Motivational Monday - Part 1

Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.

You have heard this saying over and over again, but have you ever applied it to your self-storage investing career. In this business we get told no a lot. It is just part of the business. We talk to sellers every day that do not want to sell their self-storage properties. We talk to sellers every day who are not willing to take our offer because it is too low for them. We talk to other investors or banks who for whatever reason tell us no to our perfect self-storage project. That does not mean that we quit. In fact, it hopefully means that you just try harder. That is what it means to not fall down. That is what it means to get up over and over and over again.

There are bad days in self-storage real estate investing. There are days where you hit roadblocks every step of the way. So how do you self-motivate? How do you keep going on days or weeks like that? Different self-motivational gurus recommend different things.

One way is to have small daily goals that you can cross off as you accomplish them. They don’t depend on anyone else saying yes or no, they simply depend on your hard work. For example, I am going to call 10 self-storage property owners today to see if they have thought about selling. That is a goal that only relies on you and when you accomplish it, celebrate. Not a huge celebration, but nevertheless recognize that accomplishment. You give yourself a boost each time you notice something good that you have done.

Another important thing to remember is to set your start and quit times. This is a job, granted you are your own boss and you are in control, but part of that control is setting strict hours that you will work every day. Set up a schedule of when you are going to talk to other self-storage owners. How are you going to market to self-storage property owners? Who are you going to network with? How are you going to grow your business? As you make these decisions, your business will grow. However, it can get addictive finding new self-storage deals and you can work all the time if you are not careful. Make sure that you have set hours that you try to adhere to.

Not every day will be perfect, but that is o.k. You are just trying to make sure that you get up every time that you fall down. Because this is the trick to getting stronger and getting better at what you are doing. Don’t allow yourself to fail. You can be a success at self-storage. As always, happy investing.