The first business I ran (together with my brother in the 90’s) was in an industry that was exploding with popularity at the time. We were at the crest of a pretty powerful and exciting wave, I was working long hours, six or seven days a week, I barely ate (because I didn’t have time), and was mostly functioning on pure adrenaline. We had built a decent sized workforce and the business was successful, however, rather than riding high on the wave’s crest, I mostly felt like I was tumbling in the currents below.
My brother saw that I was struggling with the workload, and eventually sent me on a Time Management course in the hopes I would learn some tips that would help me cope. The day of the course however, my brother arrived at the office to see me rushing around doing my work as usual. When he probed into why I wasn’t at the course, my reply was – you guessed it – I didn’t have the time! It took a while to live that one down.
Looking back, I can clearly see two main reasons why I struggled so much –
1) Despite having built and trained the workforce, they remained largely dependant on me for guidance
and
2) I believed no-one could keep the business records as tidy and organised as I could.
Worded differently, I failed to empower my staff and I failed to delegate the simple but time consuming tasks. My reluctance to let go of control ensured I stayed well and truly swamped with work.
Fast forward twenty years from my wave riding experience – technological advancements, the sharing economy and the global workforce have shaped a very different workplace dynamic. Automation eliminates the need for much human labour. Work can be outsourced to self-employed people working from their own homes so we no longer need to pay salaries and pensions, or need offices, and we can hire people by the week, hour, or even by the minute. We no longer need a high street presence as our shop fronts are all on the internet. And the staff that we do need don’t even have to live in the same country as us anymore.
This is an ideal environment for landlords to really maximise their growth from an early stage, or to simply offload the time-consuming jobs they are rubbish at, with just a few systems and minimal outlay.
So as a landlord overwhelmed with admin, or looking to grow his or her property business – where, and when do we actually begin?
The question of when to hire your first assistant can often be a step that’s met with much procrastination. We worry that hiring help too early might reduce the amount of money that can be invested back into the growth of the portfolio or put into our own pocket. But leaving it too late, the business operations will end up in a state of chaos. The reality is, to enable yourself to focus on higher income-generating activities, you need first to free up your time by delegating out the lower (£) value tasks. Hiring staff IS investing in the growth of your business.
Start with a Virtual Assistant
“Hiring a Virtual Assistant isn’t just for the freedom-loving, jet-setting, laptop-lifestyle entrepreneurs – it’s a sensible solution for anyone upscaling their life”.
You can hire an assistant for ad-hoc tasks whenever you need some extra help, or for just a couple of hours a week, if that’s all you have to offer right now. As the portfolio and business grows, so will the number of hours that you need them to work, so when you find someone you are happy to work with long-term, it’s great to discuss your vision for the future with them and where they will fit into that picture.
As for where to begin, well, I’m sure you already know that all success begins with our mindset, and my previous experience certainly taught me a typical mindset issue many business owners need to overcome – letting go of the need to control everything.
Let go
Most business owners unintentionally create the situation where they are irreplaceable, but in order to scale, grow, increase your value and pursue your vision, you need to replace yourself – ie; you need to replace the ‘you’ that is wasting time organising files and being on the front line at the business. Once you can accept this, finding a suitable replacement is easy.
When hiring my first Virtual Assistant for the property business, I knew there would be someone out there who absolutely loved organising, and who would do a much better job than I ever did (even though I was pretty good at it). This was the person I was looking for. This was also a good sign that I was now prepared to let go.
Strangely, letting go of control of the small things actually enabled me to have greater control of the business overall.
Create a “To delegate” list
Deciding which tasks to delegate shouldn’t be difficult. The obvious starting point is any admin based task (rather than tasks requiring a presence on the ground).
Be honest with yourself and select those tasks that you are rubbish at, those that are time-consuming, or simply the jobs you hate.
This could be creating lettings adverts and responding to enquiries, research, data entry, creating databases, social media management, arranging and managing repairs and maintenance, customer (tenant) service, tenant referencing, move-in and move-out admin, contacting agents and basic deal qualifying, arranging mail shots, mailing list management and numerous other admin based tasks depending on the breadth of your workload.
Educate
Then, each activity on the “To Delegate” list, will need breaking down into step-by-step instructions. This absolutely needs to be done before you hire anyone. You can make notes as you carry out the activity yourself, or, if thinking and writing in detail is not your thing, you could even try recording or filming yourself. The better your instructions are, the better the work your VA will produce, so try to be as clear as possible.
You need to remember that your new employee is not likely to have had the experience of managing properties (I might even suggest to stay away from those with traditional property lettings or management experience – and instead work with someone who is a clean slate), so allow them a reasonable amount of time for learning and mistake making.
Empower
The last step was to ensure my VA was empowered to make decisions on my behalf, liberating me from their dependancy, and giving me the time to focus on the activities I truly wanted to put my energy into.
You do this by gradually sharing your decision making processes with your VA, and instead of telling them directly how to handle a situation, allow them to make the decision on how to handle it themselves. If they make a mistake, share what you would have done differently and why, and explain the signals you received that helped you to form your conclusion. You’ll be surprised by the amount of decisions you can teach. I realised I was able to impart some of my gut-feel people-screening skills to my VA, something that I believed to be innate and unteachable, so open your mind, share your wisdom, empower your VA and free yourself!
If you are serious about freeing yourself from the day to day of running your property portfolio, it’s inevitable that at some point you will need to hire a team to help you. So why not take some baby steps first – take advantage of the wonderful conditions we live in today (the Global workforce), and employ a Virtual Assistant to help you.