Now that you have created your self-storage business plan outline, now it is time to start filling in each section of your self-storage outline. Each section may take a little bit of time or research, but it needs to be unique to your situation. Even if the task seems daunting, do not put it off. A self-storage busines plan is critical to your success. You will not know if you have achieved your goals if you have never made any! You say you want to make money. If I hand you a penny, you made money. Make your goals specific. You will not know if you have made any progress if you do not know where you are headed. This document is the heart of your company. Creating your self-storage business plan is not as hard as you think it is. There are a lot of online templates and books on how to create a good business plan. Just make sure that you tailor yours to self-storage.
The first thing that you want to create for your self-storage business plan is a mission statement. Why are you doing this? What is important to you? Do you want to help people? Do you want more time with your family? Do you want to focus on improving neighborhoods by improving distressed properties? Think about companies that you like. What is their value statement or mission statement? What can you take away from theirs and apply to yours?
Filling in the vision statement portion of your self-storage business plan is fun. Imagine your Self-Storage Empire. What does it look like? How many properties are in it? When did you buy them and how? Start with the first year. Realistically, how many properties can you buy this year? How are you going to buy them? What capital do you have to start? Where are you going to raise that capital? What partners do you need to involve? What training do you need to take to understand what is a good opportunity and what isn’t a good opportunity? There are some properties that look good but once you completely understand the entire package, you will realize that you don’t want to purchase it. This takes time and experience. Check out our website for more training on how to avoid some of these beginner traps.
Now you are at year 5. Things are different now. You have overcome the startup bumps. Now how many properties do you own? Now what kind of capital do you have and where are you getting it from? What banks are you working with? What partners do you invest with? How are you finding your new properties? What changes do you need to make to have your Self-Storage Empire start running itself so that you can focus on finding more deals.
Now you are at year 10. Things are running themselves. This is the fun part. You are really running an empire. What does it look like? What are you going to change? What are you going to do to make it more efficient? Now what kind of capital do you have? Where do you want to invest it? What banks are you working with? What partners do you invest with? How are you finding your new properties and partners?
Once you have this section of your self-storage business plan filled in, then it is time to start getting into the details of how to do this? Join us in our next blog as we discuss how to start getting into the nitty gritty of your outline. As always, happy investing.
