07 May 2020
Article from Portalbe Storage Box Company
Starting any kind of business can be intimidating. There are laws and market analyses and finances and taxes and inventory and profit and loss and so much more. Where do you even begin? If you want to know how to start your own storage business, take a deep breath and relax because you've come to the right place. We're going to walk you through the process from start to finish.
There are lots of steps to starting your own storage business, and we'll get to them all. However, let's take a look at the big picture first. There are three parts to this whole process: Planning, Getting Started, and Expanding.
It may not be the most exciting part of starting a business, but it is one of the most important. The planning phase happens at the very beginning because you need to know some basic things about what you want to do and the market you want to do it in. Otherwise, you're flying blind, and you might make costly mistakes that can easily be avoided.
Step 1 - Stating your goal
Before you do anything else, figure out what kind of company you want to own. Are you looking for a small, local affair that gives you enough income for a comfortable life? You want to work, but you don't want anything to take over your life, so to speak. Or, are you looking for something that you can grow significantly? You won't stop until you are the storage king.
Everything else you do will depend on this decision. Once you know what you want, you need to know if it will work.
Step 2 - Market Research
Let's get one thing clear right now: Research matters. You need to figure out the lay of the land, and we mean that literally. Storage businesses, whether mobile or permanent (more on that later), need land. You can't just rent some office space and call it a day. You need room to roam.
Market research involves figuring out how much demand there is for the product you want to sell in a particular area. In this case, the product is storage space, so some helpful things to know will be how many other storage businesses are in your area and what their rate of occupancy is. In other words, how many competitors do you have and how much of their space is rented out?
Figuring out what your competitors are doing and how likely your business is to succeed will give you a good idea of what to expect and what you should do with your own business.
You also should think about joining the Self Storage Association. They have lots of helpful information to offer and are storage company advocates in state governments.
Step 3 - Calculating Costs
Determining what your costs will be is tricky. You'll need to take into account many factors including the price of land, buildings, labor, etc. In order to do this, you'll need to know not only the things from step one but also what kind of storage company you want to own.
Mobile vs permanent storage Put simply, permanent storage involves storing items inside a standing building while mobile storage involves storing items inside mobile storage containers. The permanent option is the one most people are familiar with, meaning the large buildings with many units which are accessed through sliding garage-style doors.
Despite its being less common...
