A Family With Entrepreneurial Roots

Stor-It Self Storage Strives To Brighten Up Your Day

Economic hardships have hit almost everyone these days, but there is one business that strives to be the bright spot in your day. Stor-It Self Storage, a truly family-oriented business, has more than 7,000 units in nine locations throughout the TreasureValley.

“We want our customers to understand that we are a family, we live in Boise, Idaho, and we’re going to help you with your storage needs,” states Kenzi Hurless, Executive Assistant Site Manager. “Stor-It Self Storage is family owned and operated. Some customers have lost their homes, or their jobs, or have gone bankrupt. We want to be the bright spot in their day and we try to accommodate their storage needs.

“The television series Storage Wars is very popular right now, but that’s not what we are in business to do,” says Kenzi. “We do not as a business or as a family want to get rid of people’s property. We want make it clear to our customers that although we are in the storage business, and we have the right to auction things after being 60 days delinquent, we strive to make arrangements so they can get their items back.”

A Humble Start

Back in the ‘70s, there was a professor teaching business classes at BoiseStateUniversity. Known by his students as Professor Allen, he tried to teach his students about real estate and financing by giving them real-life examples. He encouraged his students go out and start their own business. Many have been successful in starting and now operate their own businesses.

“My grandfather was teaching a class and told the students to go out and find a business they would like to invest in,” explains Kenzi. “Some of the students went out and came back and said they had found a piece of property to invest in. He questioned them. ‘How are you going to purchase it? What are you going to build on it to make money?’ That’s how it all began.”

The students wanted to invest in a property on Mitchell Street in Boise, Idaho and put storage units on it. This was a new concept to Boise and to most of the nation in 1972, so it was risky. But Professor Allen believed his students were ready to make their own investments after practicing and learning from him in the classroom.

Stor-It Self Storage was started in 1972 by Professor Allen and four of his students. Since he had always encouraged them to actually do what he was teaching in class, the students asked him to put his teachings into action as well by investing with them. After the students graduated and moved on to their desired profession, they were eventually bought out by Professor Allen.

A Family Oriented Business

“In 1982, Stor-It had two locations and 600 units when my family took over the ownership and operations of the company,” says Kenzi. “Ever since then, my grandfather kept building units and it’s been our family’s business. We have employees who have worked for us for 20 plus years. We treat our employees very well and, in return, they treat our customers even better. Most of our employees know their customers as they walk in the door and greet them by name even though they may have 1,200 units.”

Kenzi and her brother, Marshall Weber, started working in the business as teenagers. Even before they were old enough to really work there, the pair became an integral part of the operation.

“We were born and raised on site,” explains Kenzi. “We used to have races down the storage aisles when we were growing up. Marshall and I had an office when we were little. We had a fake phone, a typewriter, and we acted like we were working. We grew up making coupons for hours and hours and we handed out to customers, working alongside our parents.

“One day, we decided to play with the postage machine. It was one of those huge machines where we printed postage stamps. My mom usually set it at zero because she had to pre-pay for the postage, but one day she forgot to reset it and we started stamping out tons of paper,” recalls Kenzi. “That day, she had to pay some money because of all the work we did.”

Copyright 2012 S. R. Morris