SBOA Member Spotlight: An Interview with Brian Cohen of Andover Properties, Storage King USA
that if you are good at what you are
doing online, the services afforded
by Google, Yelp, Yahoo and
etcetera have leveled the playing
field for the midsize companies.
The REITS can certainly spend
more for pay-per-click but most
consumers prefer to scroll down
from the paid ads section.
3
What are some challenges
you have faced, either
in your daily operations
or upon inception of
Storage King USA?
Because we believe in paying a little
more for high quality employees,
we have a lower turnover rate than
a fair amount of our competitors.
When we do lose an employee,
we generally rely on our other
employees pitching in with overtime.
This element does make us slightly
less competitive in that our payroll
will be greater in the markets where
we own one facility, but we make
up for that expense in other ways. I
would say our biggest challenge is
that we take longer than I would like
in rolling out new initiatives such
as incorporating online leases and
new CRM features. Like all growing
organizations, it is a matter of time
before we increase the size of
our infrastructure to stay on top of
everything. We have a great team
in place between my father (who is
also my business partner) handling
most of our construction projects,
and our Directors of Operations,
Acquisitions and Marketing. We
have most of the bases covered.
4
Do you have any “selfstorage mentors”?
Not in the “mentor” sense as I did
not start in this industry but came
www.theSBOA.com
from a background of buying and
developing office and residential
buildings. That being said, I h