by Marc Goodin, an excerpt from his book: Self Storage Is It Your Vehicle to Wealth
Chapter 2
Are You Ready to Own Your Business? Self-Storage?
By Judith Abraham
When I first got into business school, the 1st thing I wanted to learn was what does it take to start your own business and why does every professor talk about real estate and franchising like they are the Golden Ticket to wealth. So as a college student I was just pleased to be studying and learning more about the business world while I was employed and had a good-paying job.
My only financial concern at the time was paying off college to avoid debt and gaining as much experience as I can in order to get a better job after graduation.
But I knew there was more to being wealthy than just having a 9 to 5 job.
Reading this Book, I got so many interesting insights on how to combine real estate and franchise in the same money-making investment we all dream of having no matter what our background profession is.
The first question you must ask yourself is, are you truly ready to own your own
business? Only 1-3 percent of the population are willing to put in the work and have the
mindset to own their own business.
There are a lot of good reasons to own your own business:
Be own boss
Flexible schedule
Make more money
Early retirement opportunity
Lifestyle opportunity
Retirement nest egg when business is sold or refinanced.
Sure, it is easy to say yes to the above. But it is not always to do the work and make
the investment. Owning your own business may not be for you if:
Just not in your DNA for any reason.
Don’t want to be in charge.
Don’t want to invest time & money.
Don’t want to make every decision.
Want all your nights and weekends free
Are not willing to take a risk.
Might give up at the first, second, third……. or the hundredth roadblock in your way.
Your first step is to decide if you are willing to spend your limited time building a
business. If you’re not sure by the time you finish reading this book the answer is no.
If business ownership is for you your next step is to decide what type of business. One
common business is a professional service business like engineering, IT profession,
doctor, nurse, etc. These businesses may pay well but, in the end, like I was, you are
still trading dollars for hours. And unfortunately, as the owner, you are going to spend
more time on paperwork and staff related items than on the profession. I know this from
experience as a civil engineer and owner of an engineering and surveying company for
many years.
A second option and often the best business option is a real estate business. Real
estate makes more millionaires than any other business for several reasons, but the key
three reasons are:
Depreciation – You don’t have to pay tax on all the money you make.
Appreciation – It is inflation-proof because the value goes up with time. And you
increase occupancy at higher rental rates to beat inflation as well.
Amortization – You do not have to come up with most of the money and can pay it back
over many years so you can make higher profits than other businesses.
Self-storage is one of the best real estate businesses for many reasons including:
● You can build a 6-figure income while you continue your career
● You can build a significant retirement nest egg
● Be your own boss – flexible work schedule
● Self-Storage can be a lifestyle business (own one facility) or a growth business
opportunity (own multiple facilities)
● Loan friendly – due to one of the lowest real estate business loan failure rates.
● Recession resistance. During Covid, most self-storage saw was dramatic
increase in rentals and rental rates.
● Opportunities like franchising and management companies are available were
you can lean on their systems & experience and significantly reduce your time.
● Many self-storages are run like a real estate investment and not a business. By
incorporating a “Ritz style” over the top, remarkable customer service and a sales
and marketing plan you can make significantly more than many existing self-storage facilities.
● By developing from the ground up you can invest significantly less and make
significantly more than buying an existing facility.
● Self-storage is a 39 billion Dollar business and growing by over a billion dollars a
year.
● Self-storage rental rates and occupancy are at all-time highs.
● Self Storage is SBA approved which means you only need 15% cash down and
can borrow the soft and carrying costs.
Self-Storage Cons:
● Most self-storages are not premium facilities because the owner does not have
the experience nor the 30-plus hours a week to develop the experience,
manuals, training systems, and platforms a premium facility requires, on them
own.
● A 15% down $10,000,000 SBA loan will require a $1,000,000 cash investment on
your part (Con: a lot of money, Pro: just 15% cash down)
● Expensive to buy an existing facility, so they provide lower returns.
● New development takes time to find land, design, and obtain approvals, build,
and rent up.
● Development has many minefields, and you will need experts to guide you
through the development process
For a free copy of Marc's book, "Your Self Storage Planning - Site Selection - Design-Build"
Email me at judith@storageauthority.com
If you would like to learn more and start your journey to self-storage ownership, click the link here: http://www.storageauthorityfranchise.com/opportunity2
Judith Abraham is the Development Director at Storage Authority. One of her passions and responsibilities is managing the development process and finding land by sharing and assisting investors on how to find land both online and offline. Judith has a strong background in project management and commercial construction. She is available at judith@storageauthority.com
or 405-802-8452 to answer your questions and share the Storage Authority Franchise opportunity.