Creating Your Business Plan –The importance of setting up an SOP!

Every time that you do anything in your business that you are going to do more than once, you should have a standard operating procedure. If you don’t, how will someone be able to come in and take over for you? Each time that you do something, write it down. This is a great way to make sure that you are not forgetting something so that you don’t make a mistake. It is also a great way to put a system in place from day one so that you are ready to hire as soon as possible.

When you are evaluating a property, you need to have a system in place to make sure that you are not missing any important information. When you are making an offer, you want to make sure that you have your contract exactly the way that you need it to protect yourself in case something goes wrong. When you are in your due diligence period, you need a checklist to make sure that the property is exactly what you thought it was before you pull the trigger.

Once you own the property, you need to know if you are going to manage it yourself or if you are going to hire someone to help you. If you are going to hire a manager, then you want to make sure that they are going to do things exactly the same way that you would. The only way that can happen is if you have an SOP for everything that needs to be at the self-storage facility. Make sure that they know how you want them to rent out a unit. Make sure that your manager is trained on how to handle late payments and ultimately auctions if applicable. Train them on how you want to do your advertising and marketing. If they know every step that they need to take, then they will know exactly what they are supposed to do.

If you don’t have a process in place, how will you know that you are meeting your own standards? The best way to avoid a problem is to make sure that you are following your own standards. You don’t want to make a costly mistake because you forgot a step.

Take the time to set up your own standard operating procedure at the beginning. This will ultimately save you time. As always, happy investing.