How to Avoid Training Your Competition
bigbrymer
Only a Tired, Broke Investor Does Everything Himself
By: Alan Brymer
Why do you think most investors get into real estate to begin
with? Is it because they like wading through 3 feet of trash inside
of dilapidated junkers? Is it because they savor talking on the phone
so much that they found a way to make money doing it? Could it be
because they enjoy leaving their families at the dinner table in order
to spin tires and get a deed signed by a seller who waited until the
night before the auction to finally do something about their problem?
The odds are that if you=92re anything like me, you don=92t take on
the demands and risks of real estate investing just for the fun of
it. The odds are you=92re doing it for the money. Of course, there are
the benefits of helping people and there are those feelings of
accomplishment after finishing a rehab or selling a house. But if
you=92re investing primarily for those reasons, go join the Peace Corps,
or get a contractor=92s license, or become a Realtor.
The only reason I can conceive of someone wanting to invest in
real estate is for financial gain, which is not an impure motive.
Money is what buys us the freedom to do, well, whatever the heck it is
we want to do. But what do we end up doing? We end up working like
crazy and not doing the things for which we=92re investing in real
estate to begin with.
For example: When I started investing, I decided to try to buy as
many houses as I could in order to avoid having a full-time job that
consumed all of my time. I planned on spending my time at that point
writing music (one of my dreams). Now fast-forward three years. I
had become a full-time investor running a fast-paced money machine
doing deal after deal every month. Guess how many songs I wrote
during those three years? Zero=85point=85zero.
Finally, I realized that I had to find a way to get my life back
again and create the time to do what would make me happiest in life,
rather than filling in the time with more work. I had been using
assistants to do some work for me, but decided to start delegating as
much as humanly possible. That=92s when I went from working on 40 hours
per week on real estate down to 3 hours per day, and so can you.
The secret, of course, is to get some hired help, which everybody
knows they ought to, but few actually do. And even fewer still do it
right. Some people try it once, have a bad experience hiring the
wrong person, and conclude that =93you just can=92t find anyone good
enough.=94 I think more people never even take the first step and
consign themselves to a life full of tedious, bothersome chores.
These are the main excuses for why investors don=92t get with the
program and take control of their lives again by hiring help:
=95 =93I=92m not doing enough deals yet.=94 Who says you have to be?
Hirin=
g
an assistant does not have to be a huge deal. You could always find
someone early on to put in 2-3 hours/week for you doing simple tasks,
like putting up signs, taking calls from buyers, and licking envelopes
for your mailers. In fact, getting someone else to send mailers for
you (which we both know you would procrastinate doing yourself) will
get you more deals than you otherwise would.
=95 =93I don=92t have the money.=94 It=92s funny that the people who say
th=
at
they have no money to pay someone $8/hr for a few hours per week
somehow manage to come up with thousands of dollars to buy the latest
real estate seminar. Paying an assistant is a leap of faith=85you pay
them for a while, nothing happens immediately, but then before you
know it you=92re finding more deals and have more time and resources to
do them. It works. But if you never take that leap, you will just
keep puttering along=97not doing any or many deals. But at least you=92re
saving a few hundred bucks here and there, right? Sounds great=85not.
=95 =93I don=92t mind doing the work myself.=94 I don=92t mind cooking
dinn=
er
myself, but I don=92t want to do it for 10-30 hours per week. Isn=92t
there something you=92d rather be doing besides licking envelopes,
making phone calls and delivering simple messages, asking the same
boring questions to tenant/buyers who call? If nothing else, get
someone else to do these things so that you can spend more time doing
things that are more productive, like building a real business instead
of getting tied down in busy work.
=95 =93I can do it cheaper and better myself.=94 Do you rehab houses
yourself to save money? If yes, stop reading right now because
there=92s no chance I=92ll get this point through to you. If no, then you
know that it makes sense to pay someone else to do work for you, so
why not apply that principle to other types of work besides
renovations? You can do an assistant=92s work yourself, and it will be
cheaper so far as less money going out of your pocket. But it=92s not
worth it in the end, because there will be less money going into your
pocket as there could be if you freed yourself up to do the things
that bring you more deals (or get someone else to do those things).
One extra deal would probably pay for your assistant for the next year
or two.
=95 =93I don=92t have time to follow-up with anyone.=94 Maybe you don=92t
h=
ave
the time because you are doing everything yourself. What if it took
you 10 minutes to to follow up with someone who would save you 60
minutes of time by doing work for you=97would it be worth it? You=92d
find the time to coordinate with them, wouldn=92t you? I look at
spending time with an assistant like I do spending money on a deal or
on marketing=97a necessary and very worthwhile investment. You=92d be
crazy not to. Make the time and you=92ll have more time.
=95 =93No one else can do it like I can.=94 No one else can do what like
you can=97fold letters? Pick up printer paper at the store? Drop UPS
envelopes off in the drop-box? Last time I checked, anyone can do
those things. So, if nothing else, find someone to do only the things
that would be difficult or impossible to screw up. This will give you
at least a few more hours per week to do the specialized work that
only you can do. You=92ll find that once you=92ve done that, you can
trust your assistant (provided you hired right) to do other work for
you as well, starting with the simplest tasks and working up to more
complex things, all according to your level of comfort.
So, how many hours do you work each week, and how many hours do
you really want to work? If there=92s a big difference between these
two numbers, hiring help will get you there. Otherwise, things will
NEVER get better, no matter how many promises you make to your
spouse. Or, if you are happy with the hours you=92re working, ask
yourself, =93How much more could I get done if there were another Me
getting at least 50% more done than I am now by myself? In this case,
an assistant is also the answer to getting what you want.
I have consulted with hundreds of investors over several years,
and our challenges tend to be exactly the same. I have heard many,
many investors (ranging from newbies to pros doing 3-5 deals/month or
more) complaining about the same things:
=94I wish I had more time.=94
=93I wish I could get more done.=94
=93I wish I could have some fun for a change rather than being a slave
to my real estate business.=94
The solution is always the same, and every investor who discovers
this wonders how they ever survived as long as they did without it=97
Just hire some help. Find the right person, and put them to work
immediately. Don=92t put it off any longer. Do it now, and you=92ll
thank yourself for the rest of your life.
***
Alan Brymer is has been a full-time investor since his first property
at the age of 22, and speaks at seminars and events nationwide. His
investment company was named by the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum
as one of the =93Top 25 Companies Under Five Years Old.=94 Alan is also a
frequent guest expert for the news media, having been featured on
multiple television programs and magazines as a real estate expert.
To read more of Alan=92s articles and blog, go to www.AlanBrymer.com.
Alan Brymer
How to Avoid Training Your Competition
By: Alan Brymer
One of the questions I am asked frequently is, =93If I get an
assistant, how do I avoid training my competition, but also get
someone with the initiative to make things happen on their own?=94 This
question assumes that the only people with initiative are those who
are interested in investing in real estate. This is simply untrue.
Don=92t you know plenty of people who are interested in real estate, but
don=92t take the initiative to do anything about it? Likewise, there
are plenty of people with initiative who would be willing to work as
your personal assistant, but are not necessary interested in investing
themselves.
How many secretaries and office managers do you know that work
for accounting firms and actually wish they were crunching numbers and
preparing tax returns? How many receptionists in law firms want to be
the ones preparing legal briefs at 1:00 in the morning or cross-
examining a defendant in a heated courtroom? Probably not too many.
Assistants apply for their jobs because they like working as an
assistant, not because they are fascinated with the type of product or
service their employer provides.
Real estate investing is no different. It is not necessary to
hire someone who is interested in doing deals of their own someday,
and I don=92t recommend it. It is likely that with such a person, any
of the following things will happen:
=95 They will leave you in order to go try to do deals on their own.
They may be completely unsuccessful and never become a major
competitor, but it will still waste your time replacing them with
someone new.
=95 They might steal your prospects, deals, and secrets. They might
start their own investing business while working for you and steal
your seller leads, potential buyers, private lenders, and top-secret
marketing methods. This could cost you tens of thousands in lost
deals.
=95 They might ask you to pay them more than you need to. They feel
like they=92re doing as much work as you, so they should be entitled to
a piece of the action. Little do they know that anyone can spend
their time working on a deal. But you are the one putting your name
and money on the line and obligating yourself to perform every time
you do a deal. If this doesn=92t mean anything to them, ask them if
they=92d like to share the risk as well and owe tens of thousands on a
deal that goes bad. The chances are they won=92t, and if that=92s the
case, why should they get a piece of the profits when things do go
well?
=95 They might get jealous and difficult to work with. In this case,
you can either continue to deal with their bad attitude and let them
hold you hostage, or you will let them go and spend your precious time
hiring and training someone else. Either case is a waste of your time
and should be avoided.
Because of these reasons, I don=92t believe it=92s worth the risk in
the first place to hire someone who wants to learn how to be an
investor. If they want to learn how, let them find some deals and
wholesale them to you. Anything else they do is not worth paying more
than an hourly rate.
So how do you find someone with initiative who will also stay
with you for a long time? Here is a short list of a few simple things
you can do to find someone who won=92t go out on their own.
=95 Ask them in the interview if they have any interest in investing.
Very few people are going to flat-out lie and say they have no
interest if they do. In fact, they will probably be sure to tell you
that they want to be an investor because they think it will make you
want to work with them even more.
I should add, though, that many applicants will say they wouldn't mind
buying an investment property someday. This is understandable. What
you want to avoid are the excited, go-getter seminar graduates who
want to go out and make a lot of money today (this is your competition
in training). You can usually tell who these folks are=97just let them
talk and they will reveal their ambitions.
=95 Look for people who don't need the money you'll be paying them.
These assistants don=92t really want to learn how to be an investor;
they just want something to do. For example, someone whose children
are all in school during the day or have all moved out of the house
may have some extra time on their hands and want to spend it doing
something fulfilling and make a little extra money at the same time.
=95 Use a non-compete clause. I had an attorney draw up an employment
agreement that includes a non-compete clause with stiff penalties if
your assistant decides to become an investor themselves or even work
for another investor. That's something else I would do to weed out
future competitors from the beginning and keep them from getting any
wild ideas once they've started working for you=97unless, of course, you
don=92t mind. In that case, go ahead and let them, but at least you
will be in control.
=95 Make sure to gripe on occasion about what a pain tenants/cash flow/
rehabs can be. You know that investing is never as easy as it appears
to be, and that there are some really annoying things that come up.
You don=92t have to lie, but make sure that you vocalize your grievances
to your assistant from time to time as a deterrent.
Having said all this, I believe in a world of abundance and not
scarcity. You may wonder why this topic is such a big deal. Here=92s
why. The abundance theory is something to console yourself with when
you lose a deal. It=92s not a good enough reason to spend your hard-
earned time, talents, energy, and money teaching someone everything
you know for free so that they can desert you once they have gotten
everything from you that they want=97unless that is your plan all
along.
I have mentored plenty of investors, and it is very rewarding.
But the key is to be in control and do it intentionally with both of
you aware of and consenting to the arrangement. If you don=92t desire
to be used and discarded by other people, it makes sense to learn how
to be in control, and has been the purpose of this article.
* * *