If you live in Florida, you are bound to be surrounded by RVs and boats, especially in the winter months when all the winter birds flock the West-Atlantic coast to soak up the precious sunshine. Hence, when they are leaving town or even in general (with Florida being a coastal town), many people find it difficult to park or dock these vehicles. Hence, it makes sense in starting your own boat or RV storage in Stuart, Fl. Not only is this business a great revenue stream due to the volume and price of the vehicles, but also a year-on-year growing business. One of the main reasons why this business is popular is because people who come to coastal towns during winter months want to save on housing costs and therefore invest in RVs or boats as a long term plan to make travel and stay cheaper. RVs can still be driven to different locations for parking, but boats are usually requiring permits to be docked on a certain location. Apart from this, many communities also discourage street parking of RVs and boat trailers, making it even more difficult for RV or boat owners to leave them parked at public locations.

What customers want

Apart from the basic requirement of security and wall fencing, most people looking for a storage spot for their RV or boat, need it to be near the coast. People also look for places that have plenty of space to move their vehicles around safely to minimize accidental risk. Any person who would want to run an RV and boat storage business needs to find a location that can satisfy these basic customer needs. But this is just the starting, there are several other factors to be kept in mind while building an RV and boat storage business. Let’s take a look.

Creating a business plan

To grow your business, you need to create a business plan that encapsulates factors like an investment, profit margins, time-based productivity, expenditure, etc. to measure how good or bad your business is performing.

Securing financing

One of the main reasons for creating a strong business plan is to secure financing for your business. Securing financing is a big challenge. It often faces road blocks due to an unplanned business approach to secure a piece of land that may be questioned for the safety of vehicles and the residents in the neighborhood. Since, the base commodity in this business is land, it is important to research the activities in the area.

Complying with the Law

Before any purchases or investments, analyze local laws, land paperwork, jurisdiction, building codes and zoning restrictions. Make sure that your type of business is permissible on the property to avoid potential legal problems. This becomes even more imperative if you plan to construct covered storage.

Get insurance

You must get insurance to cover your customers’ property. You should establish a strong communication channel with a suitable insurance broker that handles specialty insurance for storage facilities. Make sure that casualties like theft, fire, wind damage etc. are covered. Insurance costs should be factored into the price of monthly or yearly storage fees and explained to the customer accordingly.

Pricing

Plan as many facilities in your location that people might need to make their stay in their vehicles easier and comfortable. This can start from the availability of packaged drinking water to bath and toilet access. Then compare the same with some of your competitors to understand which services can be let go off and come up with competitive pricing that validates your ask.

Draft a Contract

Though most RV and boat owners will prefer a month-on-month payment program a year-end payment will secure your payment and insurance coverage upfront. Make sure all important regulations along with damage claim-related information is documented in your contract along with the pricing.

Implement Security Measures

Secure your property with modern camera surveillance which is a basic ask from the customers these days. You would also have to add shift based security service for your property. This is best handled by professional security providers.