With close to 10 percent of the nation unemployed (9.6 percent as of October 2010) relief from the poor economy can’t come soon enough. Many people are turning to starting their own business in order to make a living and take control of their future in light of the recession. According to a study done by the Kauffman Foundation, the number of new small businesses experienced a slight rise in 2009. However, the outlook for those is dim as well with small business failures up 24 percent as of March ‘09 compared to March ’07.
Success can be contingent on choosing the right business. Choose the wrong one and no matter what you do you are destined for failure. Make the right choice and even in the worst of economic times prosperity can be a fact of life.
"People want to take their future in their own hands as a nature of this recession," said Dane Stangler, a Kauffman research manager.
One business that appears to experiencing a fair amount of growth is the self-storage industry. A number of companies have been expanding in recent years, even with the economy going through the trouble that it has been. Expansion can typically be equated to success and with the number of self-storage companies expanding it must be a nice, safe business to get in to.
For example, Strategic Storage Trust Inc. is a relatively new company having begun operations just two and a half years ago. In that short time it has expanded to 39 properties in 15 different states. Just last week the company acquired a third facility in Las Vegas, a 700-unit facility, doubling its total space in the Las Vegas area. In late October, SSTI also entered the Chicago area after buying three facilities with more than 2000 units combined.
They are not the only ones experiencing growth. Another company, Zippy Shell USA, LLC, has been busy expanding as well. In late October the company joined forces with Storage Strategies in order to expand into Central Florida. Earlier in the month Zippy Shell moved into the Atlanta and Western Michigan area as well.
"The U.S. self storage industry continues to expand at a pace in step with growing residential and commercial demand… Nearly one-in-ten American households now rents a self storage unit and nationally commercial business now accounts for about 30 percent of total self storage rental space," said Michael T. Scanlon, Jr., President and CEO of the Self Storage Association.
At the beginning of the decade there were about 28,000 self-storage units in the United States. By the end of 2006 there were over 51,000, a growth rate of 81 percent in that time frame. With human factors such as marriage, divorce, retirement, relocation, and military enlistment the driving force behind self-storage growth it may very well be the one business that bad economic times can’t touch.
Sources Used:
Self-Storage Association: 81 Percent Growth in Number of U.S. Facilities Since 2000. Aug 31, 2007; www.allbusiness.com
Number of new businesses formed in U.S. in 2009 rose slightly. Sept 22. 2010; Providence Journal.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Strategic Storage Trust, Inc. Enters Chicago Market; Purchases Three Self-Storage Properties. Oct 27, 2010; www.marketwire.com
Strategic Storage Trust Inc. Expands With Third Self-Storage Property in Las Vegas Area. Nov 2, 2010; www.marketwire.com
Zippy Shell USA, LLC Announces License Agreement with NetMove, Inc. in Atlanta. 10/19/2010; http://www.zippyshell.com/us/news/article/278
Zippy Shell USA, LLC Completes Sale of Western Michigan Franchise - Enters Midwest. 10/4/2010; http://www.zippyshell.com/us/news/article/277
New Concept in Mobile Self Storage Rolls into Central Florida. 10/27/2010; http://www.zippyshell.com/us/news/article/279