eKourier April 2010

Spotlight on Preston...

Site Features Preston’s facility is comfortably nestled between domestic housing and a light industrial area. At about 10 km from the CBD; we have the main road of Bell Street to our front, with domestic housing beside and behind us. Being on Bell Street, we have a good mixture of people commuting between work and home. Also being a major transport link, it exposes us to commercial, domestic & student traffic, to which we enjoy a good mix storing with us. Preston sits well in its environment, a happy and convenient position for people needing storage. We have steady growth, with new customer inquiries each day. In our bright orange livery, and the Telstra towers on the roof, we can’t be missed. Other than a few “peaks & troughs,” our growth is perhaps more steady than dramatic.

The Team With Sandra Mazzitelli (Manager and Nigel Spragg (assistant Manager both having extensive customer service backgrounds, Sandra from Hospitality, Nigel from Retail, we manage to deal with most situations and challenges. We also have our competitors, but with our 24/7 advantage, meticulously maintained premises, (very house proud complete attention to detail of our customers needs, we have a good edge over our competitors. Not just perceived either, our customers tell us after they have experienced the difference! If you are ever in the area, pop in for a look around and one of Sandra’s magic coffees, they are so good; customers actually come in asking for them! Team Preston

History A couple of the older local residents around here have told us that the site was once upon a time a Market Garden, (which the area of Preston was apparently known for in the early 1800’s , then a Tannery for a number of years, then for a short while it was a Wood/Coal Yard; (Leaving me wondering about the actual location of the picture we see here? Before Millers developed the site as a purpose built storage facility around 2000, there was a sheltered workshop on the site. Not so different from its current occupants some might argue. Millers had the building for about two years before the Kennards acquisition in December 2004.

NEV’S NOTES...

“Mistakes - Are we making enough” I n our Australian and New Zealand culture it is often seen as wrong, as inept, to make mistakes. At school we try not to be wrong; we try to be right and get approval, to stay out of trouble. So often we don’t try out new things or experiment. But we don’t lean much from always being right. It is from our mistakes that we learn most. “ How can you learn from the mistakes you’ve never made ” is a saying I learned at a course at the Pecos River Learning Centre in New Mexico several years ago.

Make high-class mistakes : that is mistakes from trying something that will yield some new knowledge. Think it out as best you can, get some advice or input perhaps to help to optimise your attempt, and your learning, weigh up the costs and consequences, ask if anyone else has anything to contribute to your idea, and then give it a go. And make mistakes quickly ! Don’t procrastinate. Think it through and give it a go, learn, and move on. What have you learned ? Is it worth another go ? Did it fail but yield some valuable information that offers some new opportunity for another go, or to go in a different direction ? Have a go, learn, move on. “ The person who never made a mistake never made anything ” was the comment from a carpenter who built some kitchen cupboards for me once. He had made a blue and this was his rationalising apology. It was OK, I had to agree. At Kennards Self Storage we encourage initiative; we want to innovate and try new things, we want to be a learning company and culture. Sure it’s better not to make silly, sloppy errors, but mistakes from trying something new are not really mistakes, they are essential to learning and progress. So go forth and make some good mistakes. Nev Kennard

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Kennards Kourier April 2010