Transcription
In this video, I'll share with you how I created systems and used tools in my own business that allows me to do up to 14 land deals at the same time. I hope it gives you value, and if you stay to the end of the video, you'll come away with a few tips to help you create processes and use tools that will help leverage your time and do multiple deals at the same time. These are some of the biggest tips that I've learned that help me create multitasking processes that help leverage my time.
Tip one is categorize your business activities into different departments. So a land deal goes through four different phases: there's lead generation, acquisitions, dispositions, and transaction coordination. So what I did was I took each one of those phases and made it its own department. So each phase has its own department in my business. Lead generation is exactly what it sounds like; it's all things having to do with leads. So this would be pulling a list, scrubbing a list, formatting a list, doing things like skip tracing, and then organizing that list of data. Dispositions, or dyspo, is all of the sales activities. So this would be marketing for a buyer, negotiating with a buyer, sending a buyer a contract, locking up that buyer under a contract—anything to do with the sale of the lot. Transaction coordination, or TC, is all things having to do with the actual closing of the property. So in my business, it looks like working with the title company, working with the buyer and the seller to make sure that everything is smooth; closings go as smoothly as possible. So when you have your business activities sort of in these four different buckets, it allows you to focus your efforts, and it's not just kind of everyone going everywhere doing all of the things. It helps you to sort of start to prioritize and organize exactly what types of things have to happen in your business, and it's a great way to just wrap your mind around what things need to get done.
Tip two is use spreadsheets. I am a huge spreadsheet nerd. I love spreadsheets. They can be put in a spreadsheet; it has to be put in a spreadsheet; even if it can't be, I want to see it in a spreadsheet. I'm a very visual person, so it makes it a lot easier to sort of process all of these different pieces of data. So I will always have as many spreadsheets as I can possibly have for each one of these departments. So I will have things in my spreadsheet like buyers' information, or I have a spreadsheet on sellers' information; I have a spreadsheet for agents. Anything that I can possibly put into a spreadsheet, I definitely will do that. So with so many different spreadsheets, you can—I could literally be drowning in spreadsheets. And so what I like to do is keep all of my spreadsheets in Google Drive in separate folders depending on what department they belong to. I also have a master spreadsheet that everyone in my business runs off of that shows what deals we have going at what time, and it includes important information like the seller's contact information, the seller name, the address—all of these things are on this master spreadsheet, including the expiration date of the contract and when we got the property under contract. That way, we can kind of see a bird's-eye view of all the different deals that we have going on at the same time.
The next tip is use project management software. Now, this has been a huge lifesaver for me and my business. I'm a very visual person, so I like to see where everything is at one glance, and so project management software allows me to do just that. Now, there are lots of different options out there, so whichever one is your jam, lean into that. My favorite is Trello because it's free and it also organizes the information in a way that my brain can really easily see and take in. So my Trello board looks a little bit like this, and it's a really great way for me to organize the deals that we have going on as well as what phase of the deal that they're in. So I'll move a card from Acquisitions once we get it under contract, and then I'll move it into Dispositions if it's ready to start being marketed to find a buyer, for example. Once we find a buyer, I can then move that card over to the transaction coordination process, and then I can see where that deal is in the life cycle of the deal. Now, this was a really big thing when I figured this out because it really allowed me to be able to see multiple deals in different phases of their life cycles and to have a really firm handle on what was going on. That way, nothing slipped through the cracks; no expiration dates on contracts snuck up on me, and it was really easy for me to sort of see what things were going on and where I needed to put my attention.
The next tip is keep running SOP documents. SOP stands for standard operating procedures. So the way that I actually got started doing this was every time I encountered a new step when doing a deal, for example, I would just jot it down in this document. And so I would just do a few bullet points of exactly how I did that stuff. So the best way that I found to do this was to keep that live document up and running, and every time I did a new task, I would just jot it down really quickly while the info was still fresh in my mind, and I didn't have to think too much about it. And it actually became more of a habit and less of a chore if I just knew that I was building that into my workflow.
So the next tip is keep your SOP documents clear and thorough. So when writing these, I would really just jot down a few things that way I remembered exactly what I did, but then I would go back and write it out as if I was explaining it to someone who has never done a land deal before. So I was actually writing an instruction manual for how to do each one of these steps.
So the next step is keep your SOP documents organized. So I mentioned earlier that I was drowning in spreadsheets; I also found myself drowning in these SOP documents. And so what I would do is just make sure that each task had its own separate document. So, for example, I would have a document called "How to pull a list," then I would create a document called "How to skip trace a list." Every action in my business, I actually created its own SOP document. And so by the end of it, I had tons of documents. And so the best way that I found organized those was through some type of virtual organization. So I like virtual because you can easily share it, and nothing gets lost that way. And so I like Google Drive; you can use Dropbox, whichever one you like, but just have some type of virtual filing cabinet that way you can keep all of these documents organized.
Next tip is create flowcharts. Now, I know that I've mentioned more than once that I am a visual person, so I'm always looking for different ways to visualize data, and one of my favorite ways is to use my mind-mapping software to create these timelines or flowcharts that show the full process of what each department does. So what I did was I went to a mind-mapping software called XMind. Now, there are tons of different mind-mapping softwares out there; I'm not affiliated with any of them, but XMind is free and it's really great when you're just starting out. And so I used XMind to create these visual processes that show the timeline of each phase of my deals.
The next tip is use a CRM. CRM stands for customer relationship management software. So what this does is it allows you to sort of easily organize all of your leads. Now, I realize that when once I got started and pulling all of this data that I was left with like hundreds or even thousands of leads. And so what this software allowed me to do was put my leads into the system, and then I can keep notes on each one of those leads. So anytime I reached out to a seller, for maybe one of my virtual assistants reached out to a seller, we could keep notes in that software, and that way the next time we followed up with that person, we could just take a look at the notes, and we could pick up exactly where we left off. So this was a huge help because as we started talking to different sellers, lots of them would say, "Well, I'm not really interested right now; can you call back in about six months? Or can you call back in about one month? Or can you call back in a year?" And so what we could do is put in the notes and then link that note to a calendar so we wouldn't have to track each one of these people—we have thousands of people to track—for when we needed to do follow-up. So the CRM allowed us to do follow-up automatically, and it would alert us, "Hey, it's time for you to reach out to so-and-so." There are lots of different kinds of CRMs. If you just Google CRM, you will be in a rabbit hole that will take you to all kinds of crazy places and lots of different options. And so what I suggest when people ask me what CRM is the best one to use, honestly, the answer is whichever CRM that you're going to use consistently. Some CRMs work better for people that are visual people; some CRMs are set up in a way that they're geared for more analytical people that can handle just seeing spreadsheet data. So my advice is to check out a lot of different CRMs and see which one has a user interface that you really like and that you feel comfortable with and that you can see yourself using every single day.
The next tip is use a mail house. Now, if you're someone that's sending out marketing through the mail to find your deals, then a mail house is an incredible option for you. So all you have to do is upload your list and upload your mailpiece design, and they will print stuff, the envelopes, and ship them for you.
The next tip is use a texting platform. Now, if you're someone that's using texting as your marketing to find deals, this is a really fantastic option, and it will really change the game for you. Instead of sitting there or having a virtual assistant sit there and input every single text message, phone number, and then hit send, this texting platform allows you to send hundreds or thousands of text messages in a single day. And so all you have to do is upload your list and then automate the process, and the texting platform will actually send those texts for you. As you can imagine, that saves a boatload of time.
The next tip is outsource tasks. So you don't have to do every single thing in your business; you can outsource tasks to someone on the outside to do a specific task for you. So, for example, you can send a list to someone, and they can clean the list, scrub the list, format the list, and then get that list back to you. That way, all you have to do is either upload it to your texting platform or upload it to your mail house. So if it's something that's really simple that can be done digitally, then I would look for someone on Upwork or Fiverr, for example, to do digital types of tasks. You can also hire people to do physical tasks like putting out bandit signs, for example. I've hired people from sites like TaskRabbit to go out to the property and take pictures of the property, to put out bandit signs. I've even had someone go out and get a seller to sign some documents. So that's a great resource, and it can also save you a ton of time.
Next tip is to build a team. So as I started hiring out different tasks, I started figuring out, "Okay, I really like this person's work when they pull a list and scrub a list," or "I really like this person's work when they go out and take photos." And so once I figured out for my regular task people were, I started assembling those people into a team. Now, I've mentioned this a few different times in some of the previous tips, but I've mentioned VA, or virtual assistant. A virtual assistant was a major game changer for me and my business because this is a very digital-heavy business and can be done virtually. There are so many different things that a virtual assistant can help out with. A virtual assistant can pull lists, clean lists, scrub lists, format lists; they can upload lists to your texting platforms or mail houses; they can make calls on your behalf; they can manage your calendar—I mean, the list goes on and on. There's so many different things that a virtual assistant can help you do. A virtual assistant was actually my very first hire in my land business. Hiring a virtual assistant was literally like cloning myself. So all I had to do was train that person on exactly how I like to do things, and then they would just go out and do those things the way that I would do them. So it was literally like cloning myself. As important as it is to have the right systems and tools in place to help you leverage your time in your business, it's also important to have the right team of people to use those systems and tools in your business.
In my next video, I'll share exactly how I built a team and put the right people in place to be able to leverage my time, use these systems, and use these tools so I could do multiple deals at the same time. If you're interested in hearing from other six and seven-figure land flippers about how they've built and run their businesses, then check out my group, Only Land Fans, where I do a live interview each week inside the group. You can grab that link at the description below. Until then, be great, have a great week, and catch you in the next one.