This blog came to be because I had all of this knowledge rolling around in my head seeking a release! I needed to tell folks about life on the auction trail! Many interesting people and yes the rooms can talk!

When you are in the business you never tell what you really get out of those rooms, if people really knew the deal they would come out in droves! If you have the urge to get in the game check out the end of the post, there is a surprise for ya!

Wait! I am no longer an auction hound; if I were still in the game there is no way in hell that I would be telling you these secrets!

I spent the last seven years of my life being a junk man per my best brother Fred G Sanford by a good friend and a workaholic by my own admission. In short I am an entrepreneur that loves the challenge of starting and running a business.

I stumbled into this business completely by accident, I had a garage sale and it was over, I got hooked on selling used stuff and thus my introduction into the world of storage unit auctions.

I breathed and even dreamed about storage units ( yes it was that bad) in the course of doing this business I came across some new tricks that were beyond the regular and they enabled me to grow my income.

Once you become hooked on auctions it can become a very time consuming very quickly! Like any addiction there is a downside, my personal life went out of the window ( just found it in the last year) if I had it to do all over again know what I know now. I would not change a thing! There good was like a tidal wave on the north shore!

You can say the sun and moon came in perfect alignment for my latest venture, which is a lot of fun and it gives me time to do what love which is talk a lot of trash and I get to write about it! On the real, I always wanted to be a writer.

I have had this dream for a long time, however sometimes life gets in the way of dreams if you let it. So for the last eight years I have been either self employed or a business owner, yes, there is a difference!

Now that I am free I can share all of my techniques that I used to make it in the resale business. As I write this and look over the notes and old auction receipts, I recall just how much fun I had being in the storage auction business. There are so many stories; human nature is definitely stranger than fiction. Hop on you are in for a ride!

Regards,

Glendon Cameron

You can get my book on Amazon!!!!

Once you get some legs in this business, it can become complicated. Here in the A, there are a lot of enterprising (read pain in the ass) folks that came to the auctions, with a pocket full of cash and a penchant for bidding against me.

Over time you learn the Art of The Deal, essentially you know your competition and your competition knows you. Knows what you are going to bid on, knows how much you will bid, and if you had a habit of payback. Payback means you will bid on any unit your nemesis will bid on just to piss him off and make him spend more money.

In auction verbiage – Run them up, take him for a ride, tone up, and flatten those pockets

Being very obstinate and sensitive (hey guys get sensitive too), I was known for payback. Really it was just a tool to keep the wolves at bay. I called it building perspective in a space that it did not exist initially. It worked well for me, until a new person showed up and the process began anew.

After you beat up on each for a period of time, someone will extended the olive leaf or suggest you split units. The other option was to take turns, I get this one, and you get that one. In legal terms it is called “collusion” and it happens all of the time in the world. You would think this keeps the price down and everyone makes more money right?

Not even close to the truth!

Splitting units leads to higher prices because you have to buy more units! When you run your own business and do not partner, what you kill is what you keep. With a partnership, what you kill, you give up half and work harder! I noticed these trends the year I did the partnership thing. I highly suggest that you do not do this!

I broke all ties and did you get this one and I get that unit deal. This did keep the price down and worked out well on all sides. Other wise the chance of getting screwed is quite high and no, you will not be kissed first….

To learn more about making money with storage auctions buy ebook

Please note that proper planning will eliminate the stress of last minute planning.  If you are not fully ready to embark of your business, do the framework. Research the business, name, the business, incorporate the business. Some of these tasks can be quite time consuming, by doing the tasks or research right now while you are not being pulled at each and every corner by the demands of your business, is a blessing in disguise. You would be wise to make the best use of this time!

I am still in the early stages of building a business credit profile for my new business, which will business number nine. I am starting from scratch and will chart my progress in this blog, new LLC , EIN, the works the only thing that makes me different from you is knowledge, which you will gain by staying tuned to this blog.

There is no rush to build this profile, since I know treading the waters of business credit in 2009 is a little tricky.  Let’s, not mistake  my patience attitude for a lack of urgency, there is great level of urgency, experience has taught me it is better to measure twice , perhaps three times than to measure once and cut twice.

This climate is so unlike any other I have had to face in my professional and business career.

The business credits cram down on credit line limits and accounts went into over drive this year and late last year.  Simply put all levels and types of credit were in jeopardy of review and credit line decrease or closure. However, there are signs of life. One of my former coworkers from way back when I had a job, which strangely enough has been nine years! Hmm…ninth business, nine years since I had a job maybe there is something to that, perhaps not. We will see!

Well he took some advice from me years ago, he never really started the business credit building process, he just registered a new LLC , this was in 2004, he paid the yearly fee and did nothing else for the business until this summer.

Due to the crappy economy he lost his job and got a decent severance package, nothing to live lavishly on, but he could make it a year without working with careful budgeting. So those old dreams of entrepreneurship came roaring back with a vengeance.  He gave in to the calling; I think it is a calling to become an entrepreneur. Some consider it a curse! His outlook on getting a job was not that viable and he surmised if his business took off after a year he would be okay. Entrepreneurs tend to be quite optimistic!

He informed me of this information after he started the business and I thought to myself this better be one hell of a business to take off and provide a living income after a year. He gave me the details and based on his knowledge of the industry I think he has a good shot of making it go; however those time tables may need a little adjusting.

Base on the information I gave him years ago, in an email of all things, he begin building his business credit profile. He had the checking account; a number registered in 411 essentially the basics. Within in two months, he had the following.

Uline-net 30

UPS-net 30

Verizon –net 30

Staples 1500

Best Buy 2500

Lowes 1250

Key Bank 4500

I got to say I was more than impressed!  He got his net 30s in and I know all of those guys report. They did for me. How did he do it? After a few questions I found out. One thing I knew he had going for him was corporate age, inc’ed since 2004 and his business telephone number was with AT&T which reports and he was never late. The T Mobile phone he carries was in the LLC name, apparently he forgot about that! So, time, and two accounts reporting got him to this level after two months! Did he have a paydex?

Who knows, he did not even deal with DNB! He left that area blank on his applications! I would advise anyone to know what your DNB file looks life before seeking business credit. After our little chat he has signed up with DNB and Experian to know what his scores and profiles look like to a potential creditor. I am not going to say he was lucky, he knew he did not apply for anything so it should have been in good shape, I guess he was right!

I do not believe he could have pulled this off in December 2008, credit granters were cutting the limits or eliminating the credit accounts of people with great payment histories that had never been late. So new and unproven was not going to cut it.

I also believe to the shock and  awe of many people that the government  stimulus plans and monetary polices are moving us out of this mess quicker than if we did nothing at all, therefore giving people hope and people with hope spend money.

People spend money, business ramp up again and our economy starts to improve. Check out theCash for Clunkers program effect on the car business. Which we all know for months has been deplorable!

Are these government plans without flaw? Of course not but we as a country will survive, we always do.

Do I expect to see the levels of commerce we all witness since 9/11? No, not even close, however for those with a dream that fulfils a need or a requirement of the masses and the energy and courage to move it from the dream stage to reality the future is bright. I think the future is very bright for my friend, he seems like a different person, but chasing a dream will do that for you.

I also think that the big freeze is thawing out, now it is just a trickle, however to a thirsty man a steady trickle of water will do just fine.