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Balancing a 9-to-5 Job While Building a Successful Property Business · The Property Unleashed Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Build your property business while still working.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Mark Fitzgerald and it's great to have you joining me here today.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: So I see a lot of people getting out there wanting to build a rent-to-rent business, a property business, but wanting to get out of their day jobs really, really quickly.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: And whilst there's nothing wrong with that, there are some super benefits to you actually staying in employment whilst you do this.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Some people will be in a major hurry.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I know I was.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: I actually left my job as soon as I started to get involved in property.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Now, is that the best thing to do?
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I would probably say now, from my experience, no, it's not.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: You can still grow a successful property business, whether you're using HMOs, serviced accommodation, the rent to rent strategy, you're looking to buy the properties yourself and build your own portfolio a whole host of different reasons but fundamentally, you do not want to put yourself under massive, massive pressure from the very beginning because you don't have the money coming in Now.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Maybe you've inherited some money and you think to yourself do you know what?
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I'm going to build my property business and I can live off the money that I've inherited?
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Hey, if that's the case, brilliant stuff, go for it.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I'm certainly not going to tell anybody not to do it.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: In my case, I took voluntary redundancy, so I got a small pot of money to be able to live on while I set up and started to run successfully my rent-to-rent business.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Now was it easy?
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: No, none of this is ever going to be massively easy.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Nothing is going to fall onto your lap either.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: You've got to go out there, you've got to put the work in and you've got to take the opportunities that are there for you to take.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: But mark my words there are plenty of opportunities out there at the moment.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: There are plenty of people out there that need our help and support.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: But, of course, having the additional income coming through the door whilst also setting up and building your property business is a very, very smart move, even if you hate your job.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Because it can give you that motivation to say to yourself I'm not stuck in this dead end job, it's not going to be forever For me.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: When I set out, I did have a full time job, very demanding job as well, but I put in my diary my work diary at the beginning of 2019, actually, I had in December 2019 that I was going to leave my job for Christmas.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: My Christmas present to me was I was going to hand my notice in.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Now, I actually got out of my job at the end of February that year, so I managed to do things very quickly.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: But, as I say, the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy was there.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: I took it and then I started to build my property business.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: But it's not that I took it.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: I had this pot of money and happy days off.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: We went to the races and I started making all of this money.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: No, there were ups, there were downs, there was more no's than yes's.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: It was a real hard slog, a real hard process that you have to go through to be able to do this.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: And if I'd have done this alongside my full-time job, it would have been a little bit easier on me.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Because I wouldn't have been worrying about keeping the lights turned on.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't have had to worry so much about making sure that there's food on the table for my family as well.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Now, the worst case scenario to that was I would have had to go and get a part-time job, which I would have done, but I would continue to build my property business and, of course, that extra income coming through can help you setting up your property business, setting up your properties, buying your properties if that's what you're doing and so on and so on.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: So make sure that you don't just jump ship because you've got a great idea.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Make sure it it's the right decision for you.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: If you've got a family, your family are on board with it as well, because my wife was on board with what we were doing.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: She could see that I was miserable and she wanted to just let me go out there and have a go.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: That's great.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: But if you haven't quite got people maybe a spouse, maybe a partner on side with you just yet, if you can start building up the concept that you can get hold of properties, you can turn properties into profit, so to speak, as well.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: People can start seeing that it's a lot easier to get them on board.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Also, you'll have more flexibility in your property business while you're still working, because it allows you to manage your time.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: So some people will say I need to get out of my day job.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I have no time.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: It takes up all of my time eight hours a day, 12 hours a day, depending on the shifts, or whatever you're doing.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Then you have a family.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Then you want to try and look after yourself.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: You've got to sleep and everything, but you can always find the time and I actually find that people that I work with that are doing this, that are building their property businesses alongside a full-time job, actually do a far more efficient job than people that have got all the time.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Because they have to schedule their time.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: They have to make sure that the time that they carve out for their property side of things ie calling agents, making sure that their marketing's going, taking time to network with people, making sure that those daily actions to get the deals of being done are scheduled in.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: If you have all the time in the world, sometimes you can think you're busy, but you're busy doing the wrong things.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Other times you will actually get to a point.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I know I did, but you think you should be doing more.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: There's got to be more to this.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: You're wandering around thinking I need to do something else, yet you've done everything.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Because in the beginning it certainly will not take up all of your time to start building your property business.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: So mark my words that just because you're still in your job, don't use that as a hindrance.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: It certainly isn't holding you back as long as you are doing the things that you need to do.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Equally to that, when we start out and we build a business, we do anything new, there is a risk to that.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: There is always a risk that things won't go so well.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Now, one of those risks or how to amalgamate those risks, should I say is to get the right training, to be around the right people, to know what you're doing with your time is actually the stuff that you should be doing.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: You haven't just listened to a few podcasts, read a few books, watched a few YouTube videos and then thought to yourself right, I'm going to start this now not knowing what you don't know.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: As the old saying goes, we don't know what we don't know.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: So you need to make sure that the time that you're spending on things is time well spent.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, and of course, you can minimalize the risks that you are taking by knowing exactly what you should be doing.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: And, of course, if you have your job to fall back onto, if you do take a property on and maybe it's a little bit slow getting it cash flowing, you're not relying on that money to live on, are you?
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: You've got those bases covered so you can spend a bit more time creating an environment, creating a property type as well, that can really really last and stand the test of time, rather than trying to rush everything, potentially getting the wrong clients, the wrong people, the wrong tenants in the property as well, so you can really lower the risk in what you're doing, whereas if you are relying on that money coming in, you can get caught in the weeds, as they say, and you can all of a sudden put yourself into a position where you're almost just taking on anybody to come and stay in your properties to start bringing in some money and things like that, and that's where you can make mistakes that can be very, very costly, okay.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Also, remember that anything that you do that's new, there is going to take a bit of time for learning, okay.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: So it's not just a case of potentially joining a training program or getting the coaching or the support that you want.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: There will be a time and it can be, you know, a month or two of learning that you have to go through.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: You have to learn, and then you'll start to learn more through your experiences of being out there, of course, learning the ropes when you get hold of a property, what sort of tenant types are you going to be getting now?
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Or, if you're doing service accommodation, what sort of customers will you be having?
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: There is time that you need to be learning.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: You need to get the facts straight and you need to obviously know what you're doing.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: But also you need to give yourself a bit of time as well.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Don't just expect to join something, quit the job that you're doing now and then happy days within a few weeks.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: We'll get these deals over the line.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: That may be the case, but you're always going to be learning.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: So make sure that you start something now to start learning, so that you can leave and make sure that you're on the right path later on.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: When you are still working, it is a great time to start telling co-workers, friends, family of your plans.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: This is what I'm planning on doing Now.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Obviously, if you've got a job that doesn't allow or doesn't want you to have outside interests in the form of other businesses, or you're not allowed to do that, you can always say it's a hobby.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: If you have a life partner, you can say it's their business and you're just helping them with it, so on and so on, but most of us don't really have those major problems.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: The one thing I would say is that you have to please, please, please, make sure that if you are still in your full-time job and you are building a property business, that you do not let your job that you're in suffer because of it.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: You're not going to cut corners, you're not going to do less of a job for the person who's employing you just because you're trying to do your property business.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: You have to give them both equal concentration and motion and make sure that you have clarity in what you're doing.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: So don't just think I'll nick a wage.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: I'll pinch a wage here while I'm setting up my business.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Try and do the best in all of the jobs that you're doing.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Because it will rub off on everything else that you do.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: And also it's not fair Even if you don't like your employee or manager or whoever like that it's not fair on them if you do not give it your all when you're actually at your job.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: So when you're at your day job, you do your day job.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: When you're on your property, you do your property.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: I like to think of it as well as when you're with your family.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Be with your family, ok, as Jim Rowan the great.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Jim Rowan always used to say when I'm at the beach, I want to be at the beach, not thinking about the office, and when I'm at the office, I want to be at the office thinking about the office, not thinking about the beach.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: So make sure that you have clarity and departmentalize what it is you're doing.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: But again, it's a great opportunity for you to be getting out there networking, telling people what you're doing.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: See if anybody you know has got any properties that they need help and support with as well.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, but also when you have your job and you have your wage coming through, you can test the market a bit more.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: So when you get your properties, with whatever strategies whether it's HMOs or serviced accommodation that you're looking at doing, potentially those strategies could be something else, but I'm just talking about those here, for examples, because I work with a lot of people for serviced accommodation and HMOs as well, with our rent toto-rent business builder training programs and things like that, so you can test the market.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: So for me, with my HMOs, we like to make those little communities as much as we possibly can.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: You can't do it in all properties, but some properties you can end up getting the same sorts of tenants in.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: You make these little communities up, these little pockets of communities, and people stay longer, they respect the property more and that they actually have a better standard of living because they are socializing with people.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Most people like to have an element of socializing, they like to be able to talk to like-minded people, to be able to get on, to feel comfortable and safe in their properties, and you can really sort of test the market with doing that.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: And then, of course, once you've got your niche, once you know the tenant types or the client types that you want to be putting in your properties, to make things better when you need the money straight away, as I say, if you can make things tick over, make sure that they're covering all costs and things like that you can test the market a little bit more and of course, that can also, in the long run, give you massive, massive profits in what you're doing and make sure that you are successful in your approach.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, so, realistically, the way that you can do this alongside a full-time job is to make sure that you plan out your weeks.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: You'll have heard me say this a million times before on different episodes.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: It's all in the planning.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Anything you do has to have a plan.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: You need to have a vision, a strong vision, what it is that you want to achieve and do.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: The first question I'll ask anybody any of you, if I ever do speak to you is what is it that you've got a bit of a passion about?
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Is it HMOs, co-living?
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Is it serviced accommodation, short-term rentals?
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Are you looking at buying properties?
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Are you looking at starting a rent-to-rent business, a management business?
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: What are you passionate about?
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Because that will keep you going when it's hard.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: So have that passion.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: With that passion, then give yourself a vision.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: In the next 12 months, I want to take on at least five, maybe 10, maybe 15, maybe 40, maybe 50 properties.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Have a good, strong vision and make sure it's a big vision, because then what we can do is we can take that vision of yours and we can start breaking it down into bite-size actions, into chunks that you can start doing on a monthly, weekly and daily basis to start winning the day, to start winning the week, to start winning the months that you're doing.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: If you've got a very demanding full-time job, you may have to sacrifice maybe a bit of TV time, maybe you might have to get up earlier or stay up a bit later, but it's a sacrifice that is worth taking.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: And if you stand there or sit there and say to me, mark, I just do not have a minute, I don't have one single minute to do anything else, then you need to just look at your life before you can start looking at building anything else.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Because if you cannot find at least 30 minutes a day to focus on building your property business, or any business for that matter, then you shouldn't be starting a business because it's not the right time for you.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: If you have a very young family and I know how demanding a young family can be you've got a very demanding full-time job, maybe you've got a partner, a spouse, a loved one that's not on the same page as you, then it can be difficult.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Then just sit it out for the minute and start taking the small actions as and when you can, okay.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Also, don't be afraid to speak to some loved ones.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: You know there's potentially grandparents that you might have there that would look after your kids a certain day or a certain time each week.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: They'd love to have the chance to do so.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: They just don't know about it at the moment because you haven't spoken to them about it.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: That's why you need to tell everybody what you're doing.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Everything, for me, goes into my Google calendar.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: So I'm here now doing this recording because it's in my Google Calendar to do.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: I live a very rigid lifestyle that people see from the outside, but I can tell you for a fact I feel the freest I have ever felt in my life.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Because I know where I need to be, I know what I'm doing and I'll tell you what.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: It's so inspiring when I look at my calendar and I see the things that I love to do and I want to get out there and do them.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: My family take precedence over that.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: So what my wife will do is she will put in our social gatherings, holidays, time away when we're going to go and do things, if we're going to go shopping, all of that goes into the calendar.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: So I know what we're doing.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Try it for yourself.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Start practicing with it.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: If you can't stick to something, just tweak and adjust it.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Remember, it's always about tweaking and adjusting things, but don't let anybody or anything stand in your way.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: If you want to start something, stop telling yourself you cannot do it.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Start telling yourself and believing in yourself that you can do it.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Because you can.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: If you need any help and support with that, please you can.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: If you need any help and support with that, please do check out thepropertyunleashedcom for free tools and resources.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: We offer coaching, we offer help, we offer one-to-one training.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: We offer programs as well that'll get you out there, get you fired up and get you on the property ladder.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining me here and I look forward to you joining me in the next episode now.