I have worked with lots of people getting in the self-storage business over the years. Hundreds of them.
However, I’ve never had anyone ask this question before.
It seems weird, but no one has asked me before “What does it take to be successful in the self-storage business?”
Now, I have written lots on this subject, what type of mindset supports someone in being successful, and what knowledge base of information is required, but when asked this question directly by someone, I just fumbled around with a goofy answer.
It took me a few minutes to really get clear on what I was trying to say.
If I had really had my act together at that moment, I would have said something like:
It’s really not what you know, although you have to know certain things. What I have seen make the difference is a deep-seated belief someone has in themselves that tells them something like “If one person has done this, then I can do it too. I may not know exactly what to do now, but I know I can learn it or figure it out, so I am going to step into this knowing I will know what to do when the time is right.”
If I really think about it, all the articles I have written on mindset really boils down to this.
So let me be the first to tell you I don’t have it all down. I still make a lot of mistakes. I am also not going to tell you that you should do what I say or do what I have done. All I can say is I am wherever I am today, good or bad, because I believe this and act this way.
I can also say, the people I have worked with that are in the self-storage business today, acted like this to some degree or another. Their lives are not perfect now and they, like myself are dealing with all the stuff you deal with in the self-storage business, but they are in the business.
At the end of the day, all the problems they are solving today are being solved in their business, increasing their net worth and income, not someone else’s. And when they stop and think about that, the challenges they are dealing with don’t seem quite so big.
So how does this look like on the court?
Well for many of us it may look like putting a property under contract, not 100% sure exactly where the down payment is coming from.
At least that was my case. We had soft commitments, but who I was for myself was, “I can raise it.”
I’ve seen this stop many people. Or I have seen people put it under contract and not believe they can raise it and hope for a miracle.
They don’t close usually.
So I am not saying just put stuff under contract and hope, but if you have soft commitments, and who you are for yourself is “I will do this period”, you will close.
The Way of Being
It may look like you don’t know all the stuff you need to do in the due diligence period, or who will do all the inspections, but you know you can learn what to do and do it during that time period.
It may look like, “I’ve looked at a lot of projects and can’t figure out how to make them work, so self-storage doesn’t work”.
Other people could say, “I’ve looked at a lot of projects and can’t figure out how to make them work, but I know people are closing on them, so they must know something I don’t. If they know it, I can learn it or figure it out.”
Again, I am not saying put something under contract that doesn’t make sense and hope you can figure something out.
What I am saying is in each case, and in each transaction, at almost every step of the way, people who are successful are willing to step into the unknown, something they have never done before, and with the belief, they can do what needs to be done, so they take action.
That Way of Being is way more important than knowing how to calculate an IRR, or knowing what construction numbers are the best ones to use today when doing an expansion. You can vendor the IRR and construction out, you can vendor out a Way of Being.
So people work with me on what to do, and for the most part, I can teach that. What I am listening for, however, is not what they know, but who they are. Because I know in every deal, knowing what to do is not going to carry the day. They are going to hit obstacles. I am listening for will this stop them or not.
In the short amount of time I have with people, it is hard for me to instill a new way of being, so I just listen to see if I hear this Way of Being when people speak.
Conclusion
My coaching is to get clear if this is who you are for yourself. I don’t care what endeavor you are taking on. This is in my opinion, one of the keys to having a life that works as well as a business that works.
To grow you have to put yourself in new and uncomfortable situations. Everyday hopefully. Without this belief in yourself, or this way of being, it gets too uncomfortable, and we just stop putting ourselves in those uncomfortable situations.
Self-storage becomes something you almost did. You looked into it, but it didn’t really work.
So next time I get asked “What does it take to Be Successful in The Self Storage Business?”, hopefully, I won’t fumble around quite so much.
