Have you done a S.W.O.T. Analysis on yourself yet?

Every business has its strengths and weaknesses. You are your business, what are your strengths and weaknesses? This is something that you need to do as uncomfortable as it might seem. This is meant to be a growing experience not a negative experience. If there are areas that you are weak in, then you want to find partners who are strong in those areas. Once you know your strengths, then you will be more effective. We will talk about Opportunities and Threats in another article.

Start by making a list of all the things that you are good at. Are you good at talking to people? Are you a great negotiator? Are you good at getting people to want to work with you? Are you someone people trust? Are you likeable? Are you smart? Do you have an ability to find properties? Do you have a lot of time to invest? Make the list no matter how long or short it may be. Now, you have to do the other side.

What are your weaknesses? Where do you fall short? Where do you struggle? Are you bad at numbers? Are you disorganized? Do you let your heart run away with things and ignore the facts? Are you short on capital? Do you have trouble negotiating? Write them down. This not meant to be painful, this is a fact finding mission.

When you are finished with your list, go ask your close friends and close family members what your strengths and weaknesses are. You might want to limit it to 2 or 3 each. They might find a blind spot that you didn’t even know existed.

Now that you know what your strengths and weaknesses are, now you can find ways to use those strengths to your advantage and get help in the areas where you are weak. For example, let’s say that you were evaluating your financing and you realized that this might be a weak area.

You have identified a weak area, financing. Now you are going to determine how you can turn that weakness into a strength or at least keep it from dragging you down. If you don’t have money to invest, now you know that is an area that you need to focus on. How are you doing to get money? Are you going to assign contracts for finder’s fees while you build up capital? Are you going to bring in partners who have capital? Are you going to hide under the covers and pretend that there are no self-storage properties in your area? No. You are going to find a way to get the money either through hard work or a partnership. Another important part of this step would be talking to an SBA lender to find out exactly where you are in the process of getting financing and what you need to do to be able to actually get that loan. This way you know what you need to focus on.

Don’t ignore your weaknesses, focus on them right away so that you can start working on the solutions to those problems immediately. This way you can create a plan of action so that you can be successful. As always, happy investing.