business systems Archives - RE Mentor Blog

We all get so wrapped up in the thrill of real estate investing (once you start buying, selling and cashing those big checks you will know what I’m talking about), that it begins to become all-encompassing. We have cell phones, so we don’t miss a call. When the phone rings at our home office we go running like a bat out of hell from the dinner table because this could be the Next Big Deal.

We take calls from contractors and suppliers at all hours and somehow especially on Sunday nights. We allow tenants to have us at their beck-and-call because we fear that if we don’t say “how high” when they say “jump”, they might move out.

Before we know it, our lives are consumed with nothing else. We left our jobs so that we could stop working for The Man, and be our own boss. Now we’ve come to realize that we are working for a much worse boss, a tyrant. That tyrant is ourselves.

How does this happen? It happens because we don’t effectively plan our businesses. I talked about planning earlier in this report. One of the benefits you will achieve from planning is you will be able to create systems and checklists to control your real estate investing business.

Once these systems and checklists are in place, you will know what needs to be done in any situation. You will look at the checklist daily, to review what has been accomplished and what still needs to be done.

You should have checklists for every aspect of your business. Here are some key checklists:

Property Evaluation: Buying right, market analysis, property analysis
Property Inspection: Estimating repairs, formula worksheets, room-by-room analysis
Contractor Management: Bid process, contracts, and agreements
Renovation Management: Cash flow, required activities, scheduling, and contractor management
Tenant Management: Application process, move-in process, leases, and contracts

These are just a few of the many checklists and systems that you’ll need to create and use on a day-to-day basis. Then you’ll be running your business and your business will not be running you.

One of the benefits of systems and checklists is that—as you grow your business and hire people to work for you—you’ll train them by teaching them how to use the checklists and systems. You will train them to complete the tasks associated with each system and checklist. You will supervise them by revising the systems and checklists that they are working on.

This is the fastest way to grow your business.

To get help on systematizing your business, read this book, The Multi-Family Manifesto. It’s a great book that will teach you how to look at your business in its proper perspective.

If you don’t want to create all of those systems and checklists yourself, find someone who already has a successful real estate investing business and find out what they are using. The sooner you systematize, the sooner you will be free to make choices based on what you want to do, instead of what your business needs you to do.

Business systems are the way you do things. They are the procedures that can be replicated.

For example, we recently created a telephone answering system for an office receptionist. We created a script that delineated how she is to answer the phone and what information she needs to collect. She has responses for the types of questions callers may have and to whom she should direct calls.

We were very specific about the circumstances for transferring telephone calls and circumstances for taking messages. In addition, we established the procedure for inputting the information in the business’s customer relationship management (CRM) database program.

Effective business systems can be created for all kinds of work performance that occur in your organization. As you formalize your systems, the time you spend focusing on the details of a job become invaluable; as you critically examine each step of a process, you are also determining whether certain areas need improvement. This is a key component of the process because business systems need to be reviewed and improved as the ways of doing business change.

Here are five other reasons that effective business systems provide value:

1. Systems provide consistency

With business systems, you can produce the same products and services with the same level of consistency. Once you have created your systems and written down the sequential steps, your employees can follow the proper procedures consistently. You can monitor these processes and improve when necessary.

Systems can be implemented for sales, marketing operations, employee training, etc. The people who benefit the most from having systems in place are your customers who know what to expect from your business.

2. Change is easier to accomplish

Systems make a business predictable. So when change impacts your business–which may often occur–then knowing what business systems need to be modified becomes easier. You will know the current work process and can predict how change should be handled while still maintaining your systems.

Once your systems become part of a flow chart, or are written as a set of sequential tasks and procedures to follow, they become easier to monitor. You’ll notice that tasks will be completed properly and efficiently; changes can be more quickly addressed.

3. Training new employees becomes easier

New hires can be quickly integrated into your business when there is a written set of procedures for them to follow and they know exactly what is expected from them. It becomes easier to gauge the effectiveness of an employee when you have a measurable set of guidelines to review.

4. Business systems allow staff to focus on what they do best

Any time you are trying to complete a project with a specific deadline, you will want to avoid any problems that may develop. We like to create business systems that also best match the employee talent that is available. Allowing people with specific skills, knowledge, and abilities to be responsible for those parts of the business allows for better quality of work; everyone then can focus on what they do best.

Once business systems are established and implemented, activities can be performed on “autopilot.” Repetitive activities in your business become routine, and you can focus on activities with higher payoffs.

5. Business systems create value

Effective business systems become a part of your company’s organizational infrastructure. If you are selling your business, formal procedures add value. Buyer can see that operations run smoothly and consistently; new hires can be quickly integrated.

Systems are what make businesses grow, flow, endure, and sell. This makes a business purchase more enticing and more valuable because the systems become tangible assets. Businesses that effectively follow systems find themselves winning against their competition.

Are you looking to implement systems into your real estate business? Learn more about how our dedicated RE Team mastered this process and can pass on the mechanics of success.

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Allowing Your Real Estate Business to Run Your Life

Business Systems Provide Value