The Importance of Processes

Mike: Welcome back to the flipnerd.com REI Classroom, where experts from across the real estate investing industry teach you quick lessons to take your business to the next level. And now, let’s meet today’s expert host.
Mark: Hey, it’s Mark Podolsky, the Land Geek with thelandgeek.com. I am so pleased to be the host of REI Classroom. I want to talk about the importance of processes.
Mike: This show is sponsored by passiverental.com.
Mark: All right. So many people that I talked to have what I call solo economic dependency. That means if they’re not working, they’re not making any money. Freelancers, anyone with a job, doctors, lawyers, dentists, chiropractors. If they’re not doing the actual work themselves, they’re no generating any income. So how does somebody step out of this in real estate, same thing with if you’re, let’s say, house flipper or a land flipper, which would be me.
When I first started, I did everything myself. I would go out, I would talk to the sellers. I would talk to the buyers. I would do the paper work. I would create the ads. I ran everything myself, I was solo economic dependent, which means if I wasn’t working, I wasn’t making any money.
But once we start looking at it from an entrepreneurial standpoint, like a Howard Schultz at Starbucks, he’s not in your Starbucks whipping up a frappuccino for you. He’s thinking about strategy. He’s thinking about growth. He’s looking at ways to grow the business. Now, the only way he can do that is if he has good processes. So you have to have process in any entrepreneurial endeavor, especially in real estate.
So in our business, using software and other tools, we’re 85% automated. Using inexpensive VAs and software, we can literally upload a list into our program, the offers go out. Once the offers come out, we go through the entire process step-by-step, and the paper work that used to take us 20 minutes, now takes us two seconds. But when you first start out and you don’t have these tools, it’s really, really important to think in terms of, “How can I take that this task that I’m doing and teach someone how to do it, so I can get out of it, so I can work on strategy and growth, and ultimately, grow the real estate venture?”
So there’s a few different ways to do this. My favorite way of doing it is actually taking screen videos, and I use a company called zoom.us. Really what it allows me to do is record my screen, it’s free. As I’m doing the work, let’s say that I’m doing due diligence, and I’m using a check list, I will show my VA step-by-step how I’m doing it. It’s a one-time process. It’s a recorded video. If I want to add notes to it, I can. Then I’ll upload it into a Dropbox folder. Then I’ll go on a program, like let’s say upwork.com or fiverr.com, I’ll hire three, I’ll keep one, we’ll give them a little test to see how they work out, and all of a sudden, Mark is now out of the due diligence phase of his business.
So the importance of process cannot be overstated. If you are not creating processes, if you’re not creating systems, and you’re not delegating, you are stuck in solo economic dependency, and you are not an entrepreneur, and you will not be able to grow. You might be able to make a wonderful living, but your effective hourly rate is going to be stuck.
So I hope that was helpful. If you want to learn more, go to thelandgeek.com, and hopefully, I will see you on the other side. Thanks so much.
Mike: Passiverental.com is your source for turnkey, done-for-you rental properties. If you’d like to be an investor and not a landlord, please visit passiverental.com to learn how to purchase cash-flowing, professionally-managed rental properties in the hottest rental markets across the country. We can also help connect you with financing for your next property. Invest the easy way today and get started by visiting passiverental.com.
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