Before you send any mailings or begin networking for business, you should ask yourself one very important question: “Why would people want to work with me?” This isn’t a critique on your personality or experience in the business, but rather a question as to why someone would work with you over someone else. For some people, personality and likeability are the main factors. For others, experience and expertise in an area or a specific field are what’s important. Whatever makes you stand out and gives you the edge over everyone else should be where you focus your attention. Doing so will enable you to achieve your business goals in 2014.
People want to work with others for a variety of reasons. You can be the most knowledgeable guy in the area of tax liens or short sales, but if you are quick with others and your people skills are lacking, you will be limited in who you work with. Conversely, you can be the nicest guy in the room, but if you don’t know what you are doing or will cause everyone else to pick up your slack, your charm will only take you so far. You need to find things that will instantly draw attention to you or that you can do that nobody else can.
Having access to lenders or contacts may produce great results. There are plenty of options among realtors, hard money lenders, fellow investors and sellers in most areas. In most cases, without you even knowing it, you are being pitted against someone else in your field. How you stack up with them and what gives you the edge will make all the difference. Plenty of people have access to money to make a cash offer, but it is the quality of your contact that gets you the property. The same idea is applied to the people that you deal with every day. Most investors have access to the same information. It is how you use it and present it that is important.
It is not easy to do, but self-evaluation is an important part of business. Take the time to look at your strengths and weaknesses. Do your strengths outweigh your weaknesses? If so, are your weaknesses so bad that they could become a hindrance?
Nobody is ever going to be perfect or excel in all areas of business, but it is important to know that you are being judged in almost everything you do. If you can be the kind of person that you would want to work with, you will find yourself with more opportunities. If not, examine why and how you can fix it. Often times it is little things like this that can make all the difference.
Find something that you do well or enjoy and make this your strength. There is nothing wrong with being known as the go to guy for a specific area of the business. It is better to have this than to float from niche to niche and from deal to deal without ever planting your foot. There are plenty of investors coming and going in this business. If you don’t know why people would want to work with you, other people won’t either.
