10 things I've learnt about setting up my own self storage facility

Luke previously owned an electrical contracting company and had a great contract building Costa Coffee stores all over the UK. The COVID lockdown made him question what it was all for and he looked at other business ideas to give him a more balanced lifestyle. 

Luke purchased a property in his local town and decided to fit out the whole facility himself! After 14 tough months, TENTEN storage opened in June 2022. He learned a lot along the way and has shared these lessons below:

1. Freehold or leasehold? 
I have always been a big believer in owning property and after a recent leasehold venture not going to plan, I am even more adamant that freehold is the way I’d prefer to go.

2. Self build or get the professionals in? 
Being a tradesman made me think I could save myself a pretty penny. I was very wrong. Despite the immense satisfaction I got from single-handedly building my entire self storage facility it took me 14 months, where the professionals would have taken less than 2. Opening 12 months earlier would have more than covered the extra build costs. This was a huge lesson to learn.

3. Aesthetics 
I wanted to avoid the standard clinical look that every other facility seemed to have. I have used dark grey panelling to create my corridors, high-end lighting, and lots of feature walls built from reclaimed timber. The finish of my facility is commented on by almost every customer I meet, so I am very happy with the choices I made here.

4. Room sizes/pricing
The building is old and quirky, so I have had to make rooms work where they can. I have a great selection of sizes from tiny little lockers up to 150sqft. The well-respected Dave Davies spent a day with me to tell me everything I was doing wrong on pricing (too much to list!). It was welcome constructive criticism and I now get a better £psf.

5. Marketing
My marketing skills could certainly be better. I try and post on Facebook, but how much can you really say about storage? I sponsor my local rugby club and other local clubs, but my best marketing tool is my location. I take full advantage of my road frontage with plenty of signage.

6. Manned or unmanned?
My site is fully automated and unmanned thanks to Stora and the Bearbox access control system. These systems are so good that I have basically had a gap year travelling the world for most of 2023 managing my site remotely without a single staff member.
 
7. Set up costs
Now this is where the freehold option loses its appeal. My set-up costs for a relatively small facility in a market town in south Devon were around £500,000. I raised this amount by selling my share of the electrical company and a rather large and scary remortgage of my home. 

8. Customer refunds
How the system is set up with Stora is already very customer friendly, in the sense that I offer very flexible storage with no minimum terms or notice period, this means sometimes my customers leave the day before their next payment is due, but sometimes they leave just after paying for another month so I take the rough with the smooth and feel this is fair. 

9. Non-paying customers
I have a few repeat offenders who like to be chased for payment. They can be a little annoying, but they pay in the end. I have had one customer who came to me and couldn’t pay for their storage due to some pretty serious circumstances. We agreed that if they could empty their unit immediately, I would clear the debt.

10. What does the future hold?
I am excited for the future and will be building more sites. My resistance to leasehold does restrict me somewhat. I am in no rush and, just like my first property presented itself to me accidentally, I have every faith that more will follow. I’m so glad to be in the industry and I love how friendly and helpful everyone is. The help and advice I have had from the YSN is invaluable. It would have been a big help if I had joined earlier as I had a lot of unknowns when setting up my facility.

Luke Davis, TenTen Storage 
YSN Member