The Fifth Rule of Thumb – Finding a Manager Part 2!

So, what do you do if you can’t find an experienced manager? You might live in a rural area or a smaller town where there aren’t a lot of self-storage properties. If you don’t have a large pool of talent to choose from, then you need to make sure that you train them so that they become the best. You need to have the best training manuals and standard operating procedures for your manager. This is true even if you have an experienced manager. You want them to follow your steps and do things that work for you. Your manager may have suggestions and ideas that you implement, but you need to know what you want before you hire someone.

If you don’t have experience behind the desk in a self-storage facility, this is something that you might want to get. You need to understand the day to day operations of your business. If you don’t know what you want, how can you expect your manager to give it to you? As you are setting up your business, you need to create step by step training manuals. For example, you need to create a checklist of how to rent out a property. You need to make sure that your manager, goes through the contract, takes them to their unit, shows them the unit, tries to upsell a better unit to the potential renter, and then finally puts the lock on the unit. You don’t want your unit sitting there unlocked.

You need to create a manual on how to handle angry or frustrated clients. What are the steps that you want them to follow. How do you want then to diffuse the situation? How do you want them to handle late rents? When do you want them to call? Do you have a computer program that reminds people that they are late before the manager calls?

One of the most important manuals that you will create is your eviction manual. You want to make sure that your manager follows this exactly. You don’t want them to accidentally seize someone else’s belongings. Make sure that you follow the laws in your area exactly before you send someone’s belongings to auction. This is a last resort.

You also want to create standard operating procedures on how you want your manager to handle your social media and marking. How often do you want them to post? What do you want them to post? You don’t want them to just post advertisements. You want them to also post education or helpful information too. What groups do you want them to join? How much freedom are you going to give them with the advertising budget?

If you do something more than two times, you want to create a standard operating procedure for it. You want to make sure that your manager is managing the property the way that you want them to. You also need to make sure that they are reporting to you what you want reported. No matter how experienced your manager is, if they don’t know what information you want each week, then they can’t provide that information to you.

Make your training manuals so extensive that if you were to leave for an extended period of time, a brand new manager could walk in, pick up your training and start working. Once you take the time to create your training manuals, you can use them over and over again. Your managers may have ideas that you can add to them over time.

Your standard operating procedures are going to save you a lot of headaches and possible lawsuits. Make sure that you don’t skip this important step. As always, happy investing.