A Sample Rv Boat Storage Business Plan Template
1. Industry Overview
In recent times, the self-storage landscape in the U.S has experienced positive changes as many households store excess items in storage facilities. A sub-sector of the commercial real estate market, self-storage industry involves renting space or storage units to renters on a month-to-month basis.
Within the past 40 years, this industry has proven to be the one of the sectors with the most encouraging growth in the U.S commercial real estate industry. The unquantifiable growth of the industry has been attributed to self-storage consumers including renters, homeowners, students, businesses and transitional populations who are constantly demanding rental storage.
According to reports, self-storage units have been growing massively. For instance, in 2016 there were more than 58,000 self-storage facilities in the U.S with a total of 32 million storage units covering over 2.3 billion square feet of storage space. The total square miles of self-storage facilities in the U.S is almost three times the size of Manhattan.
Experts believe that as the U.S population increased their rental storage by more than 10 percent within the past 20 years, the self-storage industry also grossed over $30 billion in revenue.
Between 2015 and 2016, Mainland China increased its facilities by 52 percent and Brazil is developing 25 to 30 properties per year. In addition, the real estate investing market has been greatly expanded thanks to equity crowdfunding.
What Is A Feasibility Study
A feasibility study is done by an expert in the field, often involved in commercial property of their own. They study the market in your area within a specific timeframe, for example 15 months. Then they take all of the knowledge they already have about the habit patterns of owners of RVs, boats and trailers and see what they’re willing to pay for spaces that are currently in the market or need to be.
So, the first part of the feasibility study looked at Chris facility and his portion of that market. The second part examined how much is needed right now, even with COVID. It then combined his percentage of the market with the demand for spaces giving the number of units for his expansion. So, a feasibility study is what’s out there now, what’s needed and what your proportional take on it is, should you decide to expand.
Cost of Additional Spaces
Working with an engineer, Chris plans to add 105 spaces spread out in eight buildings which will cost him $1.7 million. That includes all the upfront costs, studies, and the engineering. The bank that financed the RV Storage facility originally with an SBA-guaranteed loan granted him another SBA-guaranteed loan that was 100% financed. So, after producing a feasibility study that showed that the expansion can fit the market, the bank agreed to pay for the entire expansion project.
Additional cashflow and Increased Value with Expansion
Additional cashflow: $283,000 a year.
NOI: $184,000 divide by an 8.5 cap rate
Opening A Boat And Rv Storage Business: What You Need To Know
The storage of boats and recreational vehicles can be a lucrative business. With cities nationwide passing ordinances banning RV and boat parking on residential streets and, in some areas, even a driveway. These laws make it clear that city officials want such large vehicles stored behind gates either in the backyard or a storage facility. To open a storage facility a person needs to have a plan and a list. There are various business houses which provides best tire storage services as tire manufactures required the place to store their branded tire to maintain it from outside environment.
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How To Start A Storage Facility
Storage And Warehousing Businesses For Sale

Showing 1 – 20 of 42 results
LISTING ID # 34864This established moving company offers local and long distance moving services. Local moving services are offered in Northern Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland areas. The company currently has 4 trucks in its fleet with low mileage and loyal full time and part time employees….
Successful 40 years plus old company provides transportation, bonded warehousing, storage, handling and inventory services. The ideally located facility has 24 bay doors with great proximity to New York and New Jersey airports, seaports and rail yards. Technology allows customers to track shipments…
Located just 90 minutes from New York City. They are selling two businesses and the real estate is included in the price. The real estate is valued at $1.8 Million. One business consists of 125+ storage spaces including indoor and outdoor storage, storage containers, and camper and boat storage with…
Unique opportunity in the storage and distribution industry. Business has had reoccurring contracts with international companies since 2002 with another 17 years of history before that. Current contract is for three buildings with one being owned. Owned building is available for an additional $5,000,000.
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Why The Boat And Rv Storage Is Being Started
Jack is starting RV storage business to capitalize in this gap in the market. His boat storage design is aimed at solving the most important problem people face and that is lack of secure locations for storing RVs and boats for long-term and short-term storage. He has a strong plan, and it will work out.
Management Of Boat And Rv Storage Business
When you are creating a business plan for a bank loan, the most important thing is to discuss the management of the business. The success of the venture and the chances for getting approval for the loan depends on this. Jack will hire 3 managers to run the business and will himself act as the CEO of the business, exercising supreme authority in all aspects. This will run the Boat and RV storage building plans smoothly and without any issues.
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How The Boat And Rv Storage Business Will Be Started
Step1: Planning the Feasibility
The first thing that needs to be done to start this RV storage franchise is to conduct a survey of the market and make a feasibility for the business. Jack did that and has come to the conclusion that the business can, indeed, be feasible. This is because there are thousands of RVs in the area and not even one dependable parking and storage facility for them.
Step2: Making a Name
As RVs are quite expensive, people need to have a name that they can trust if they want to store them. For that reason, the next step in starting the business will be to establish a name for the business. Jack will get the business registered and insured to make sure people can rely on them.
Step3: Establishing the Business
Once the business has a name, the next thing to do would be to actually establish the physical presence of the business. This will be done by buying or leasing a large plot of land and building a fence around it. The land will be acquired just out of the city so that it is cheap to buy but still easily reachable for the customers.
Step4: Going Online
As people look for everything on the internet, Jack RV Storage has to have an online presence. For that, a website will be setup where people can come and explore the business. It will provide complete information about what services the business offers and what is the pricing structure.
Step5: Promotion and Marketing
Writing A Business Plan
Every business should have a business plan. Simply put, a business plan can help propel a business toward success, letting you realize your goals and manage issues that might arise. Most lenders will want to see a business plan before extending a loan.
Lots of online templates are available for writing a business plan, so you certainly can try tackling it on your own. You also can seek assistance from a nonprofit like SCORE, which offers free business mentoring, or you can hire a writer who specializes in business plans.
Keep in mind that a business plan for an existing self-storage facility will look quite different from a business plan for a proposed facility.
Each business plan should be tailored to your own needs, but a business plan for a self-storage facility usually will feature information such as:
- Mission statement.
- Competitive analysis.
- Pricing strategy. Roughly speaking, monthly rents for a self-storage facility in a high-population area can be anywhere from 50 cents to $4 per square foot.
- Menu of product and service offerings, including a rundown of the unit sizes, like 5×5, 10×10 and 10×20.
- Revenue streams.
- Revenue and expense projections covering several years. Financial modeling will enable estimates of revenue and expenses on a per-square-foot basis.
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Should You Build A Self
This should come as no surprise, but location also plays a big part in the cost of building a new facility. You might be able to put up a single-story, 40,000-square-foot self-storage development in a small town for $1 million or less, whereas a two-story, 80,000-square-foot facility in a more urban setting could set you back $6 million. Keep in mind that these are rough estimates.
As a rule of thumb, you can expect to spend anywhere from $25 to $75 per square foot on new construction. However, thats merely an approximate range. Again, the location of the facility including the cost of the land will dictate the price tag for construction.
Here are some statistics to keep in mind if youre developing a self-storage facility:
- Facilities range from 10,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet or more.
- The average self-storage facility encompasses 46,000 net rentable square feet .
- A facility typically covers 2.5 to 5 acres.
What follows are six things to take into account when youre building storage units:
Aside from what the facility will look like, another key factor is zoning and entitlement.
All of that being said, keep two things in mind:
Summary Of Chriss Rv Storage Deal
Growing a Family Business: Increasing in Wealth and Cashflow
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How Much Will It Cost To Start A Self
Before scouting locations for a self-storage facility no matter whether youre looking at buying an existing facility or building a new one youll need to crunch some numbers.
At the outset, youll need a good sense of how much itll cost to get into the self-storage business. The numbers will vary widely based on a variety of factors, such as location, acquisition costs, land costs and facility construction costs.
Not only must you think about the costs to purchase or develop a facility, but you also must examine where the money will come from:
- Do you have enough liquid assets to buy or develop a self-storage facility on your own? Can you afford to earmark those assets for a self-storage facility?
- Do you need to take out and acquisition or construction loan?
- Do you need to recruit self-storage investors to help finance an acquisition or development deal?
After youve come up with answers to those questions, youll need to figure out how much itll cost to operate the facility once its yours. Are you and your family going to run it on your own? Will you have to hire staff to operate it? Would it be best to leave the operations side to a third-party management company? Do you need to install self-storage management software such as SiteLink? In the end, how much time do you want to spend running a self-storage facility?
Remember, a self-storage facility is more than a structure. Its a business.
When Youre About To Store Your Boat

If youre planning to store your boat in a self-storage facility, here are some important to-dos to keep in mind when you get there:
- If you dont already have a boat cover over your boat at this point, cover it up to protect it during storage from dirt, dust and sunlight
- Close any openings like doors and windows
- Dont forget to visit the facility to check on your boat periodically for the storage duration
- For additional security, you can install locks on the engine and wheels
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Should You Buy An Existing Self
In terms of buying an existing facility, prices are all over the map, just as the self-storage facilities themselves are. As you might expect, an existing self-storage facility in New York City, NY, likely will go for tens of millions of dollars, whereas an existing facility in rural Iowa likely can be purchased for less than $1 million.
A spot analysis of storage facilities for sale in March 2019 found that asking prices generally ranged from $1 million to $10 million per facility. Some facilities on the market also were bundled for sale as a single portfolio.
Unless youre a licensed real estate professional, its wise to hire an experienced self-storage broker to help you find and eventually buy a facility. A seasoned broker knows the market and knows how to negotiate the price.
If youre going to be running the facility, you, of course, will want to buy a facility in the region where you live. But if youll be handing over operations to a third-party management company, then it doesnt necessarily matter where the facility is. Just be sure you and your broker have a good grasp of the local market.
What Kind Of Research And Planning Do You Need To Do Before Starting A Self
Once youve done some high-level thinking about starting a self-storage business, its time to do some research. All of that research will go into a feasibility study that will, as its name suggests, tell you whether the business idea is feasible. You might be able to do this study on your own, but youd be better off hiring a self-storage consultant to perform it.
Whichever route you go, you need to answer a critical question:
If I build it or buy it, will they come?
In other words: if you invest money in a self-storage facility, will you generate enough revenue to cover debt service and operating expenses, and still make a profit?
Performing market research is crucial. This exercise will help you pinpoint the demographics of the customer base within a one- to five-mile radius of the facility. A three- to five-mile area is the typical size of a market for a self-storage facility.
Youll want to nail down the median income in the market area , along with the median age .
In addition, youll want to review the following aspects of your proposed market area:
- Current population .
- Projected population growth .
- Daily vehicle traffic .
- Competitive landscape. Which self-storage facilities already are operating in the area? What is their occupancy rate? Are there any facilities that are under construction or are planned within the trade area?
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