Organization

Organization is a great skill to have especially when it comes to the business side of things. If a company is unorganized it will make their job a lot tougher than if they had things in an orderly fashion. "My nine year old daughter and eleven year old son are very disorganized," like a majority of the world. Now a days people should not be unorganized because of the amount of technology and how much it progresses each day. We now have electronic scanners which makes filing things just that much easier and without the clutter of all of the paperwork. Having the advancement that we do in technology kind of gives us an unfair advantage over earlier generations, so you would think that businesses are more organized when we really have more of a mess. Everyone's favorite thing in the office should be there trashcan (recycling bin) because that is where all the clutter should go after it is scanned.

Risk

I know this is not the kind of advice that I should be giving, but I will give it anyway: Go to work today and quit your job. You are thinking, "What?" You heard me. Go into work and tell your boss you quit.

Have I fallen off my rocker? No, I have not. I think that we should all be self-employed. Not only that, I think you should take the greatest possible risk you can find. People who make a lot of money look for business opportunities with a great amount of risk. Truly the time to start a business is when you are younger; the older you get the less time you have to make up for a big business loss. Here are some tips for what you should do when you start your own business:

• Get married. Studies show that married people are happier.
• Learn to live off of just one income not both of yours and your spouses.
• Work for someone else in the business you are going to start before owning one. For example if you want to start a pizza business, go to work as the manager of a pizza business.
• Cut your living expenses to the bone.
• Rent don't own, try to find a landlord that will agree not to raise the rent or sell the house you are living in
• Find a business that you love to do.
• Build up a cash savings. You will need a down payment for the business.
• Educate yourself about the business. Read everything you can.
• Talk to a lot of people who have done what you are planning to do.
• Develop mentors that you can bounce ideas off of.
• Surround yourself with like-minded people.
• Develop a support group of people that you can go to in confidence with your problems.
• Read the book E Myth.
• Take some accounting classes.
• Hire a really good CPA.

What is a Good Economy for a Real Estate Investor?

Recently I was reading through Dave Paladino's blog and I came across a post that really caught my eye. It correlated with everything I've been reading about what a great buyer's market we are in and how the able-bodied should seriously consider investing in some form of real estate.

Dave wrote this post on Sept. 20, 2009, which is eerie because it sounds as if he's describing the Omaha we know today. A good economy for real estate investors, he suggested, looks different than a good economy for the rest of the business world:

1. High interest rate environment. Landlords compete with house payments, so the higher rates our competitors charge, the more we can also charge in rents.
2. Tight lending standards. If it is hard for people to borrow money, they are more likely to rent.
3. Less new construction of apartments. All business is supply and demand. The lower the supply, no matter how small, the less competition you have.
4. Big employment growth/low unemployment. [This wasn't in his original posting, but just to put Omaha's standing in this area into perspective, our unemployment rate is 4.7% and the U.S. average is 9.1%. Although our job growth, according to Sperling's Best Place is .09% - not very high.]
5. Net population increase. The more people looking to rent, the better. [According to the Greater Omaha Economic Development Partnership, Omaha has grown 12.8% in the last ten years and a 5.5% growth is projected for the next five years.]
6. High foreclosure rate. People have to live somewhere. It's not as if the demand for housing goes away.
7. Families living separately. This one is hard to measure, but it is really good for our business. Say a family has five adult children and they all live at home. It is definitely better for property owners if all these people live in separate units.

Nebraska 34, Ohio State 27

Attribution: Bobak Ha'Eri - Wikipedia

As some of you know I am a huge Nebraska football fan. I attended the Ohio State game with my 12 yr old son, Alex.We both were very confident that Nebraska would win. Well, as the game unfolded it was Ohio St. that was running right through our defense.We could not contain their pass either as they took a 20-6 lead going in at halftime. Fans booed the Huskers as they made their way to the locker oom.

As the second half started, Nebraska went three and out and Ohio State took their opening drive in for another touchdown to make it 27-6. Nebraska stalls again and Ohio St has the ball back. At this point I thought we were dead. Nothing was going right and I turned to Alex and told him "this is going to be a blowout just like Wisconsin."

Then all the sudden Ohio State fumbles.Nebraska's ball and I am about to witness something I have never seen in my 35 years of attending Nebraska football games. They score in two plays and then stop Ohio State cold, and then they score again with a long pass. Now it's 27-20 and the crowd is really loud. We hold them again and drive down and score another touchdown to tie the game 27-27. Nebraska then intercepts an Ohio State pass and proceeds to score its fourth consecutive touchdown to win 34-27! And they recorded the largest comeback win in the history of Nebraska football!

Why am I telling you this? Well we can all take something from this and that is never ever give up and always stay persistent. Nebraska needed a spark and got it with that fumble which then resulted in avalanche of touchdowns to seal the win. So when things are not going your way, when you feel like quiting just think about the cool damp Saturday evening in Lincoln, Ne. when our beloved Cornhuskers decided not to pack it in but to keep fighting, even when the score was 27-6.

Management Objectives

Landmark Group is a fast-paced workplace that is driven by tight deadlines and a company attitude that demands results and maximum effort from every one of the employees. As a manager under constant pressure to deliver the end result, I have found that it helps to keep in mind on a daily basis the following five objectives:

1. Analyze accordingly
2. Prioritize promptly
3. Force flexibility
4. Communicate constantly
5. Demand documentation

By analyzing the daily workload and prioritizing the important task of the day, I can clearly define my objectives and that of my team in order to avoid confusion. I have a plan of action to follow based upon what is high priority and working my way down from there. Of course in this business it is inevitable that issues and problems arise on a daily basis that forces priorities to change. When this happens it is important that I revisit objectives one and two before altering the course of the day and then, if necessary, be flexible enough to change priorities to fit the demands.

Communication and documentation helps keep a unity among the employees. Being clear in my communication to others helps to define a process that everyone is familiar with and avoids mishaps. Documentation is a proven way of verifying that the process and procedure was handled from the beginning through the end and provides proof of completion.

By following these five objectives daily it has helped me improve my work habits and I believe has made me a better manager at Landmark Group. Try instigating these objectives into your day as well.

Bumper Stickers

On my way to work I saw a bumper sticker that read "the problems we're facing right now will not be solved by the person and/or persons who created them." I instantly thought of our politicians and blamed them for our problems and agreed that yes - they caused the problems and yes - they would not be the ones to solve them.

But really think about this. It certainly is easy to blame everyone else for the problems when in reality, the problems have been caused by a combination of a lot of factors. We need to accept accountability and move forward and yes, I believe that even though we created the problems, we are capable of solving them. We need to stop blaming other people and just get it done.

The 4 Hour Work Week Review

Off topic from real estate, but I thought I would write a very condensed review of a book I just completed titled "The 4 Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferriss. Can you actually work only four hours a week? Highly unlikely but you can take several steps to streamline your day. This is the basic premise of the book.

Everybody has strengths and weaknesses. But don't fix your weaknesses, let someone else handle these areas for you. If your focus is totally on your strengths, you will be far more productive. The author actually recommends that you not only create a "to do list" but also a "not to do list."

Common daily time wasters are meetings, irrelevant discussions, certain phone calls, unimportant emails and web surfing. (Does facebook ring a bell?) Just stop and think how much of your day is spent on all this. He also suggests you take a one week fast from specific time-wasters, which means:

• No newspapers or magazines
• No TV - not even one second
• No news websites

I know it may be a crazy thought, but this time could be spent with loved ones.

Other ways to be more productive is to determine your most important task first thing every day and complete it by 11 AM. This is usually an item that makes the most money. Many of us begin the day doing non-productive busy work, trying to convince ourselves we are doing something important. So true if you think about it.

If you need to eliminate your unimportant busy work, and don't we all, you can obviously hire someone cheaply or you can look into a virtual assistant. This idea has been gaining popularity. You can hire someone from all over the world for about $10/hour to do just about anything you can imagine in both your professional or personal life. You can find virtual assistants at elance.com, for example.

The book goes into great detail how to only focus the important things in your day-to-day life. The bottom line: if you're doing something that can be done by someone earning minimum wage you're wasting your time. It also covers how you can make a living online and set it up to be totally automated. I highly recommend this book. You can find it anywhere and it's currently about $15 on Amazon.