Lighthouse Storage Solutions

10/06/2026

🎙️ Where do your renters actually come from? (Also, Gabfocus is back, and we brought a twenty part series with us.)

3-5 miles is the rule of thumb. Its a good place to start, and its rarely the whole story. A competitor two miles away across a lake can be a fifteen to twenty minute drive.

The facility you can see across the freeway might take ten minutes to reach, while the one almost two miles away is three minutes down the road. In a rural market, people will drive twenty miles to their unit. In town, twenty minutes might only get you three miles.

A circle on a map doesnt know any of that. Your customers do.

That's Part 1 of Self Storage Fundamentals, a new series Melissa Huff and I just kicked off. Twenty parts on running a storage facility well, pulled from our conference sessions, our seminars, and our own policy and procedures manual.

So how do you find your real trade area, and which competitors should you be watching? We get into all of it, and we leave you with homework you can knock out this week.

🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or at the 🔗👇

🍎- https://lnkd.in/e7dhXcwB

🟢- https://lnkd.in/eQjKsXC5

🌐- https://lnkd.in/eaEE2Wq2

10/01/2026

Matt Engfer is one of our favorite people to work with. Thank you for your kind words and for all the ways you've helped grow the partnership between Lighthouse Storage Solutions and Cubby .

"Any chance we get to work with Josh, we'll take it and we'll continue to do that. It started mostly in video editing and drone work for our marketing team. And it has evolved into website consulting and digital media consulting for our customers at Cubby.

The way I would describe the actual ex*****on of the work is quietly competent. It just works. And the output is very high quality..."

Looking forward to more work ahead!

09/25/2026

Jim, your friendship and partnership has been so important to us over the years. Thanks for using Lighthouse Storage Solutions. See you soon down in Louisiana!

"My name is Jim White. I've been in the self storage industry for about twenty years. Early on, I learned that success depends on having a strong support team, including accountants, attorneys, management software experts, and professionals who understand website design, marketing and advertising.

At the heart of my business is making sure people can find us and become customers. I partnered with Josh and Melissa more than ten years ago, and they have been an important part of that effort ever since.

I regularly rely on Josh input as a as I develop my company's brand. He keeps my website fresh and up to date, and the photography he provides is always first class.

Melissa is my go to resource for management software. She stays current with the industry software providers, and I know I can call on her whenever I have an issue with a provider or need help understanding a new feature release. She is always there to guide me through it.

Josh and Melissa have been very important over the years and it's one of the best decisions, business decisions I made. I strongly urge you to, to, uh, research them, look at them, and partner up with them."

09/03/2026

09/01/2026

📖 Our latest newsletter is up! Read all about what Lighthouse Storage Solutions has been up to and what's on the horizon.

-Power Couple in Vegas
-From the Inside Self-Storage News Desk: Lighthouse Acquiring Haviland
-Consulting in California and Georgia
-Texas Drone Work
-Upcoming speaking in AL, TX, and at the MSM Show
-Latest Gabfocus Podcast episodes

Find the latest right here 👉 https://conta.cc/4wVaSl4

08/28/2026

2 Covers in 2 years! Thanks Inside Self-Storage for the opportunity to write about the important topic of money management in the industry.

ISS has been a fantastic partner to Lighthouse over the years.

We wrote this one about the part of the business most owners avoid. Not the fun money stuff. The unglamorous stuff. Where revenue leaks out, which expenses you actually control, and why your NOI can look great while your bank account tells a different story.

One example from the article: a $5 rate increase across 250 units at 85% occupancy is $12,750 a year. Same facility, same staff, same everything.

That's it.

Another one we run into constantly: an owner convinced an admin fee would scare renters off, then found out every competitor in his market already charged one. He'd been leaving money on the table for years out of a fear that wasn't real.

We break it into five areas. Revenue, expenses, budgeting, cash flow, and the reports and metrics that actually tell you something.

The theme running through all of it: most operators aren't missing one big thing. They're missing five small ones that compound.

If you'd like to read the article, I dropped it below.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Vegas in just a few weeks!

08/21/2026

This article explains the five areas in which self-storage operators need to focus to improve their business’ financial health.

08/13/2026

🎙️ The person quietly stealing from your storage facility might be you. (We also get into why I refuse to say thank you to my AI, but that's a debate for later in the episode.)

It's rarely cash out of the drawer. It's the income that never shows up because you're too close to your own operation to see it.

The ten "maintenance" units that crept up on you, half full of spare doors and the golf cart. The units sitting un-rent-ready for a week because it's a lot harder to hold yourself accountable than it is to hold a manager. The tenant insurance program stuck at thirty percent when it could be at eighty.

None of it feels like theft, and that's exactly why it keeps happening.

The fix is simple but not easy... we get into all of that.

Plus, I don't say thank you to AI. Why? We get into that hot take towards the end.

Curious, do you say thank you to AI? And what's the subtle way you've seen income walking out the door?

🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts. I also tossed in the 🔗👇

08/06/2026

Let the birthday celebrations begin!
Today we celebrate the driving force behind Lighthouse Storage Solutions and the glue that holds the family at home together.

45 looks good on Josh Huff!