Real Estate Investing: Why Your Business Is $h!t and Fu#k@d Up and Bull$h!t

I bet the “Occupy Wall Street” protestors are having fun.

The weather’s beautiful in NYC this time of year. There’s a Starbucks on every block. And did I mention the shopping?

I’ve been seeing a lot of news coverage about this and wanted to figure out for myself what this movement is all about, so I did some combing on the internet. Here’s one thing I found:

 

 

Is this what they’re protesting for?  Maybe.  But I believe the following guy is the only one in the Country that has figured out why thousands of people are hanging out in the park and smoking weed:

Many important changes have come about due to popular uprisings – suffrage – civil rights – American independence.  I have no problem with protests.  Yet, I find myself having an axe to grind with these Occupy folks.  Why?  Because unlike the other noble causes I’ve described, this movement lacks the most critical thing needed to make it a voice for change —

 

It lacks a clear vision.

Throngs of people are milling around and protesting against any number of generalized inequities in our system.  But what do they really want from us?  Without vision, I fear this protest will end in failure or, even worse, rock-throwing and looting.

So what does all of this have to do with real estate investing?

Real estate investing is a business and, if you want to be serious about your business, you must have a clear vision for where you want your business to go.  It must be as specific as possible, and it must cover a long time span.  Business visions should start at 1 year in the future and end 20 years or more down the road.

Much like goal-setting, there’s overwhelming evidence to suggest that business owners who put these visions on paper have a much greater likelihood of achieving greatness.  So if you want to be great, create a vision.  Here are some keys to setting a vision:

 

Pick a Time Frame and Work It:

In weather forecasting, it’s easier to predict tomorrow’s weather than it is to predict next week’s weather, so start with the easier stuff.  Suspend the belief that you are standing in your office today.  Instead, pretend you are standing in your office 12 months from now.  Answer the following questions:

What does your office look like?

How big is your company?

What are you famous for?

How do you measure your success? (Be specific)

Why does anyone care about you?

Why do people want to work for you? Buy from you?

What are your mission and goals?

What are your core values?

How do you feel about your company?

What are the 3 most important things you do?

What’s your role in the business?

How do you find prospects and clients?

What kind of people will work for you? (skills, attitudes)

What everyday tasks are done?

What do employees, clients, community, and peers say about you?

After you’ve done this, move on to 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years.  You don’t have to do them all at once, but make sure you take the time to do it.

 

Use BHAGs:

I believe this term was coined by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras in the book , Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.  It stands for “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” (this is a great book, by the way, and one which every business owner should read).  The further out in time you go, the more difficult it will be for you to be correct about your achievements or where your business may be.  That’s normal.  It’s okay to be wrong, just don’t be afraid to be bold, and don’t rule out anything, no matter how crazy it seems.  Only a very small percentage of your 20 year goals should be attainable.  The point of it is to give you a start to shoot at.  Consider this one by President Kennedy:

We will go to the moon by the end of the decade.

That was quite a BHAG and one, by the way, which we proudly achieved.

 

Use Quiet Time:

To be successful, you must not only work in your business.  You must also work on your business.  It’s impossible to create the bigger picture for your business when you’re fielding phone calls and handling day-to-day activities.  You and your key employees need to regularly schedule time away from your office to work at the 30,000 foot level.  At Hard Money Bankers, we take regular retreats to discuss our plans and visions.

 

Turn Your Ideas Into Strategies:

Visions are just the starting point – they’re the pretty pictures of what things will look like in the future.  But once you decide to go to the moon, you have to figure out how to make that happen.  You don’t just throw together a rocket.  It takes complex coordination of people and resources.  Implementation of strategies to meet a vision is where the proverbial rubber meets the road.  This is also why you need to include key personnel in the vision-creation process, as they will be integral to implementation.

 

Periodically Review:

Visions never die, they just change.  At least once a year you should schedule some time to reflect on your visions and your BHAGs and make any adjustments you feel may be necessary to get to that faraway place.

Create your visions, implement your strategies, and shoot for the moon!

 

Til’ next time, Jeff

 

P.S.  If you want to buy the book, get it here: