There are plenty of people that like to think they can do it—whatever ‘it’ may be—alone; that they don’t need any help or assistance from anyone. While they might be successful on occasion, the road is much tougher when it is travelled on solo. However, when you let your friends give you a helping hand along the way success can be achieved much, much easier. [More]

The Internet bubble, the Information Technology Bubble, and the dot-com bubble all refer to the same thing: the years between 1995 and 2000 when there was a booming commercial growth on the Internet. Many Internet-based companies (described as dot-coms) came into existence and made huge financial gains. That bubble collapsed in 2000-2001. [More]

Conferences and tradeshows provide an opportunity for people in the self storage industry to get to know others, network, learn more about the business, and keep up with trends and legislation. There are two upcoming events that you should be aware of. [More]

One of the first things that every business tries to think of is a good, catchy name; one that lets people know who they are, what they do, and is one that is easy to remember. Who you and what you do are pretty important things for customers to know; however, if they can’t remember you it doesn’t matter. [More]

During the Inside Self-Storage World Expo in New Orleans last week, self storage owners, operators, developers, suppliers, and other self storage industry members did more than just network and attend workshops. One group of attendees busied themselves raising money for the St. Bernard Project, to help with the ongoing needs of victims of Hurricane Katrina. [More]

MiniCo Publishing and the Storage Business Owners Alliance are both offering free webinars on self-storage-related topics over the next few weeks.

April

Storage Business Owners Alliance (SBOA), a newly formed organization intended to give small to mid-size self storage facilities more leverage and buying power, is offering a webinar on Wednesday, April 14 at 2 p.m. The webinar will inform small and mid-size self storage business owners about how the SBOA can help to improve their business' profitability with bulk discounts. [More]

More than 200 small- to medium-sized self-storage firms announced yesterday that they have banded together to form the Storage Business Owners Alliance (SBOA). The founders hope to use economies of scale to improve the buying power of smaller self-storage businesses. SBOA members will be eligible for discounts on commonly used goods and services such as office supplies; resale retail items such as boxes, tape, and scissors; credit card processing fees; and payroll processing. They can also participate in an online forum for SBOA members.

The idea for the SBOA came from three industry veterans, Morgan Hanlon, Ian Burnstein, and David Levenfeld. As owners and operators of multiple self-storage properties, the three saw a need for small- to medium-sized businesses to have an umbrella organization that would allow them to better compete with larger self-storage firms. [More]