If you have the entrepreneurial spark and you’re looking for your next opportunity, have you considered a real estate business? Since you’re here, it’s a safe assumption that the idea has at least piqued your interest.
I don’t want to put you under any illusions; starting a real estate business is hard, but there are some incredible rewards waiting for you if you find success. (And what entrepreneur doesn’t love a challenge?) Approximately 90% of all millionaires are involved in real estate, so it’s a great business to get into to grow your wealth.
What does it take to build a real estate business?
Like any other business that deals with assets and large amounts of money, you can’t go into it half-hearted. A real estate business isn’t going to be a side-hustle you do whenever you feel like it; it takes hard work and tenacity to make a real estate business successful. If you’re determined, where should you go from here?
Step 1: Research
Spend some serious time researching real estate business and continue to do so even as your business grows. As an entrepreneur, you’re likely a life-long learner, so apply those skills to your new venture and continue to learn new things even as your business grows. Read books, listen to talks, get a mentor – do whatever you need to do to take each next step forward.
Step 2: Find Your Why and Set Your Goals
Sure, your “why” is to make money, but often a money goal isn’t enough to keep us going when things get hard. Building a business takes true determination, so you need to be clear about why you are building your business and where you’re headed. Once you’re sure a real estate business is for you, pause to write down your “why” and your goals.
Your “why” will likely be things like:
- Provide my children with a better life
- Have the freedom to travel and see the world
- Retire my parents
- To prove myself to myself
- To live a life free of financial worry
Once you have that, set your goals. Where do you want this business to go? Where do you want it to be a year from now, five years from now, and ten years from now? Make your goals specific but keep them flexible. The entrepreneurial road is never a straight one, and it is full of potholes, dead ends, and false shortcuts, so if at any time on your journey you feel demotivated and like you’ve lost your determination, return to your why, reassess your goals, and don’t be afraid to tweak them.
Step 3: Start the Hard Work
Remember, this is going to be hard work – and it’s time to start. Now is the time to form a business plan (if you need one), outline your business strategy for your first year, and get your legal stuff in order. “Stuff” will be different for everyone depending on any current businesses you have, your state, and what business structure you choose.
Getting all this in order with your business strategy is going to take focus, but it will be worth it. Push through the sticky moments until you’re ready to go.
When you plan your business strategy allow some room for error – it’s likely some ideas will fail and it will be up to you to pick up the pieces and pivot in a new direction, so don’t box yourself into any corners you can’t get out of. Being a successful entrepreneur means becoming comfortable with failure, both large and small.
Step 4: Find Your Financing
How are you going to finance this new business? Are you going to use your savings, borrow it, or sell a property you currently own? You will likely have some ideas, now it’s time to go out and get it. If you’re not financing your new venture entirely out of your own pocket you will need to be tenacious, so look for any avenues you have available to you.
Step 5: Plan Your Marketing
Whatever avenue of real estate you go into, be it buying and selling properties or purchasing rental properties, you need to decide how you’ll reach potential buyers or tenants. Will you sell your properties through realtors? Will you build an email list or following on social media? What paid marketing and advertising will you put money aside for? Ideally, your properties will all have something in common that will appeal to a certain audience, which will make it easier to build a following. What is it you offer and to whom? Where are those people looking for properties? Make a plan for this now and put your marketing budget aside.
Step 6: Do Business
The way you do business will be completely individual to you and your circumstances, but it’s time to get started. Stay organized, start putting processes in place as soon as you can (so you’ll find it easy to pass the reins over to someone else), and trust your gut. Your intuition will guide you toward great opportunities and away from those only masquerading as one. Do everything you can to stick to your planned schedule as your profit depends on it.
If you need a fast turn over (or to sell a property to give you the liquid cash to start your business), businesses like Jamie Buys Houses and Leave the Key Home Buyers are a great way to keep the cash flowing.
Step 7: Stay Motivated
Finally, remember that building a business takes courage, and you aren’t always going to feel motivated. There will be days (or weeks) when it feels hard, when you are forced to accept failure, and you may want to give up.
Don’t. Keep going – the only person who decides whether failure is final is you. Accept your failures, use them as learning experiences, stay focused, work hard (while treating your mind and body with respect, you aren’t a machine), and be absolutely determined to reach your end goal.