Mike Hambright is a real estate investor, mentor and coach, and is the Founder of FlipNerd.com and the Investor Fuel Mastermind.
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Take a moment and look back at your first job. For most of us, it was minimum wage or close to minimum wage, and we worked our butts off and were proud of the paycheck we brought home. Over time, as we gained experience and skills, our value increased and our time was worth more.
As real estate investors, it’s not uncommon for us to start out by doing everything in the business. We do the marketing, the appointments, the follow up, the administrative work and much much more. We do it because it’s a necessity as we’re getting started.
Let’s try an exercise: Take a sheet of paper and jot down every task you can think of that you can do.
Now, put an hourly rate on each of those tasks. Some tasks are probably a $10-per-hour jobs, while others are bringing in thousands and thousands of dollars to your business.
As you transition from solopreneur to a true business owner with a team, you need to consider what jobs you’re performing and if you’re using your time for the high-value tasks that really move the needle for your business.
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When you start hiring, it’s important to consider hiring for jobs that you can afford to pay, that handle tasks you don’t enjoy and that pull you away from more high-value tasks. This might be an assistant job to start out with that’s part-time and then leads to a full-time position with opportunities for advancement within the company.
Many real estate investors find it hard to pull away from the acquisitions role because they enjoy the work and it’s a critical piece of the pie. A bad acquisitions manager can cost you tens of thousands of dollars if they don’t buy right and don’t build rapport with sellers. But once you break through that barrier and hire a few acquisitions managers and train them to buy within your criteria and your core values, you’ll be able to really scale up your business and make it a machine because you aren’t stuck in the day-to-day roles as much.
Now ask yourself what your time is truly worth. Look at your day and work on removing distractions that aren’t worth your time. It’s easy for us to get sucked into menial tasks during the workday. Not that I need to mention it, but reducing the amount of time we spend on social media is beneficial here too.
Over time, tweaking your schedule to focus on the high-value tasks will clear your day of “time-sucks” that are hindering your and your business’s true potential. It takes discipline and a great team that has the same core values as you to make this work.
You’ll notice the impact of your small steps if you do it correctly. Once your sole focus is working “on” the business instead of working “in” the business, you’ll be able to fine-tune your team’s processes and scale much easier.
Remember why you got into the real estate business. I’m willing to bet it wasn’t so you could work 80 hours a week and never get to live.
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