Where is your personal 80/20 focused in your business?

Question

@BP Community:

The sheer diversity of successful RE strategies has always intrigued me as it opens up success to so many different types of people.  It is so interesting to see how people structure their businesses and how they evolve over time.  It seems there are as many different business models out there as there are investors.  What is yours?  What do you do yourself and what do you sub out (contractor, VA, funnel, etc.)?  Where do you lay down system infrastructure and where do you get down and dirty?

From the beginning investor who does everything themselves to the professional corporation that has specialized teams for each task:

Where is your personal 80/20 effort focused in your business?  Or, if you could redesign your business from scratch, where would your 80/20 be?

Joe Villeneuve · Answer

You're looking for a quick answer, where the answer is long.

My quick answer is in 3 parts, but it all comes from knowlege:

1 - Market Analysis (not property)

2 - Knowing how money works

3 - Understand how to develop a REI/Biz plan using reverse engineering, and...

understanding that all 3 of these parts are equally important.

Allyssa McCleery · Answer

@Kiley Nakamura What a great question! As a new investor I am trying to figure out ways to grow and find opportunity. I think the 80/20 principle is something to focus on every day. One of my favorite quotes is "Do not confuse movement with progress!" It is important to keep tabs on the things that are actually growing our businesses and determining how to accelerate that.

@Dave Van Horn Always nice to see your thorough replies! Very inspiring :)

@Ola Dantis I like what you said about creating a company that will outlast yourself and adding value.

Ola Dantis · Answer

@Kiley Nakamura Great question!

In simple terms, I focus most of my time on finding and funding deals.

I try to outsource all the expected activities to others. Now, the Pareto rule states that 20% of the activities generate 80% of the results, so I try to laser focus on those line items. Easier said than done :)

Hope this helps. Thanks! - Ola

Kiley N. · Answer

@Dave Van Horn :  I like the distinction between working in the business versus working on the business.  Going through your backward-looking thoughts on what you would have done differently is very enlightening and I really hope to hear many more perspectives on this.  Great guidance for beginning investors like myself.

I also love your succinct description of the CEO role.  I think it applies equally to the CEO of a company of one (like me).

Thanks for sharing Dave!

Dave Van Horn · Answer

@Kiley Nakamura

The 80% should be in what you're doing best, if not more. The 20 or so that's remaining needs to get done that you can't really outsource. At this point the majority of my 80% is spent on CEO tasks. Today I'm mainly overseeing departments and working on the business rather than in it.

What I mean, by "on the business" is things like:

- Eliminating ambiguity (think decision making)

- Improving and increasing transparency across the board

- Improving communication within the organization

Alongside that, the rest of my job is really just being the face the company and the so-called "visionary" of the company (like many CEO's). So the role requires you to lead the charge, essentially.

If I were to redesign it all from scratch, I would have assumed this role much sooner, implemented a lot of business planning and coaching earlier, and focused on my strengths as much as possible from the start. Oh and defer to the experts rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. Our new phrase at our company is "Elevate and delegate".

And if I could go back EVEN further when I was first starting out as an investor, I would have outsourced more (instead of trying to do everything myself), used other people's money rather than my own sooner, and networked MUCH more and right from the start.

Joe Villeneuve · Answer

100% effort (working smart...not hard), to gain exponention return.

Samir Shahani · Answer

Great question @Kiley Nakamura, and I'm sure you will get a lot of very interesting responses.  Just to interpret a little bit on your question,  I am assuming you are referring to the old Paretto rule that says 20% of your efforts yield 80% of the results.  And if you are trying to maximize spending time on value add; then it makes sense to maximize or focus on that "20%".

Also, before answering that question, you probably have to define your goals...

E.g. for a buy and hold investor who wants to build a 500 unit portfolio the time spent in certain areas may differ than a person who has a short term goal of flipping 12 properties this year.

I can speak on behalf of a buy and hold investor; my greatest value is spent finding high quality properties that fit my criteria at the right price.  The longer I spend time doing that, the more value I generate for myself/my business.  Of course, avoiding "analysis paralysis" is important, but I don't seem to suffer from that .. :)

Kiley N. · Answer

@Allyssa Mccleery :  Great advice!  In the beginning it's tough to differentiate the movement from the progress but I will hopefully get better with that over time.  I enjoy hearing from other investors on how they've evolved their businesses and processes.  Thanks for sharing!

Dave Van Horn · Answer

Thanks @Allyssa Mccleery! And I really like the quote you mentioned!

Ola Dantis · Answer

@Kiley Nakamura Social Media for one is an easy one for me to outsource. In addition, we are in the process of getting a local resource to help with Dwellynn's Content Creation and Content Management arm of our business. Though Dwellynn is spread across practically all Social Media platforms (and yes, we are even on SnapChat), we are focussing on one social media platform for now.

Interestingly, the idea of being free isn't something on my radar to be honest because there is so much to do especially when building your business. Also, I spend a significant amount of time is to ensure that the foundational principles [Culture] in which our business are built to last more than a lifetime hence why I didn't name our company OLA DANTIS LLC :/ [that would be so much easier lol]

I do not intend to retire on a beach somewhere in the distant future, as I love to create, add value, and serve others wherever I can.

Hope this helps. Thanks! - Ola

Where is your personal 80/20 focused in your business?

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