Turn this moment of crisis into an opportunity to improve your Systems and Strategy! What are some key things that you can focus on while in lockdown?

• Pipelines. Think about how you manage the process of someone being a potential opportunity all the way through to them actually becoming a client. Is it documented with a concrete process flow, or is it all in your head? If it's the latter, now is the perfect time to get it out of your head, put it into practice and into some kind of process across all pipelines - property, investor, landlord, etc. For those just starting out, utilising Excel Spreadsheets would be manageable. For those of you who are more established, you would be needing some sort of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to manage all of that. In the course of building your pipelines, figure out what those distinct stages are and how your opportunities move through it so you can ultimately get your team to support you more in the progression of potential opportunities.
• Criteria - Deal and Investor Avatar. Establish your business model and deal criteria, and make sure that your deal source, your investor avatar, and yourself are clear on those. Review and make an action plan on what sort of investors would be the right ones to work with through 2020 and 2021 are.
• Relationships. Keep building and strengthening relationships, use this time as the beginning of a new chapter. Reach out to everyone more, whether it be your deal source, your investors, your banks, your tenants, and your team.
• Lettings Systems. If you have time and a decent-sized portfolio, it might be worth considering bringing your lettings in-house. We implemented this system a year before, and we saw a drop in our arrears and a dramatic reduction in our voids. Adding to the fact the our rents increased when they were previously decreasing, the net effect of our new system was a 50% increase in net profit.
• Financial Management Systems. Do you have cashflow forecasts and a clear balance sheet? Our team put a huge amount of focus, time, and energy into our Financial Management Systems, and have gone from a very simple cashflow forecast spreadsheet into an amazing financial dashboard with all the figures necessary to the business in one place. Wherever you are, now is the time to improve your business' financial management systems. They are integral to surviving and ultimately thriving through these times.
• Operational Infrastructure. How do you manage your tasks? How do you communicate with your team? Can you streamline everything? Get more efficient and productive while in lockdown, and come out the other side of this with a business that is far more robust and ready to scale.

In the mood for more strategic thinking?

There's plenty more where that came from...