I am in Cheboygan. We have minimal heated storage at this time. It was not something the previous owner pursued. We may look at it when we expand our facilties on the river.

Up here on Lake Ontario, I've been paying between $25 and $30 dollars per linear foot the past five -six years for clean, safe, heated storage for my Slingshot. I've been fortunate that all three outfits I've rented from have allowed me to work on the boat any time I wanted to. For what it's worth....

If you know the SIC#'s (standard industry code) the business will be operating under,I can probably come up with the Financial Ratio Benchmark, others with the same SIC #,have reported....The range is from small to large operating statements.

For example, the SIC# for boat storage is probably SIC# 4226.

Net cash flow to sales, ranges from 4.5 to 14.1%,subject to volume.

steve i hope thats not your price this year.
todd

Todd, I should be able to take care of you at my sweet spot, I'll know soon. Steve

Good luck up there, a friend and I have just done the same thing. We are going with $5.00 a sq. ft. on indoor storage. Most of the places around Chicago are $7.00 a sq., we are hoping to do volume bussiness.

Are you guys seriously paying $5-$7 per sq. ft. or are you paying for linear ft.? My storage is $15/linear foot every 6 months in the summer and $12/linear foot in the winter (with heat) every 6 months.

Is that for heated or unheated storage? I've seen heated storage at $5 or more / sf up north.

Not to be rude, or rain on your day.. Its a very tough business to be in. I also thought that too when starting my Marina... Oy was I wrong! I boat less now than ever in my personal boat....

The good thing is I am regularly in some real neat stuff on a regular basis do to the type of stuff I specialize in... I also love what I do so it can be fullfilling... Good luck to you out there in the midwest..

Btw.. Dont always look to be the cheapest.. Cheaper isnt always better.. If your too cheap you cant pay to do things properly & you will fold.. Set a price thats fair so you can make a reasonable dollar. This way you can pay your overhead & concentrate on doing a good job instead of worrying about money. Just my opinion.... Jamie / Lakeside

Just to clarify a couple things, I do not operate a marina, at this time, and I don't want to be the cheapest. I want to be the least expensive. I don't have the overhead of a marina operation so I can be less expensive than the others. I don't think quality service costs any more to provide. So low quality low cost service is possible.