COMPANY

I have to admit that I’ve been distracted in the past month.  With the stock markets plummeting, the turmoil in the US political scene, the devastating hurricanes, and the constant bantering of “experts” on the 24-hour news stations, it’s been hard to focus on our portable storage container business here in Central Texas.

Then, I bumped into Barry at my Rotary Club.  Barry has been a mentor to us at Falcon Storage pretty much since the beginning.  He’s a successful businessman with a strong altruistic streak.  He’s a marketing genius figuring out all kinds of ways to position our storage containers.  I guess he could see the angst in my eyes and in typical Barry fashion, he says with laser-like focus, “More successes are created in down markets than in good times.”  And boy, did that get me thinking.

In these turbulent times, the best thing we can do is to focus on those things that we can control - taking care of our customers, delivering our brand promise of “easy, friendly, and dependable”, building our Boxperts’ skills, honing our marketing messages, developing systems within our company, coming up with new and creative ways to customize shipping containers, and managing the bottom line.  All the other things in the world may affect us, but if we’re smart and focused, we will weather the storm… even better, we may come out stronger in the long run.

In the last week, I’ve chosen to “fast” from the news. You know what?  My optimism as an entrepreneur has begun to return.  My outlook has improved.  And most importantly, I’m focused.

When I got married a few years ago, we made our typical vows but my bride also made me promise that we would never live in a portable storage container.  That was tough.  I mean, come on, they’re sturdy, cheap, and spacious - 320 sq. ft. in a 40′ shipping container. You add four of them together and you’ve got a home that’s bigger than most of the homes in Central Austin.  Needless to say, I was not successful in persuading her.

Yesterday, this article hit CNN - Shipping containers could be ‘dream’ homes for thousands.  These guys in New Mexico have found a low cost, environmentally friendly housing solution for the exploding population in Juarez.  These container homes can be mass produced, easily setup, and are built from recycled shipping containers. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.  

In the past couple of years, we’ve been building prototypes in Austin, and the same concept of container homes could be applied to areas like Laredo, or even Galveston.  If you check out the website for PFNC Global Communities, you’ll see that they even have ideas for a multi-family development.  I love the creativity - used shipping containers into something usable.

So now the question is whether or not I try to revisit the idea of living in a portable storage container with my wife…