Like any business event, be it a meeting, planning session, or even buying your storage units, there are things that you need to take with you and planning that needs to be done if you want to be successful. For example, if you leave for the auction without thinking of how you are going to get your purchases home, or back to your place of business, you will have a problem.
The simplistic nature of the storage auction business might make you head out unprepared. Please don’t make that mistake. This is a simple, though not necessarily exhaustive list of the things you will need when you leave.
Cash
You will be required to pay for your purchases on the same day and in cash. Many storage units will sell for a few hundred dollars, some will sell for a few thousand dollars. It is important that you know prepare for one or the other or both eventualities.
Temporary Help
You don’t necessarily know what you will come home with. If you don’t bring help, you will be limited to smaller lockers. If this will be your first time, then you might just be okay with being limited to smaller lockers, but if you want to be a big player, you will need help.
This also goes back to our cash discussion. Unless you have made other arrangements, you will need to pay cash for the labor. It’s possible that you can get a close family member to help you in exchange for a nice dinner or a beverage or two. That’s great if you can get it, otherwise, you’ll need cash.
Transportation
This is probably the big one for most beginners. You’ll need a vehicle large enough to bring your stuff home or to your place of business. Unless you buy really small units, you’ll need a truck, trailer for your car or possibly even a rented moving van.
Do you know someone or possible have a relative who might already have a truck and be able to go into business with you? Or, you can go out and look to buy an inexpensive, dilapidated truck that just manages to take you from your storage auction to your place of business and back again. If you are using it just to haul goods from a storage bin, you don’t have to look professional, at least not in the beginning.
As you begin to build and develop your business, you will undoubtedly start to anticipate and cross these little hurdles more readily. These tips should give you a head start.