In President Lyndon Johnson's State of the Union address in 1964, he declared an unconditional war on America's poverty. He challenged citizens to step up and do what they could to help out. A group of concerned people in Orange County, New York, decided to act on Johnson's plea and in 1965 they formed the Regional Economic Community Action Program (RECAP). Their mission was to mobilize and coordinate public and private resources to fill the needs of low-income people within the county. [More]

This Thanksgiving marks the 86th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Last year, an estimated 3.5 million people attended the parade and 50 million people watched it on TV. [More]

Having a baby is expensive. An uncomplicated birth costs around $10,000. Add items such as baby clothes, diapers and diaper wipes, a crib, a car seat, and a baby carrier or stroller the cost grows exponentially. A 2010 USDA report indicated that an average middle-income family spends $12,000 on child-related expenses during their baby's first year of life. During the second year, parents spend more than $12,500. [More]

Collecting overdue rent is about as fun as having bamboo shoots shoved under your fingernails. Both managers of self storage facilities and the tenants in arrears usually dread it.

We will soon be entering the holiday season – when money is tight and tenants might have a hard time coming up with money to pay for their rental unit. What can you do as manager of a storage business to encourage tenants to pay on time? [More]

Sometimes managers and owners of self storage facilities feel that they out of new ideas of ways to expand and improve their business. Sometimes looking at what others in the industry do can spark new ideas – especially when they are not local businesses or even national businesses.

For example, look at what is happening in Australia. Gareth Taylor and Adam Gilchrist founded Zippy Shell Mobile Self Storage and Moving in Australia in 2007. It was one of the first mobile storage businesses in the country. In 2010, it came to the United States. Their concept is to deliver a storage container to customers, customers load it at their convenience, and the company picks up the unit and keeps it at their secure facility. [More]

The county fair. Those words bring up images of cotton candy, popcorn, hot dogs, and lemonade. Of carnival rides, arcade games, of sheep and cows, and blue ribbon winning baked goods and hand-crafted items. There’s always fun for everyone at the county fair.

San Diego Self Storage brought that fun to children from the Solana Beach Boys and Girls Club. They sponsored ten children to attend and enjoy the fair and the educational and inspirational interactive exhibits. [More]

I daresay that almost everyone knows about Facebook - even my 86 year-old mother is on Facebook. Innovative business owners use Facebook to promote their business. Others may want to use Facebook but don't have any idea where to begin.

Which camp do you belong to - business owners with or business owners without Facebook? [More]

When one business acquires another business, there are a lot of things to do to adapt the new company into the existing one. One item on the to-do list is to bring the newly acquired business under the branding of the business that made the purchase. Such is the case for Storage Post. They recently finished renovations of a facility that they purchased in Louisiana. [More]

Trends are fickle, fickle things. You never know when one is going to blow up and become part of mainstream society or if it will fizzle and die quicker than the cutest kitten video on YouTube. It’s nice to be the trendsetter, but no one wants to be the loser that is ‘so five-minutes ago.’ [More]

In the early 1900s, travel by the Model T Ford car was difficult. Dirt roads were merely glorified horse trails. Local trail organizations tried to address those problems. They improved the roads (sort of) and created their own sign system and maps. Since nothing was standardized, people were very confused as they traveled from state to state. [More]