As many of you know I started Tungsten Management Group in 2017 whilst being fully employed at a conference venue in Islington, London. I had the hard reality of staying focused on my job and given the company 100%, but also trying to wear all the hats needed to start up and build a new property company.
I am pleased that I did achieve this allowing me to leave in 2018 and to be my own boss - and allowing me to be a new mum to Mason.
Here I want to share some things to concentrate on to give you the best chance of achieving your dream.
Are you looking to join the 4.37 million self-employed people in the UK (as of January 2021). Statista.com
5 top tips to get run your business whilst having a full time job
Planning
Give yourself time and space to plan what you are to do each day, week, month and year. If you set aside some time to create a route that will help you best achieve your tasks then you will be more efficient with your time. Remember to do the hardest tasks first as if you leave them to later in the day you know you will never get them started.
Organisation
Having your time and tasks organised will assist in maximising your productivity. In 1906, Vilfredo Pareto observed that 20% of people owned 80% of the nation’s wealth and in the 1940s, Dr. Joseph M. Juran suggested the same rule applied to time – you create 20% of your work from 80% of your time.
So we should look at the tasks that carry more importance rather than completing lots of little tasks that will make you feel like you have achieved a lot but do not carry huge financial benefit (such as administrative tasks). These should be outsourced. I used my Monday morning to plan my week. I used this time to list what I had to achieve this week and when I was planning to do each task. This allowed me to ensure that each task has set a time period so I did not worry about forgetting a task or leaving enough time to complete the tasks. See my previous blog, (https://tungstenmg.com/may-702010) as allocating your time carefully can support the 70:20:10 spilt.
Outsourcing
When outsourcing was initially introduced to me I thought this was for those who ran huge organisations and/or for those that had been operating for years. However, at the start of TMG's journey when I was working full time I realised I was unable to be ‘everyone’ in the business and that I was getting in my own way and stifling my speed to success, so I started to outsource. TMG now employs a Virtual Assistant who works through Rightmove and other portals to source properties, manages the CRM and email database and creates content to email our contacts. Our VA was found “on people per hour as a personal choice” but there are a number of platforms offering similar services. Our letting agent manages the photography, viewings, cleaning and referencing through to the check in and weekly legal tasks such as smoke alarm checks. We now have a project manager to oversee all our building work as we want to be hands off during the build period allowing us to concentrate on building our network, finding new opportunities and spending time with investors.
You create 20% of your work from 80% of your time. Joseph M. Juran
Build a reliable power team
You need to surround yourself with people who are able to help you build your business. At the start of our journey this was often said, but we were scared that if you let someone into your business and showed them your ideas then they would use them for their own business. We quickly came to realise that the property industry is a very helpful and transparent community and once we got over this fear TMG expanded rapidly with positive results.
In our power team we have our builder who overtime has become a project manager, a contact for building control and a sourcer, a property specific accountant, mortgage broker, website hosting team, HMO Management agent and sourcer. We rely on these teams to be the face of TMG, to act on my behalf and we trust their expertise and experience to guide our team.
Celebrate your success
You must celebrate your success at each milestone, so you can look back at what you have achieved and say well done to yourself. If you do take the time to look back you can reflect on the success and challenges you experienced so that the next journey can be smoother. Also celebrating a milestone keeps your motivated and focus on the direction that you are steering your ship.
