you— could you comment on that? Is it like, do you need to respond like right away, or do you have a day, 2 days?

If I am an owner, the best practice is going to be to respond as quickly as possible, but also with as most— the most information you possibly can. Because if a tenant is actively bringing a problem up in a Google review, or they're bringing up a concern that they have, you want to research that and see it from their perspective. And that way you can respond to them in a way that shows them, hey, I did look into your issue. Please call us if you need to review this more, anything along those lines. But you really want to make sure that you have the right answer. that you have standardized throughout your portfolio that you are giving everyone. You know, you want to make sure that it's, it's clear that that is, that is the answer and this is why.

You know, it's funny, I covered that in, in, uh, problem tenants was, was one of the, um, uh, one of the topics of, of one of the days in the last 2 weeks. And that is what we, we talked about is, you know, at the end of the day, I didn't really say it in the video, I was thinking about Adding it, but it's— but it's 100 some days. So folks, here's, here's what I would have added, and Sydney just nailed it. Um, don't litigate this in public regardless of how ridiculous their claim is. By the way, back to Airbnb, same thing. Every now and then you get a complaint and it's ridiculous. A quick response is warranted, a professional one. Never attack back. Feel free to disagree, but offer to settle it out of the public sphere or communicate or whatever. Offer another medium. Anything but litigating online and whatever online means, whether it's Airbnb or in your Google reviews or whatever. You, you look unprofessional. As a facility owner, if that's how you respond to your customer, no matter how ridiculous the claim is, refute it firmly, but politely, politely and respectfully. And I would absolutely tell anyone and implore you, and I don't care which AI you use, but use AI. Copy the post and tell it, give it the context you want, give it the full story, not you want, give it everything and ask how it, how you should reply publicly in your Google review and even say in your Google review because that context matters. The AI you're using needs to know where this is going, what is appropriate, how Google scores your response. Might be different than how Facebook scores your response. So that context matters. But don't you do it, have AI do it. That's the best, best possible advice I can give you with problem tenants and that type of review, if— or any negative comment or anything. So thank you for teeing that up, Sydney. All right, um, Sydney, what— here Throw up this other one. What specific market indicators tell you a facility has pricing power versus being stuck in a race to the bottom?

Ooh, this is a really good question, especially right now because this is exactly where the market is. I think that when you have pricing power, you're also maintaining visibility in front of your digital presence as well as even your drive-up curb appeal presence. So when you are maintaining both of those things, they really work in tandem because then you're catching those drive-bys, you're catching the digital, because I'm sure Joe has discussed they capture different folks. That's great for your facility, but how that all leads to pricing power is the more leads you have coming in the better. That means your facility is maintaining the occupancy you'd like it to have. That means you're hitting the markers you need to have to make sure your facility is full enough to either raise your rates, or maybe if you're not hitting that occupancy, you can see where others are at in your market and, you know, get those relationships going now with other owners so you guys can talk. You can be like, hey, We're having a problem with this. What are you seeing? Oh, we're having the same problem, and you can really collaborate on that so you can make sure that there's there's a little give and take there. Yes, with understanding strategy, but it's really going to help you maintain that market pricing and staying competitive by having those relationships.

I would agree 100%. You need to understand what's going on in the market. Dare I suggest you even? Um, Prey Shop, um, like we do when we're acquiring. Um, that's another way to— you can have a third party do it, you could have a VA do it, um, give them a script and find out what the occupancy of your competitors is. Um, Sydney gave you the very friendly stay in touch with them, talk, don't collude, but talk. Um, Uh, advice, which I 100% agree with. But I would also be the smartest operator in Prey Shop because I don't know if Sydney's telling me the truth. She might be hurting a little bit but not wanting me to know it, right? Because we're always prideful. Uh, or she could be overboasting about how she's doing and lead me to believe that, boy, she's just turning people away left and right. But I would also, um, I, I would go the— I would go the price shopping. And, and Dallas, I would also— I would want to know, you know, your question is about the facility, which is a very good question, but within your facility you have different markets, right? So the 10 by 10 is a market, and the 10 by 15 is a market, and the 5 by 10 and the 5 by 5 and the You know, so where are we within those markets? And I could be having a race to the bottom in, in one unit size while at the same time a pricing war or pricing premiums, pricing optimization in another unit size happening at the same time. And frankly should be. I mean, you hope they're all going up, but, um, so, and we covered that a little bit in the last 2 weeks. We, we got to get away from every 10 by 10 is the same price because they shouldn't be. The one closest to the, to the gate should be priced a little higher than the one furthest away, or the corner unit should be a little higher than the one, the ones in the middle, right? So, or, you know, every facility is a little different. So you, you also want to optimize that way, um, when you're, when you're taking a look at your facility and say, you know, am I pushing rates or am I discounting? It shouldn't be just a binary, you know, black or white. It's, I might be doing both at the same time.

Well, and I think that the best thing that I'll just kind of add in here too is trust but verify. So even if an operator has told you like, hey, yeah, this is what we're seeing, you know, we're actually doing really well, or hey, we're actually doing really poorly, whatever it may be, trust their word, but also verify. I have called many facilities as a woman traveling and needing to store items for her family, whether that be a cargo trailer or whether we're temporarily relocating for the season kind of thing. And I call and I will, I will talk with the, with the manager, because if you come in as a customer too, they're gonna Be a little bit more like, oh, you need pricing for these? Okay, yeah, what, what do you have available here? What does this actually look like? And it's really important to just verify for yourself because you can look up reports, you can pull reports, but you as an operator, no matter if you have third-party management, even trust but verify, because if you see something that they're not seeing, you want to make sure that you can bring that up.

Totally agree. Um, Sydney, I got one more question I don't fully understand. I'm gonna throw it up here. Um, do you have a percent target you aim for in those first 90 days?

Um, are you talking like lease-up target or—

Yeah, well, how about this? Since, since it was a little vague, I will, um, use it to ask you a question. So do you have a What's your target occupancy goal in the first 90 days?

I would say in the first 90 days, you're getting systems set up, you're figuring out your facility. So yes, you need to get it up and going as quick as possible. I think that right now the standard is kind of 2.5% to 3% a month. Okay. So find where that's sitting and be able to at least maintain that.

Right. So you're saying between 7.5% and 9% in the first 3 months increase from wherever you started.

That's your goal? I would say that that's a very good goal to set because it's not unrealistic. It's in line with kind of what most markets are seeing, especially for new lease-up and existing properties. All right, how about, um, um, of course it all depends on how quick you get your systems up and going. I will put that caveat on there.

But so let's assume it was super efficient because you handled it. Um, nice little compliment for you. All right, so how about same question, instead of occupancy we'll say delinquency?

Delinquency is a tougher one to work with because of the stages and the way that lien laws are structured, but your goal should always be to start really turning over your units. Take your highest delinquencies if they're in the right stage and really start pushing those through the auction process and not delay anymore on it. I know that there's a lot of operators that are like, oh, they'll pay, or, oh, you know, this is going to happen. Don't accept the payment plan. Start pushing through the auction process. That's why it's in place. That's why it's there. And that's why you have a lease to protect you as an operator. You want to get that as close to or below 8% as you possibly can and just keep pushing. If it's in the 90-day range, that's typically 2 or 3 lien cycles depending on the state.

So within 90 days, regardless of where it is, your goal is to get it down to under 8%?

As quickly as you possibly can.

Okay. How about tenant insurance adoption?

That one's a little trickier. That one, that one I will say is trickier because tenants like to find ways to beat the system.

Okay.

And tenant insurance, tenant protection, whichever it may be, can be a little harder to, to put across. I've seen it be made mandatory and have really good adoption rates. I've seen it be mandatory and have very poor adoption rates. You really have to know the market you're going into and And start rolling it out. I've seen a couple people lately who have taken it and rolled it out in a couple stages. So they'll start with their lowest, their lower rent-paying customers. So if they have a lower rate, they'll roll it out to them first and then roll it out to the higher folks a couple months later just to get that adoption going with the people that they need to start seeing that increase with. For those lower rates.

Okay, well, Sydney, uh, thank you so much for your time. That was— there were some great questions there and great answers too. So, uh, that was awesome. I want to thank you so much for joining us tonight. You were my last guest, so super awesome. Thanks again, and we will be talking to you soon. All right, let me flip over here.

Sounds great.

Say goodbye to Sydney, get over here to, uh, back to our deck here, and hopefully that is up. All right, awesome, it is. All right, well folks, that, that wraps Section 7, Growing Revenue, and you now have every tool you need to optimize a self-storage facility. But here's the thing, self-storage is just one vertical. So up next in Section 8, Starting just 3 days, we're expanding to the full universe of storage, starting with boat and RV, and then we'll venture into iOS, Pro Storage, Small Bay Flex, and parking to include the Truck Parking Club. The plays— these are the plays that separate the amateurs from the moguls. But first, tomorrow I've got a bonus video for you about even more ways to make additional revenue adding even more services. Possibly could we add— well, how about locks, boxes, moving supplies, and other ancillary revenue? So, uh, folks, it's gonna be exciting. One more day and we'll close it out and then open it up in the same night, uh, Thursday night. I'm gonna release Thursday night. Maybe I'll release Thursday day. We'll see. I haven't decided yet, but if you subscribe You'll know. So please like, subscribe, and share this video. And I'm just going to keep reminding you that when you do, you're broadcasting to all your networks. Share it everywhere, broadcast everywhere that you are becoming a storage mogul. So this is a win-win. Yes, it helps me spread my message, but it also helps you spread yours. All right, final reminder about this section, which is completed. 20 points of occupancy that we were talking about earlier in, in the section Improvement on a 300-unit facility can mean an extra $100,000 of annual revenue. It's not incremental, that's transformational. If only there was a place where we could geek out over stuff like this. If only someone would launch an entire community for the aspiring storage mogul. Almost sounds like a good idea. Obviously I'm kidding, but I need to make it sound obvious so you join. It should be obvious by now, storagemobils.ai. Because remember, folks, self-storage is what brought you here, but it's all the other verticals, starting with the next one, they're going to make it that much more exciting. And we'll transform you from someone interested in self-storage to a storage mogul. People will be talking about you. All right, for those wondering why you should want to become a storage mogul, besides the fact that we're the coolest kids on the block, uh, it's because storage moguls live out their dreams. We're doers, not talkers. We're a helping community, not a community of takers. And we're identifiers of our own personal whys, which are our motivating factors. We seek to achieve them and fulfill them. All right, we're going to do it together because remember, folks, mastery is a journey. It's a journey, not a destination. If you want to join the journey with friends and support, become a Storage Mogul. Register today at storagemoguls.ai. See you tomorrow for the bonus video before our final live. Maybe not live, and I'm gonna launch right into the Boat and RV 100 after that. So see you tomorrow. Have a good night. Happy Saint Patrick's Day.