Getting Out of Your Business

[Janos Sztojka]

Getting Out of Your Business

How to Work ON It not IN it

I think that most small business owners, especially real estate investors, have a real hard time with this. I am no exception. Learning how to work on your business and actually staying consistent doing it is a constant challenge. Of course the idea here is scalability. Specifically real estate investors can scale up if they have the correct systems and procedures in place. Maybe you can manage more rental property or do a larger number of fix and flips.

This, of course, is a process but there are three keys to make this work:

1. Daily log

2. Delegation

3. Control Calendar

Daily log

The first step you need to do is to actually know what it is you do. This sounds funny, but you won't be laughing if you actually do the exercise. You need to do this for at least three days, but I highly recommend a full week. Pick a week that is pretty typical for the best results.

Track your time per 10 or 15 minute blocks. Every 10 minutes write down what you did for the last 10 minutes. This will surely take some time out of your day but it will save you 10 times the time it took when you are done. After the week, look back at your activities and break them down. Here are some questions you want ask, and be truthful with yourself:

1. What activities am I doing that is making me money now?

2. What am I doing that will make me money later? (like prospecting)

3. What am I doing that is not making me money or will not make me money? (my guess is a large part of your day is spent here)

4. What should be outsourced? (see below)

5. Finally, are there things you should be doing and are not? (like working ON your business)

The activities that make you money now and will in the short term are obviously very important,
but I want to point out that these are the activities that I would normally consider working in your business. Without these, your business fails; but it is important to point out that it is also very important to work on tasks that grow your business. These tasks are the ones that might not help you right away; which is why they often get set aside. An example of this might be a system to wholesale properties or a written system to qualify tenants.