Storage is something that’s always needed in the world today. People accumulate more stuff than ever and don’t want to toss everything away. That’s why there are 49,000 storage facilities in the United States.
Even though there is plenty of demand for storage facilities, you’ll have some competition if you want to run a successful business.
That means you’ll need to put in some effort if you want to start a storage business the right way. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know to learn how to start a storage unit business.
Form a Business Plan
A business plan is the first thing to work on when you decide to start a storage business. Knowing how to start a storage business is hard when you have no plans or goals. A business plan will give you guidance with your daily activities.
Think of your core mission, target customers, revenue goals, and everything else required for a successful business. It also pays to come up with potential issues you’ll face in the future and plans to deal with those problems.
Of course, your business plan doesn’t need to detail everything. Just be sure it gives you enough of a plan to make smart decisions and adapt when unexpected issues arise in the future.
Determine Your Costs
It’s not cheap to start a storage business. You need property, storage units, utilities, employees, and much more. Many of these costs are required ahead of time to get started.
Figure out how much money it will take to get started. You’ll need to ensure you have the funds or look for lenders to get the money.
You can work with commercial loan providers or seek private investors who want to participate in the business. You may lose some control when you bring in private investors, but you will gain more sets of eyes that can offer insight that will help you succeed.
Pick a Target Customer
There are many types of storage businesses. Some companies focus on regular people and let them store anything they can fit in their units. While others are more specialized and offer storage units that store more unique items.
You’ll need to figure out which type of customer you want to serve before you start your business. Once you know who you want to serve, you can figure out what equipment you’ll need to offer great service.
Of course, you’ll need to learn everything about your customers when doing this. It makes sense in this situation to hire a consultant to help you learn what you need about your target customers to serve them well.
You need to invest in storage unit marketing if you want to get results. Start with a website and apply to get listed on Google Maps. This will allow people searching for local storage units to discover your business. You’ll want to look for unsaturated markets as well like offering a storage room for college students in San Francisco which can help fill some of your small units while homeowners occupy your larger offerings.
Form Your Company
You’re ready to form your company once you finish the planning phase officially. You don’t want to do this with any personal accounts. You need to register a business with your government to do things right.
In this situation, you’ll probably form a corporation. Doing this will give you the means to hire employees, handle payroll taxes, track expenses, and everything else required of a company.
Of course, there are several types of corporations you can pick from. Reach out to get help from a professional if you aren’t sure which type of company to form.
Pick a Business Location
Location is everything in a storage business. Your customers probably don’t want to drive out of the way to get to your location. People want somewhere close to store their things.
That makes finding a location near the people who use your storage units critical. Try to find a property that’s close to neighborhoods or city centers. The more people who have quick access to your location, the bigger your customer pool.
You may be able to get customers in a remote location, but you won’t do nearly as much business.
Build a Team
While you may be able to run a storage company on your own, that probably isn’t the best idea. There are countless things to do during the day. If you try to do everything yourself, you may not be able to get everything done.
Hiring people to handle the tasks you aren’t great at doing makes more sense. Let experts handle the hard work and manage customer service. You can spend your extra time focusing on growing your company and working on tasks that move the bottom line.
Create a Marketing Plan
You’re ready to start looking for customers once you complete the above steps. While some people may find your storage units by driving next to your property, that will probably be the exception and not the rule.
You need to invest in storage unit marketing if you want to get results. Start with a website and apply to get listed on Google Maps. This will allow people searching for local storage units to discover your business.
You can also start social media accounts and invest in paid ads. If you have a larger budget, you can reach out to a marketing company like The Storage Agency to get help setting up these marketing strategies.
Now You Know How to Start a Storage Unit Business
It’s not easy to start any type of business, and buying storage units and renting them is no different. You need to do some hard work if you hope to see any success.
The good news is that you can follow a set of steps to get your storage business off the ground the right way. Now that you know how to start a storage unit business, you’re ready to take the first steps to build your company.
Of course, you’ll have more work ahead once your storage business is up and running. Check out the blog for more advice that will help you grow your business.