August 13, 2024 • 11 mins
Beau Reinberg
Principal of Best Box Storage
As Principal of BestBox Storage, Beau is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the day-to-day operations, focusing on achieving the company’s short and long-term growth as well as fostering the company’s culture and vision. He is also active in the development and execution of site selections, deal negotiations, and facility acquisitions.
With over 20 years of experience in the self storage and real estate industry, Beau is a key asset to the current and future success of BestBox. He and his long-time business partner and friend, Matt Garavaglia, have delivered 12 self storage facilities totaling over 1 million square feet of space. Beau’s background in self storage spans from the bottom up – from executing daily onsite operations at the original BestBox facility in downtown St. Louis, to overseeing a portfolio of facilities as BestBox grows across the country.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Beau enjoys traveling and spending time with his wife, Aaron, and their three children, Albert, Hope, and Isabel.
Principal of Best Box Storage
As Principal of BestBox Storage, Beau is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the day-to-day operations, focusing on achieving the company’s short and long-term growth as well as fostering the company’s culture and vision. He is also active in the development and execution of site selections, deal negotiations, and facility acquisitions.
With over 20 years of experience in the self storage and real estate industry, Beau is a key asset to the current and future success of BestBox. He and his long-time business partner and friend, Matt Garavaglia, have delivered 12 self storage facilities totaling over 1 million square feet of space. Beau’s background in self storage spans from the bottom up – from executing daily onsite operations at the original BestBox facility in downtown St. Louis, to overseeing a portfolio of facilities as BestBox grows across the country.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Beau enjoys traveling and spending time with his wife, Aaron, and their three children, Albert, Hope, and Isabel.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is CEOs you should know and very very honored
to have bo Riinberg. Did I say that right?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You did?
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Gosh, that's a first co founder of Best Box Storage.
Thank you for coming and talking about your business.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
It's excited to learn about this because it's all new
to me.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good well, you know, sometimes it's hard to get people
excited about storage. But like one of our partners said,
we're here to make storage sexy.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I like that that's our.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Goal because ultimately it's a product and a service that
one in ten households used in the United States, and
it's really an important thing for not only households, but
also small businesses, growing businesses, and many others in the community.
(00:48):
You know.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Also, just from our listenership, we have like three generations
of listenership. Klou So, I've seen a lot of grandma's
moving in. My co host has his mom living in
the they have they want to keep their stuff. Where
do they put their stuff?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, and that's in storage. Is that product that it's
here in times of change, So when you're going through
a tough time and you're changing some sort of atmosphere
in your life, whether it's maybe you're moving to a
new home, or you're downsizing, or you're upsizing, or you
(01:24):
took a new job, or your parents are moving into
an assisted living and you need to you're already dealing
with the house itself, and now you've got all their
things to deal with. That's where storage becomes a real
valuable asset. And you know, our goal is to make
it really friendly, really clean, really safe for our customers
(01:47):
because ultimately, the likelihood that they're going through something that's
kind of tough is pretty high, and so what we
want to do is at least make one thing that
they're going through not real tough. We want it to
be friendly, we want it to be convenient, and above all,
we wanted to be safe and secure.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
That's a huge thing, and you brought it made me
think of something as you were bringing this up that
my ex husband, his mom passed. They rushed to do
this estate sale and they were probably getting rid of
a lot of stuff that they really if they would
have had time, if they would have used your storage place,
then they would have had the time. Just you know,
(02:28):
think about it. They just had to sell the house,
so they had to do this fast. I think that's
a really great option many people might not even think about.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, no, I think it's really it's important for folks
to understand that it's there for you, just in time,
just in that little you know, when you need a
little bit more time to process something, or if you're
a small business and you just need a little bit
extra storage to bring in some inventory that's maybe been
tough to get for a long time. We certainly saw
(02:56):
a lot of that over the past four or five years,
where where inventory and supply chains were so constrained. And
for bigger businesses that have access to warehouse space and
freight trucks and bulk storage, it's not as hard. But
if you're a small business and you've been waiting six
months for something, you might want to order a little
(03:19):
bit more of it so you don't have to wait
as long next time. But where are you going to
put it? And that's where safe, secure, climate controlled self
storage really comes into play.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
That's absolutely true. So how long have you been in
the Saint Louis areas?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
So I've been doing storage in Saint Louis since two
thousand and seven.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Wow, long time, long time. Yeah, you know your stuff? Yeah,
and then with Best Box.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Held long Best Box started four years ago, okay and time. Yeah,
and we are a growing company. We are in eight
states right now in the Saint Louis area, we have
have six facilities and we're opening up a seventh. So
we're you know, we like to get to markets and
(04:09):
areas that are that are growing and that have a
lack of a real class a storage solution, and we
want to be that provider for for customers and uh
and so you know, we feel like Saint Louis really
needed somebody that was able to provide our uh provide
self storage in the right way, absolutely and a clean
(04:33):
safe your stuff is safe.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
We have a lot of memories we want to keep safe.
Definitely for businesses. I think especially you came to the
right you know, you start four years ago pandemic a
lot of people. I bet you were pretty busy.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, we were. I mean it really so that it
really uh it opened up a whole new avenue which
was decluttering, right, so you had a lot of people
that were transitioning their household, uh to be able to
work from home home or to be able to have
school at home, and you needed extra space and so
you had to turn a bedroom or an office or
(05:09):
a basement into something else. Well, that again you needed
some time to work through that, and time to understand
your needs on the furniture side, and and and different things.
And so a lot of folks use that decluttering time
to put those things into storage, get their life kind
of organized again and in a different structure. And you
(05:31):
know that was that was really an important time for
our business.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
That's fantastic. How how does best box storage Workbow? How
exactly does it? How do people at the key?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
You know, well, it is part of the other thing
is again, when you're going through times of change in
your life, we want to make things easy for you.
So you can go to our website and lease a
unit and you will get a code for the for
the gate or for the access to the building. A
lock will be provided inside your unit with our welcome
(06:04):
box that does some other fun stuff. And you know,
you can do all of that without ever speaking to
an individual. You know, or if you're someone that likes
to engage with a manager, we have managers on site
that will walk you through the entire process, walk you
through to your unit, show you how the doors work,
show you how the gate works. And don't worry, you
(06:26):
still get the welcome box. Everyone gets a welcome Best
Box love that. So you know, we want to make
it as as easy as possible. So whether it's online,
on the phone, or in person, we're able to meet
your storage needs.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So you want to start online? And what is your website?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Our website is www dot best box storage dot com.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Makes sense, that's the name of the business, Best boxstorage
dot com. And how many Saint Luis area people do
you employ?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So in Saint Louis right now we employ fIF teen
people h and we're growing probably one or two people
a month and will be for the next probably eighteen
to twenty four months, so we have a lot of
growth coming up. We're really excited about everything here at Best.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Box I love that. And what can you tell me
off the top of your head where all the Best
Box Storage locations are?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, okay, okay, Warrington, we have two facilities, Wentzville, O'Fallon Lake,
Saint Louis, Washington, Missouri, Union Missouri and Villa Ridge, Missouri. Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So basically, if you can hear this, you're going to
be able to find a Best Box Storage.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Love it. I want to know. I have to know
what is the biggest thing you've put in a storage
that you could think of where you went whoa.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Oh, well we have some some really big RVs.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I was going to ask if you stored our vs.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, so we do, and uh you know those those
those RVs are forty feet long and you know they're
that's that's probably the biggest.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
And do is there a a certain minimum time frame?
Like do people go, Okay, we need a storage for
three months or just one month?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
The beauty of it is storage is always.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Month to month beautiful.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So our leases are months month to month, so you're
not locked into something long term. If you only need
it for thirty days, you you only get it for
thirty days. And so that really gives our customers a
lot of flexibility so they don't have to be tied down. Again.
We want to make things easy for our customers. We
want to solve this problem for them and make it
(08:45):
so that it's something that they don't have to worry about.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I love that. And do you have also resources or
ways to connect people when they go online or maybe
the managers where hey I need the storage unit. I
don't know movers. I don't you know that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, our manager and our call center agents are great
at solving problems for and with customers, so they can
be a great resource to make sure and find somebody
local to your area. We always want to try to
work as local as possible. Our customers are generally within
about a mile or three miles of our facility, so
(09:19):
it's really important for us to be local. So we
look to hire local contractors to do work on our sites,
and we look to try.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
And kind of connect people.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, exactly, exactly. It's really important for us to be
a good neighbor since those are most of our customers.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So whether you're a small business, a large business, got
a big old RV, or just a tiny little apartment,
it's best box storage. How would you say your company
helps drive the local economy?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You know, I think we as a storage business want
to be a good neighbor because our neighbors are our customers,
and so whenever we have the opportunity to to work
with someone around us, we're gonna we're going to do
that first and foremost. That's that's really really important for
(10:09):
us as a as a company. And uh, I think
it's what differentiates us from some of the other national
operators that that that don't have an affinity towards their
local area. We really, we really Saint Louis is our home.
All of us were born and raised here. We all
went to a different high school.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
But we're all Cards fan.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, we're all Cards and uh, you know, it's just
really really important for us to be to be as
local as possible.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
And we love that absolutely because we know obviously you're
going to get your your stuff will be safe. I
don't like it now, I think you're good. Yeah, I
just know it's on there. So I there's another one.
(11:01):
Do you want to talk about any philanthropic causes? I
mean you kind of did when you say about being local.
I think that's yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I think. I don't think. I think.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I think we got good soundbites too, right, okay, good charities?
Oh we yeah we can yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Bo.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I know that you that the best box company. Your
company is very into giving back the local community. I
love that. Do you have anything specifically like you guys
work with charities?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah. We were big supporters of the down Syndrome Association
of Greater Saint Louis, which is just an incredible organization.
This year, for the walk that they do each year,
our team was able to raise thirty five thousand dollars
WHOA for the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
So that's pulling on a lot of resources from a
lot of folks within the Best Box team and beyond,
and uh, you know, we really feel strongly about what
they do and how much they mean to Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
And an organization that gets very little press really gets
very little love. So thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, no, it means a lot to us.
This is CEOs you should know and very very honored
to have bo Riinberg. Did I say that right?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You did?
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Gosh, that's a first co founder of Best Box Storage.
Thank you for coming and talking about your business.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
It's excited to learn about this because it's all new
to me.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good well, you know, sometimes it's hard to get people
excited about storage. But like one of our partners said,
we're here to make storage sexy.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I like that that's our.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Goal because ultimately it's a product and a service that
one in ten households used in the United States, and
it's really an important thing for not only households, but
also small businesses, growing businesses, and many others in the community.
(00:48):
You know.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Also, just from our listenership, we have like three generations
of listenership. Klou So, I've seen a lot of grandma's
moving in. My co host has his mom living in
the they have they want to keep their stuff. Where
do they put their stuff?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, and that's in storage. Is that product that it's
here in times of change, So when you're going through
a tough time and you're changing some sort of atmosphere
in your life, whether it's maybe you're moving to a
new home, or you're downsizing, or you're upsizing, or you
(01:24):
took a new job, or your parents are moving into
an assisted living and you need to you're already dealing
with the house itself, and now you've got all their
things to deal with. That's where storage becomes a real
valuable asset. And you know, our goal is to make
it really friendly, really clean, really safe for our customers
(01:47):
because ultimately, the likelihood that they're going through something that's
kind of tough is pretty high, and so what we
want to do is at least make one thing that
they're going through not real tough. We want it to
be friendly, we want it to be convenient, and above all,
we wanted to be safe and secure.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
That's a huge thing, and you brought it made me
think of something as you were bringing this up that
my ex husband, his mom passed. They rushed to do
this estate sale and they were probably getting rid of
a lot of stuff that they really if they would
have had time, if they would have used your storage place,
then they would have had the time. Just you know,
(02:28):
think about it. They just had to sell the house,
so they had to do this fast. I think that's
a really great option many people might not even think about.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, no, I think it's really it's important for folks
to understand that it's there for you, just in time,
just in that little you know, when you need a
little bit more time to process something, or if you're
a small business and you just need a little bit
extra storage to bring in some inventory that's maybe been
tough to get for a long time. We certainly saw
(02:56):
a lot of that over the past four or five years,
where where inventory and supply chains were so constrained. And
for bigger businesses that have access to warehouse space and
freight trucks and bulk storage, it's not as hard. But
if you're a small business and you've been waiting six
months for something, you might want to order a little
(03:19):
bit more of it so you don't have to wait
as long next time. But where are you going to
put it? And that's where safe, secure, climate controlled self
storage really comes into play.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
That's absolutely true. So how long have you been in
the Saint Louis areas?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
So I've been doing storage in Saint Louis since two
thousand and seven.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Wow, long time, long time. Yeah, you know your stuff? Yeah,
and then with Best Box.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Held long Best Box started four years ago, okay and time. Yeah,
and we are a growing company. We are in eight
states right now in the Saint Louis area, we have
have six facilities and we're opening up a seventh. So
we're you know, we like to get to markets and
(04:09):
areas that are that are growing and that have a
lack of a real class a storage solution, and we
want to be that provider for for customers and uh
and so you know, we feel like Saint Louis really
needed somebody that was able to provide our uh provide
self storage in the right way, absolutely and a clean
(04:33):
safe your stuff is safe.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
We have a lot of memories we want to keep safe.
Definitely for businesses. I think especially you came to the
right you know, you start four years ago pandemic a
lot of people. I bet you were pretty busy.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, we were. I mean it really so that it
really uh it opened up a whole new avenue which
was decluttering, right, so you had a lot of people
that were transitioning their household, uh to be able to
work from home home or to be able to have
school at home, and you needed extra space and so
you had to turn a bedroom or an office or
(05:09):
a basement into something else. Well, that again you needed
some time to work through that, and time to understand
your needs on the furniture side, and and and different things.
And so a lot of folks use that decluttering time
to put those things into storage, get their life kind
of organized again and in a different structure. And you
(05:31):
know that was that was really an important time for
our business.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
That's fantastic. How how does best box storage Workbow? How
exactly does it? How do people at the key?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
You know, well, it is part of the other thing
is again, when you're going through times of change in
your life, we want to make things easy for you.
So you can go to our website and lease a
unit and you will get a code for the for
the gate or for the access to the building. A
lock will be provided inside your unit with our welcome
(06:04):
box that does some other fun stuff. And you know,
you can do all of that without ever speaking to
an individual. You know, or if you're someone that likes
to engage with a manager, we have managers on site
that will walk you through the entire process, walk you
through to your unit, show you how the doors work,
show you how the gate works. And don't worry, you
(06:26):
still get the welcome box. Everyone gets a welcome Best
Box love that. So you know, we want to make
it as as easy as possible. So whether it's online,
on the phone, or in person, we're able to meet
your storage needs.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
So you want to start online? And what is your website?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Our website is www dot best box storage dot com.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Makes sense, that's the name of the business, Best boxstorage
dot com. And how many Saint Luis area people do
you employ?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So in Saint Louis right now we employ fIF teen
people h and we're growing probably one or two people
a month and will be for the next probably eighteen
to twenty four months, so we have a lot of
growth coming up. We're really excited about everything here at Best.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Box I love that. And what can you tell me
off the top of your head where all the Best
Box Storage locations are?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, okay, okay, Warrington, we have two facilities, Wentzville, O'Fallon Lake,
Saint Louis, Washington, Missouri, Union Missouri and Villa Ridge, Missouri. Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So basically, if you can hear this, you're going to
be able to find a Best Box Storage.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Love it. I want to know. I have to know
what is the biggest thing you've put in a storage
that you could think of where you went whoa.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Oh, well we have some some really big RVs.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I was going to ask if you stored our vs.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, so we do, and uh you know those those
those RVs are forty feet long and you know they're
that's that's probably the biggest.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
And do is there a a certain minimum time frame?
Like do people go, Okay, we need a storage for
three months or just one month?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
The beauty of it is storage is always.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Month to month beautiful.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So our leases are months month to month, so you're
not locked into something long term. If you only need
it for thirty days, you you only get it for
thirty days. And so that really gives our customers a
lot of flexibility so they don't have to be tied down. Again.
We want to make things easy for our customers. We
want to solve this problem for them and make it
(08:45):
so that it's something that they don't have to worry about.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I love that. And do you have also resources or
ways to connect people when they go online or maybe
the managers where hey I need the storage unit. I
don't know movers. I don't you know that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, our manager and our call center agents are great
at solving problems for and with customers, so they can
be a great resource to make sure and find somebody
local to your area. We always want to try to
work as local as possible. Our customers are generally within
about a mile or three miles of our facility, so
(09:19):
it's really important for us to be local. So we
look to hire local contractors to do work on our sites,
and we look to try.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
And kind of connect people.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, exactly, exactly. It's really important for us to be
a good neighbor since those are most of our customers.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So whether you're a small business, a large business, got
a big old RV, or just a tiny little apartment,
it's best box storage. How would you say your company
helps drive the local economy?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You know, I think we as a storage business want
to be a good neighbor because our neighbors are our customers,
and so whenever we have the opportunity to to work
with someone around us, we're gonna we're going to do
that first and foremost. That's that's really really important for
(10:09):
us as a as a company. And uh, I think
it's what differentiates us from some of the other national
operators that that that don't have an affinity towards their
local area. We really, we really Saint Louis is our home.
All of us were born and raised here. We all
went to a different high school.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
But we're all Cards fan.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, we're all Cards and uh, you know, it's just
really really important for us to be to be as
local as possible.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
And we love that absolutely because we know obviously you're
going to get your your stuff will be safe. I
don't like it now, I think you're good. Yeah, I
just know it's on there. So I there's another one.
(11:01):
Do you want to talk about any philanthropic causes? I
mean you kind of did when you say about being local.
I think that's yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I think. I don't think. I think.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
I think we got good soundbites too, right, okay, good charities?
Oh we yeah we can yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Bo.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I know that you that the best box company. Your
company is very into giving back the local community. I
love that. Do you have anything specifically like you guys
work with charities?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah. We were big supporters of the down Syndrome Association
of Greater Saint Louis, which is just an incredible organization.
This year, for the walk that they do each year,
our team was able to raise thirty five thousand dollars
WHOA for the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
So that's pulling on a lot of resources from a
lot of folks within the Best Box team and beyond,
and uh, you know, we really feel strongly about what
they do and how much they mean to Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
And an organization that gets very little press really gets
very little love. So thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, no, it means a lot to us.
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