Nobody wants to fill their day with busy work. Everyone wants to be focused on the highest productivity activities throughout the day. That is the point of efficiency. Before we dive into the 4 proven Tactics to be more efficient, ask yourself, “What are the most meaningful things I can be working on to move my business forward?” Now, let’s use these 4 proven methods to get you focused on that:
1. Delegate
Leaders must delegate and trust their team to do an effective job. There are some easy methods to know what to delegate.
- Can the task or activity be documented in a process? If so, then it can be delegated. Document the process for doing a high quality job, then train it, and delegate it.
- Are there 3rd party companies that offer process solutions to it? If so, then utilize a third part company to handle the parts of your company that need to be delegated. If your goal is to grow your company then, delegate everything else. (e.g. Property Managers that are focused on growth delegate maintenance coordination to Latchel.)
- Is someone else on your team experienced enough to take it? Delegate the task to them and ask them to document their process for achieving it. Eventually, you’ll want them to delegate it to the next newest employee.
2. Do High-Value Tasks Yourself
You have the creative mind and entrepreneurial drive to push your business and yourself forward. That cannot be delegated. Write down the tasks that will have the highest impact on your business if done NOW. Many times, that could be looking for the next property deal or prospecting for new business if you’re a third party property manager. Next, carve out time in the day when you know you’re at your best. Are you a morning person? Then plan on seeking new deals in the morning.
3. Execute More than You Dream
Dreamers change the world, but they do it one dream at a time. Dreaming is about seeing in your minds eye the pathway to success. Once you’ve caught a glimpse of that pathway, you need to become laser focused on following that path. It comes down to execution.
Execute, execute, execute, until you believe that executing on your plan will not yield anymore results. When that happens, you need a pivot. It is time to start dreaming again.
4. Build Off Your Strengths
Many investors and property managers get caught up trying to compensate for a weakness. Spending too much time learning social media because they know it is a weakness of theirs. While it may be fun for a moment, you won’t build success doing things that you’re not amazing at. So stop worrying about your weaknesses. Instead ask yourself, “What am I better at that anyone else?” Focus on doing more of that.
If you’re better at negotiating deals in person than anybody else, make that your schtick. Book as many face to face meetings as possible and close deals. If you’re better at prospecting over the phone than anybody else, spend as much of your day prospecting on the phone. If you’re an amazing web designer, build an amazing website with a high conversion lead funnel to bring prospective owners to the table.
Only YOU know your strengths. Build success off your strengths. Don’t get caught up in the low value tasks of developing your weaknesses.
BONUS: Use Technology
Technology can be a huge asset in your efforts to be more productive. I suggest the below tools to anybody looking to become a more productive landlord or property manager.
Latchel: If you want to focus on growth then you need to offload chunks of your operation. Maintenance will ALWAYS be your biggest operation hurdle. Latchel handles all of your tenant maintenance calls, dispatches vendors for emergencies, provides vendor networks, and can even coordinate your non-emergency work if you use our vendors.
Cozy: Stop going through the hassle of collecting and storing paper checks. Cozy provides an easy online payment option for your tenants.
FinRET: The easiest and cheapest way to do tenant screening, background checks, and credit reports.
Tenant Cloud: They provide an assortment of additional cloud based accounting and landlord tools to help you streamline your business.