The title of this post poses an important question but one that is often overlooked by many investors, my past self included.
What I’m referring to here is a big challenge that comes up regularly round the monthly mastermind tables – and that challenge is figuring out where to start ie what strategy and what location. When someone begins to invest in their property education it’s very common to become overwhelmed with the choice of property strategies, because they are all great. And by wanting to do everything it can very quickly lead to getting results in nothing. Can you relate? 😊
That’s why I thought it would be helpful to share some examples and strategic questions that can help you pinpoint a strategy to focus on and get started with. And more than that, I truly believe that of all the property strategies there will be one that aligns most closely with who you are and the type of investor you want to be. I also believe that typically everyone has some kind of unique competitive advantage, although they may not see it initially, once identified it will allow them to get going a little bit faster and with a bit more ease than the next person.
In my own case when Chris and I first joined forces and went through a number of courses in 2016, we tried to do about 4 different strategies all at once. For 3 months we were busy idiots scratching the surface with multiple things but not producing meaningful results with any of them.
When we did decide to focus on one thing (that being R2R serviced accommodation) results came pretty quickly. They were short lived however as our first outing in SA was not a success – but that’s not what this post is about, back to finding a unique competitive advantage.
When I look to help early stage investors identify where their unique advantage may lie we typically start by looking at what they know (ie career to date) and who they know (people in your network) to see what comes up.
In my case it was digging up the ‘what I know’ that led to reminding myself of a timeless entrepreneurial business principle I was taught by some mentors 2 years previous. By applying this principle of finding the demand first to our R2R SA strategy it completely changed the game for us. [If you want to read about that in detail I cover it all in my book Predictable Property Profits 😊].
SOME EXAMPLES FROM OTHERS
What I always find fascinating is to see what unique competitive advantages pop up for people when we go through a series of questions and answers.
We’ve had people:
*identifying potential sources of SA demand within their existing network
*uncovering people in their network to JV with in some way
*realising they can combine what they already know with a certain property strategy and get started with more focus and confidence than previously expected
*realising they can use what they know from their career to pinpoint investment areas
…..the list goes on.
What I’m getting at here is that I firmly believe all adults can find a little something that can help them along their property journey purely based on who they are and what they’ve done.
To explore this for yourself, think about what you already know from your life journey so far and how you could apply that to one of the property strategies you are aware of.
Alongside that, think about who’s in your network who could be a potential end user of a property strategy or someone who could help you in some way. Think back through all your networks – school, university, different jobs, sports groups etc.
Property is a people business and when you see the various property strategies as ways to solve problems or help people fulfil a desire then it can really help bring clarity.
QUESTIONS FOR FINDING ALIGNMENT WITH PROPERTY APPROACH & STRATEGY
Going back to the point I made earlier about wanting to do all the strategies, one of the ways I’ve found to help arrive at a decision is to first get clarity on what kind of property business owner you want to be. That can help narrow the focus and rule out certain approaches and some of the strategies. Here are some example questions:
*How do you want to be involved in your property business?
*What kind of tasks and activities do you want to be doing in your property business?
*What kind of tasks and activities do you NOT want to be doing in your property business?
*What kind of property people do you want to be engaging with regularly? Eg residential agents or commercial agents or homeowners or business owners? (you get the idea)
IN CONCLUSION
Thinking through the answers to questions like the ones above can lead you to that focused starting point we all need or the next strategy to focus on for growth.
I’d love to hear if going through these questions for strategy alignment and identifying a potential competitive advantage brings a few lightbulb moments. 😁