I am entering an entrepreneurship competition for school in which the winner is awarded $20,000 to jumpstart their business/idea. I am leaning towards presenting a plan for a self storage business, but I am in need of some help from someone who has some experience with storage.

How do you know if their is a need in the market or if the market is too saturated? What are the preferred sizes of storage units? What features of storage parks help generate customers? Promotional ideas? Any and all tips related to construction, financing, and management are welcome as well!

Thank you!

@Scott Meyers   has a SS academy and probably some tidbits on line and or since your in collage maybe something in the way of intern for you.. he is an expert in the field. 

@Halle Hughes , ditto what @Jay Hinrichs . I’ve seen a very comprehensive SS study showing national trends but broken down by region. It exists for 2019 and probably offers a forecast for the future. Once you get your thesis together, post it so we can help you!

Originally posted by @Halle Hughes :

I am entering an entrepreneurship competition for school in which the winner is awarded $20,000 to jumpstart their business/idea. I am leaning towards presenting a plan for a self storage business, but I am in need of some help from someone who has some experience with storage.

How do you know if their is a need in the market or if the market is too saturated? What are the preferred sizes of storage units? What features of storage parks help generate customers? Promotional ideas? Any and all tips related to construction, financing, and management are welcome as well!

Thank you!

HI Halle, These are all great questions but it would be a LONG answer:)  The good news is that many of your questions have been answered in previous discussions on these boards.  I would recommend that you use the search feature to find some of the answers first and then hit us up with anything that remains fuzzy.  There are A LOT of threads so my advice would be to search detailed keywords like "self storage demand", "self storage saturation", self storage marketing, etc rather than just "self storage".  

Another good thing to do would be to set "self Storage" as a keyword alert here on BP so that you are notified anytime it is mentioned here in the forums going forward.

Lastly, You might find some value in a little blog I post here on BP: 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3915-all-things-self-storage

Hope that helps some!

Halle Hughes, there are a ton of ways to set up an answer to you, and most all of them are right - somewhere - in the US.  I agree with Michael Wagner's post above, some of it will rely on existing information you can research online, especially here in BP and yes, @Jay Hinrichs is right, I do have several digital pieces available through my websites.  

The key to successful self storage facilities is to always remember they are local - who lives within a one, three, or five mile radius from your proposed site.  After that, it all comes down to the value add you, as an operator, can offer clients.

Good luck and please keep us posted.