Some months ago I visited Cairns for StorMan Training and, while there, attended the Self Storage Association of Australasia’s (SSAA’s) Regional Dinner Meeting. Our guest speaker for the evening was Susan Phillips, owner of Charters Towers Self Storage, who took us on a journey of the construction of her self storage facility in Charters Towers.
Charters Towers is a city located in northern Queensland, Australia and is approximately 135 kilometres (83 miles) inland from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. With around 10,000 people, many thought that it was not necessary to build a self storage facility in an area where everyone has plenty of space and a shed or two on their large block of land… and yet Susan’s self storage facility has been filled to capacity numerous times in its history.
During the Cairns Regional Dinner Meeting, Susan showed us photos of the facility’s construction and shared a story or two about battling to market & sell self storage in an area that thought it didn’t need it. Susan also explained how her membership to the SSAA helped her meet industry experts in construction, self storage management software (such as StorMan), etc – as well as meet with others to chat about their experiences with starting out in the self storage industry for the first time.
Like many others on the night, I was fascinated to hear Susan’s story – so I thought I’d take the time to contact Susan recently, so that she could tell us her story again – this time for everyone to hear (and see). To hear Susan’s “Charters Towers Story”, just click the video below to start playing… (photos are also included as part of the recording). Enjoy!
