3 Things You Should Do If You want To Be Successful in Self-Storage

There are so many things that make entrepreneurs successful. Here are three things that you should start thinking about doing if you aren’t already. You need to implement the effective new ideas that you have learned, you need to create time in your schedule for the things that will bring in new leads and you need to go out and create opportunities instead of waiting for them to come to you.

Find the time to implement effective new strategies.

There are lots of people who will tell you ideas and things to do when you are getting started in self-storage. The key is to know who to listen to. You don’t want to spend time and money implementing ideas that are not going to be effective in your area. Make sure that the people that you are talking to have worked in your area, bought self-storage in your area, and know what they are talking about. Once you verify that they know what they are doing, then you need to create a list.

As you make the list of ideas and things that you want to do, you nee4d to put them in order. What are the things that I need to do today, what are the things that I can realistically do this month or even this year? What are things that need to wait until I have enough properties to make them more effective? What ideas will help you more down the road.

Always take the time to keep learning and networking with experienced self-storage investors. These are the people who are going to help take you to the next level. You never know where your next big idea is going to come from. Take the time to learn and implement new strategies. They aren’t going to do you any good if they just float around in your head. You have to act too.

Make the Time for things that will help you grow your self-storage business.

Sometimes you are already so busy that you are surviving on a few hours of sleep. When you get to this point, you need to take the time to determine what is the most important thing you should be focusing on and what can you delegate?

The only way to know where you are spending your time is to do a time audit. This is a lot like when you do a budget. You have to find out where you are spending time in order to effectively budget your time. You need to take 1 week to a month to really know what you are doing. It is annoying, but every 60 minutes, you need to quickly write down what you did for the last 60 minutes. Every 30 minutes is better, but that can interfere with what you are doing. Create rows and columns, just like you would with a budget spreadsheet.

Track yourself. It is quick and simple. Set an alarm on your phone to remind you to do your tracking. At the end of each day, total where you spent your time. There will be good, better, and best categories. There will be things that you do for your mental well being, there will be things that you do for your physical well being and there will be things that you do for your relationships. Put everything in your spreadsheet so that it is easy to track. A google doc is easy to take with you everywhere you go.

Now that you have taken the time to do your time audit, you can see where you are spending your time. How much time did you spend answering e-mails? How much time did you spend on the phone? How much time did you spend with managerial problems like billing or customer complaints or things that you could hire someone to do for you? How much time did you spend looking for new properties, new partners, or new financing possibilities so that you could expand? How much time did you waste?

The reason that you do this is because only you can build relationships and network. Only you can put the deals together. You can train someone to do the managerial items for you. You can hire an executive assistant to do the things that have to be done, but not by you. Your time is valuable, don’t spend it doing things that don’t matter?

Go Out and Create Opportunities

You need to start by evaluating the properties that you have. What can you do to make them more efficient? Can you expand them by adding RV or boat storage? Can you put in more self-storage? Does your advertising and marketing need work? Do you need a better manager? Once you have your own properties running at their best it is time to start expanding.

Whether you want to buy self-storage today or in a few years, you should always be looking for your next opportunity. Networking is going to be the key to finding that great deal. If you are behind your computer screen working on other things all the time, no one will know that you are interested in self-storage. Some self-storage opportunities fall in your lap and others take years to nurture.

You need to be out meeting potential partners and investors that would be interested in financing your next deal. You will get to a point where you need investors to expand. You will need them to help you with instant funds so that you can pounce or great opportunities when banks might be slower. By having investors on your team, you are more maneuverable.

You should be talking to self-storage owners. They might have some great ideas on how to improve your properties or take your business to the next level. You don’t always just have to talk about buying property from them. If their property is running well, they may have some great knowledge to impart. If their property is falling apart, they may have some great knowledge on things to avoid doing. Either way, you create a relationship and learn.

The more you talk to people, the more they get to know you. The more they get to know you, the more people they can introduce you to. The snowball continues. The expression, “It’s not what you know it is who you know,” is very applicable in our industry. You need to network to find opportunities. Don’t wait to start investing in self-storage. You can start investing in this amazing industry today. As always, happy investing.