Month: November 2021

Here we are in the final thirty something days of the year. Well over 300 days down and we’ve all invested a massive amount of energy and dedication to put ourselves in the position we are now in, and we want to finish strong. You do want to finish the year strong don’t you?

Wherever you stand with your property goals, what can you do to make sure you have that final big sprint to finish the year strong and go into 2022 with confidence and momentum?

A few years ago I shared the true story of a runner who was able to consistently lead the field but who always lost in the final stretch of the race. His coach, who had observed and analysed the runner’s race habits and results, pinpointed the problem – in the final stretch he was always looking over his shoulder at the competition and in those moments would be overtaken.

The coach’s advice, which proved successful, was to ‘fixate on breaking the tape’ and ‘don’t look over your shoulder. You can’t be afraid when you are out in front and alone. When you look over your shoulder you switch focus from the positive goal of winning to the possibility of someone overtaking you.’

This same thinking is what we all need to apply to our respective business situations in the final weeks of the year, if we want to finish with a winning feeling. In other words, to really focus on our goals and protect ourselves from distractions.

So if you want to finish 2021 strong, focus on breaking the tape and don’t let temptations of taking the foot off the pedal distract you.

Here are 5 STEPS TO MAXIMISE THE END OF THE YEAR:

(I got these 5 steps from a Peter Voogd podcast)

Step #1 AWARENESS

*Have full awareness of what you’re doing and how you’re operating in the final stretch of the year.

*Do the opposite of others i.e. at this time of year, most people are starting to eat unhealthy, drink more, take the foot of the work pedal but if we want to differentiate ourselves we have to do the opposite – step up the exercise, keep the diet in check, plan effectively, don’t sell yourself short.

STEP #2- STACK UP MOTIVATION WITH WHYS

*Figure out WHY you want to have an amazing end to the year AND build MASSIVE MOMENTUM going into 2022, and write the reasons down.

*Look at these reasons regularly and use them to push you through while others are easing off.

STEP #3- WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING AND PRIORITISE

*Best way to get rid of the overwhelm and fuzzy thinking is to write everything down. Get it out of your head and onto paper.

*What GETS SCHEDULED GETS DONE

*Write out clear expectations for your business for the end of the year and clear tasks for each person, whether it’s just you or if you have a team – it’s about working more strategically and intentionally rather than doing loads of hours so we can all be more present with our family when we choose to be.

STEP #4- CELEBRATE WEEKLY PROGRESS

*Celebrate weekly progress rather than focusing on perfection or living in ‘the gap’ i.e. focus on what completed or how far you’ve come in the last year, be grateful for what you got done rather than living in the gap of where you think you should be”.

*This next bit of advice is gold, and my favourite quote of the podcast – “You are exactly where you need to be, to learn exactly what you need to learn, to get the lessons that you need to get to build an amazing future”. Don’t beat yourself up, bet on yourself.

STEP #5- WHAT IS YOUR GAME CHANGING HOLIDAY ROUTINE

*The ritual you create to solidify getting back in the zone.

*It’s hard to build momentum when you take breaks, but at this time of year you need to, and when you do you’ll want to be fully present. So to allow yourself to be fully present during down time, maximise what you do leading up to the break. You’ll then feel amazing taking time off with your family.

*In advance of taking your time off, think about and write down a ritual to get you back in the zone. For example, I like to bullet point my ‘pick up points’ before I break for a holiday i.e. a simple instruction so I know exactly what to do first having disconnected for a week. 

What are you doing to keep your focus on breaking the tape and finishing the year strong?

As time goes by I recognise more and more how ideas and experience from other industries and businesses can be lifted and applied to property. What about you, do you see that too?

As a quick example here are 6 ideas, by no means an exhaustive list, that I’ve taken from other areas of life/career and applied to property with great effect:

#1: PRE-SELLING AND STARTING WITH DEMAND

This first point is a biggy and has been the single most important idea I’ve applied to property. It’s been game changing for us and has completely re-shaped our entire investment philosophy. 

I used to start by finding a property based on its location or relative price compared to nearby property, the end users of that property were generally an afterthought, or evenleft to hope. However following a painful experience in Serviced Accommodation we promised ourselves that we would never rely on guesswork again. 

Thanks to a couple of American software entrepreneurs, I learned about the concept of starting a business by finding the demand first and then pre-selling the solution. This is exactly how we built our SA business the second time round, and what I’ve written about in my book “Predictable Property Profits: 4 Simple Steps To Remove Guesswork And Get More Certainty In Your Property Deals”.

#2: ACCOUNTABILITY

Going back to that same era when I met those software entrepreneurs, I also met a business coach/psychologist who taught me about the powerful social phenomenon that is accountability done right. He taught me about a constant weekly cycle of deciding 3 proactive tasks to hold myself accountable to with a suitable partner/coach. I initially used this practice to start a software business but later applied it to starting a property business. Having a regular and structured accountability cycle has been at the foundation of my habits for building out our property businesses, and it has shaped the way I mentor and coach others to help them draw the best out of themselves. 

#3: PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Ever since being introduced to books like Think And Grow Rich through my student summer work, I’ve been reading books of that ilk. I’ve heard it said by Tony Robbins that our success in anything is about 80% psychology and 20% tactics. When it comes to starting and growing a property related business, that most definitely holds true, I might even say it’s more like 90% psychology and 10% tactics. By understanding this, my ongoing commitment to personal growth through books, courses, podcasts etc has been a huge contributory factor in starting and growing our property businesses. Most reading this will know that personal development and property go hand in hand, and the sooner you get to work on the mindset aspects the more success you will experience in your property businesses.

#4: RECRUITING

I had a career in recruitment and executive search for almost 8 years before leaving for the world of entrepreneurship. I’ve drawn on skills and practices from that career and brought them into property more times than I can remember. Like property, recruitment is a people business, everything is about communication and managing a process from start to finish. Whether that be a process for finding and selecting power team members, JV partners or actual team members, it’s very similar. This year alone I’ve drawn on those former skills to recruit 7 new team members into our business (5 virtual and 2 local).

#5: VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS (VA’s)

Following on from the point about recruiting, I first learned about recruiting a Virtual Assistant in 2013 from those same software entrepreneurs mentioned in point 1. Back then it was to help with market research for my software startup. I would later apply the same approach to recruit and manage VA’s to help in our property business to help us with sourcing, research and bookkeeping. In fact it was one of our VA’s who found the guest house that we bought in 2018. If you don’t already have a VA, make that one of your actions, not only will you get more done but it will keep you ACCOUNTABLE to focus on higher value tasks and delegate the lower value tasks.

#6: VALUES

Whilst closely related to point 3 on personal development I chose to single out values as a separate point, purely because of the huge impact it has had on our property businesses. Having read ‘The Values Factor’ several times, and invested in a weekend course with the author, Dr John Demartini in 2016, values have sat front and centre of our property business. 

Understanding our highest values has been and will be like a North Star to us. It’s given us clarity on why we do what we do (in life and in property), and that’s helped us tap into the fuel source required to get started and keep going in property. Understanding our values also provides us with a filter through which decisions can be made, goals can be created and strategy crafted. Values steer what we do in property and how we do it. 

IN CONCLUSION

So what’s the point of all this? Well, I hope it serves to show that no matter what career and life experiences you’ve had to date, there will be things unique to you, certain competitive advantages, that you can lift and apply for the benefit of your property business. That’s part of the fun of this journey, like what Jim Rohn would say, “See what all you can do with all that you have”.

So, what do you have that can help you in your property business? I’d love to hear, and who knows, by you sharing it may inspire others to apply something similar into their property business. 

Please hit reply and share what you’ve borrowed from elsewhere and applied to your property business. 😊

Back in 2019 I first started to familiarise myself with the Local Development Plan for the area I live and invest in. It’s not for the faint hearted, we’re talking 200 plus pages! Having wrapped my head round it initially, it was then filed neatly away and not reviewed much since.

One of the things I love about masterminds is that often it’s not new information you need but rather being reminded of something you already know that you will now do/do again. 

This week’s mastermind conversations reminded me of the importance of being familiar with the local development plan and to select property opportunities that are congruent with what the local plan wants to achieve. 

In whatever part of the UK you invest, the local authority will have prepared and published a vast amount of research that will significantly help inform your property investment decisions. Reading through your Local Development Plan (LDP) and speaking to the Housing Department of the Local Authority is a great place to start.

This little post will help explain what the LDP is, what you can expect to learn from it and importantly, where you can get your hands on it.

WHAT IS IT?

Planning authorities are required to prepare a Development Plan to set out a planning strategy and policies to guide the future development of their area. The Development Plan explains where new developments such as housing, business and retail are likely to be supported and where certain types of development should not occur. It provides a framework against which development proposals can be prepared and assessed.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT TO LEARN

Here are some key areas of insight you can expect:

*The spatial strategy element of the LDP sets out key locations for growth – this will highlight where the majority of new development will be in the county and reflect the geography of opportunities for the location of new housing.

*These plans will point out the areas of housing construction, and with that comes potentially new schools, employment opportunities, community centres and renewable energy projects, as well as infrastructure and associated works.

*The Local Housing Strategy will highlight housing unit requirements per annum and the reasons why.

Population / Household Change – Referring to National Records of Scotland or The Office for National Statistics will provide population projections in your area along with household growth, which will either provide comfort or otherwise in regards investing in that area.

*Economic Development / Tourism – A member of the Economic development team will hold a calendar of all your regions events and key contacts, which should enable you to effectively target potential guests in respect of the tourist market.

*Health and Social Care – this part of the plan brings some understanding of the projected demands for healthcare with existing services will highlight projects like community hospitals and possible care villages.

WHY IT’S ALL RELEVANT TO YOU

*If you are choosing the strategy of single let or HMO’s you will want to better understand the population growth patterns, potential reasons for demand and the most suitable areas based on this.

*If you are developing apartments or houses to sell, you will want to understand the areas where such developments are required and where planning policy will encourage it rather than hinder it.

*If you are operating Serviced Accommodation, you will want to understand the Tourism trends in the region and other potential reasons for a sustainable demand in short stay accommodation (ie what development is bringing contractors to the area?)

*If you are planning to invest in commercial or mixed use property, you will want to understand the plans for each respective High St or industrial area in your region. You will want to understand what mix of commercial use class the Councils want to encourage or minimise and how they want to make their town centres viable.

A bit of upfront reading and understanding of your local area could have massive benefits to your investing.

WHERE TO FIND THE LDP?

If you simply google ‘Local Development Plan’ along with the name of your local Authority area, you’ll be able to find the page of your Council’s website where these documents are published.

As a final note, I’m sure being in touch with all the above is similarly of interest to you as a resident in your local area.

For a bit of fun, and accountability, why not reply with a quick post once you’ve located and downloaded the LDP relevant to your investment area?