Introduction

How often do we hear people at network meetings ‘What’s your strategy?’ and the answer is usually goes something like ‘Baby buy to lets, then move up to HMO and eventually commercial properties’, and everyone is satisfied and they then move onto the next person and ask the same question. This always begs the question why are using this strategy, what are you hoping to achieve? You then get the blank looks or a mumbled answer which indicates that this has not been thought through.

According to the Business Dictionary strategy has the following meanings:

  1. A method or plan chosen to bring about a desired future, such as achievement of a goal or solution to a problem.
  2. The art and science of planning and marshaling resources for their most efficient and effective use. The term is derived from the Greek word for generalship or leading an army.

Integrated Method

As can be seen by the above definitions strategy is linked to a plan to bring about a desired future and we need to bring our resources together to be efficient and effective. What do we mean by this and how can we achieve it? Because we need everything and everyone to work together rather than in isolation we need to consider an integrated systems approach. This method is about people and systems coming together and working as a team. Why as a team? If we think of the system as a football team and now the manager calls each team member one by one and tells them what the tactic is that he wants them to play. The team then go out on the field and they play badly because each member of the team only knows what his specific task is, they have not had the benefit of listening to what was said to everyone else and knowing what their roles were. Now that you get the idea why we need an integrated approach let’s model it so that you can see how it fits in together.

 

As can be seen by the model you need to understand where you want to be in your future, as this is the starting point. This could be your why, or it could be your financially free figure. Once you have decided what your future should look like then you can work on your strategy to see what you need to achieve your future. Then you need to understand what methods and tools are required to make it a reality. Do you need training in the tools and methods? If so this needs to be added to your integrated approach. Finally you need to consider what systems need to be put in place to support the integrated approach and KPIs (Key Point Indicators) to measure your success. By having flow down and feedback throughout the integrated approach everyone understands what is required to reach the future state.

If we take each of the headings and place it into a table we can then work on each section to come up with our integrated approach e.g.

 

Where do I/we want to be? What is my/ our strategy? How can I/we do this? What capabilities must be in place? What systems are required?
Financially Free Figure of £10k per month Buy to Let = £200 per month.

£10k/£200 = 50 Buy to Lets

 Money in Money out.

 

 Training Courses KPI’s
HMO = £1500 per month.

£10/£1500 = 7 HMOs

 Joint Ventures Mentors Standard Work Procedures
Serviced Accommodation = £2700 per month.

£10k/£2700 = 4 Serviced Accommodations

 Investment area(s) Benchmark against successful investors Lessons Learnt

Work with suppliers (Estate Agents, Letting Agents, Sourcing Agents etc.) so that they can deliver to our requirements

 Power Team Visual Management

 

You can see by using this method you start to build up a picture and you begin to see how everything is linked to your future state. This is your birds’ eye view of where you want to be. This can then be broken down further e.g. you may decide that you only want HMOs as your strategy, in which case everything below the strategy needs to be geared for HMOs e.g. Finance, Estate Agents and Letting Agents that deal in HMOs, Training, Regulations, Commercial lending, vetting, house rules, etc.

 Conclusion

When you work on things in isolation it is quite easy to lose your way, by having an integrated approach to your business you will become more focused and achieve quicker results. Planning for your future state is important so take your time to think and make your plans. As Abraham Lincoln said ‘Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe’