Working for yourself creates a certain kind of pressure that just isn’t there if you work for someone else. The security in knowing that you will get a paycheck every week or two allows you to coast every now and then. As an investor, you know that your work is directly correlated to how financially successful you are. Because of this, there is a constant drive to make sure everything is perfect in every aspect of your business. This is certainly a great goal, but it is also very unrealistic. If you want sustained success and to avoid getting burned out, you need to know how to delegate to your real estate team.
Most people who are self-employed are perfectionists by nature. They want to micromanage all areas of their business. If something is wrong, they want to immediately fix it. While it is great to be accountable and to have your finger on the pulse of everything in your business, you cannot last like this. If you spent the time to put a good team of realtors, accountants, contractors and attorneys in place, you need to be able to trust them with certain tasks. You cannot stop what you are doing every time your contractor calls and says there is a problem on a rehab or when your realtor says there is an issue on a deal. Sometimes you need to let go and let the people around you do their jobs.
If you have the thought that if you want something done right you have to do it yourself, you need to find better people around you. You can’t go back and forth to any properties to check on the work or to constantly update the schedule. This is what you have a contractor for or a property manager in place. Ultimately, the buck stops with you, but if you get pulled too thin you won’t focus on getting new deals and eventually your pipeline will run dry. Let the people around you focus on the day to day tasks while you keep your eyes on the big picture.
Trust takes time to develop but after some time you need to trust that your realtor will only tell you about properties they think you will want or your contractor will fix minor issues. Trying to be in five places at once won’t lead you anywhere. This is why investors get burned out and lose focus because they want to be in control at all times. Not everything will go smoothly on every deal. This will happen whether you do everything yourself or not. The sooner you learn to start trusting the people that you have worked with on a few deals the sooner your business will really grow. Think about what areas of your business you are most needed and dedicate a bulk of your time to that. If you try to be everyone to everybody all of the time you will not last very long.
Working as a team will yield far greater results than in trying to do everything yourself. Taking the first step is letting your team and the people around you do their jobs. Learning to delegate will be the best thing you can do for your business.
