Regardless of how busy your investing business is, there is nothing more important than managing your finances. As you may already know,it is more about how you allocate your money than what you are bringing in. In times when you are busy, you may think you can throw money at problems. However, you are really just putting a Band-Aid on a problem that could reappear at any moment. Conversely, when times are slow, you may think that you need to save every penny. It is entirely possible to save in the wrong areas. Essentially, you need to know where to save and where to spend. Trying to compensate for a lack of income by doing everything yourself may have a much greater impact than you initially realize.
Trying to do everything yourself, with the thought of saving money, can blow up in your face if you are not careful. The first thing you need to remember is that you are running a business, and not working for one. Even if you have experience doing handiwork or balancing the books, it usually makes more sense for you to outsource menial tasks to someone else. Your time is the most valuable asset you have. If you are bogged down doing little things throughout your business, you won’t have time to work on big ones. As a proud professional, you may think that nobody can do the job better than you, but you have to think what you are giving up instead of what you are getting.
Learning to delegate tasks to your employees or the people around you will allow you to address things you otherwise wouldn’t have had time to. Following up with every property your realtor sends or driving to a rehab to check up on your contractor may put you at ease, but it is a waste of time. If you don’t have confidence in the people on your team, you need to find new people. The best business owners, coaches and industry leaders are the ones that are comfortable letting others do important tasks without constantly looking over their shoulder. You may have a tendency to micromanage every aspect of your business, but to truly grow you need to let go.
There is a difference in saving money in areas that you can easily handle and spending money to get the job done right. If your expertise is limited to painting, you may think you can handle a small electrical job. However, all you are doing is making the problem worse. You need to know your limitations and recognize your strengths. Never let pride or a short sighted view get in the way of how something should really be done. If you are short on funds and just want to just get the job done for the winter, it will come back to bite you. At some point, probably when you least expect it, you will have to deal with this again. This may take weeks or even years, but it will eventually come to a head and you will probably regret it. You get what you pay for. If you want something done right, you need to hire the right person.
You need to know when spending money is the best thing that you can do for your business. If you are contemplating a direct mail marketing program and want to handle every aspect of this you need to consider the time element involved. Seemingly small tasks like composing, printing, labeling and stuffing the envelope take much longer than you may imagine. You may start off like a ball of fire, but most people find the tasking of mailing envelopes monotonous. If you outsource this part of the process, you will pay to have it done, but it will increase your proficiency and hopefully your bottom line. You may balk at paying someone for such basic work, but by doing so it allows you to get more important work done while still completing a task that will help grow your business.
Never walk over the dollar to pick up the penny. Paying for services like accounting, real estate or quality contractors is worth it every time. Instead of trying to pinch pennies in areas that really won’t save you much money, you need to pay for things that are important. If you don’t have money coming in, you don’t have a business. Just because you are able to do something doesn’t mean you are doing it right. You may have taken an accounting course in high school, but that doesn’t mean you should do your own books. A tax return from an accountant is much more expensive than your traditional W2, but they can save you money in areas you would never have thought of. Instead of spending an extra $1,000 or so, you open yourself up for audit and losing money on your return by not using an accountant. The savvy investor knows that this is a much better use of their money rather than the dozens of other expenses they may throughout the year.
You can’t be everywhere at all times. Once you lose the do it yourself mentality, you can see your business in a completely different light.
