The Property Unleashed Podcast

Mastering Time Management and Property Investment with Mark Fitzgerald

• Mark Fitzgerald • Episode 292

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Unlock the secrets to mastering time management in property projects and propel your business to new heights. Have you ever thought about why some investors consistently succeed while others falter? 

Discover the transformative strategies of Mark Fitzgerald, who shares invaluable insights into prioritising tasks that truly move the needle in your property business. Learn how to use tools like Google Calendar to balance business and personal life, all while setting specific goals to maintain focus. Inspired by "The 12-Week Year," Gerard's approach of working in 90-day periods promises a blueprint for sustained success.

Explore the essential steps to maximizing property investment success through proactive relationship-building and creative financing options. Gerard emphasizes the power of getting out into the field to secure deals, offering practical advice for those navigating tight budgets, including the innovative rent-to-rent strategy. Time blocking and the concept of a "general's tent" ensure you stay on track and regularly refine your strategies. With these game-changing tips, you're not just managing your time effectively—you're building a solid foundation for future growth in the property investment landscape. Tune in to transform your approach and share in the success that awaits.

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Speaker 1:

Five top tips to help you with your own time management. Hello and welcome to the Property Unleashed. My name is Marfitts Gerard. It's great to have you joining me here.

Speaker 1:

So we only have so much time in our lives. I've spoken about this before, but it's very, very important to make sure that you're maximizing the time you spend on your property projects. Why? Well, because we only have so much time. We have busy lives, don't we? Some of us have jobs I have a job, but I have my own businesses as well but some of us are working full time. Some of us have family commitments, we have social hobbies and all sorts. So we have to make sure that we break down into chunks our time, but we stick to our schedule as effectively as we can. Now, a lot of the times you'll hear people saying well, you know, things happen in life and of course, they do. As I say, we have busy lives, but it's about making sure that, even at the end of the week, you've given yourself some time slots to be able to slot in the things that will help consistently move you forward in whatever business, whatever lifestyle, whatever you desire in life.

Speaker 1:

Myself, I've had to work on this very, very hard. This isn't easy. This isn't just something you write down, you try it once and then it just flows and works to perfection. You have to really tweak it to suit your own circumstances. You have to work hard at this. So what are the five things? Well, the first one is to prioritize your tasks. It's very, very easy for us to set a little to-do list and start knocking off the things that are easy, that aren't really ever going to move us forward. If you are looking at building your own property business maybe you're looking at building your own rent-to-rent business, whether that's with HMOs or serviced accommodation you've got to make sure that you are prioritizing the tasks that will actually get you the deals over the line, that will start to get you that revenue management, start to get you that income, that cash flow coming through. Because if you're not, if you're just doing the niceties and enjoying yourself, you're never actually going to move yourself forward. You're going to think this doesn't work, I cannot actually move myself forward, nothing seems to be happening. But it's really just that you're doing the nice things that are easy to do. You're not actually doing the tasks that you have to do to grow and build a successful property business.

Speaker 1:

So some of your tasks want to be your marketing. You want to make sure that you are marketing consistently and persistently. Of course, over the course of time, you're sending out letters, flyers, postcards, brochures, whatever it is that you want to be doing, but you're doing it on a consistent basis. You've got to be ringing agents up. You've got to be inquiring about empty properties, properties on their books that they potentially need help with. You want to be out there, of course, networking with people, scheduling in when can you actually make those networking events? And scheduling in the time afterwards to follow up with people that you've met at networking events as well. No point going and spending all your time going to these events, making connections, but then never following up with people, maybe never to be seen again.

Speaker 1:

You've got to make sure that you're following up with people on a basis that is easy for you to manage but also is set into your diary, is set into an allocated slot for you to be doing these things. Of course, email marketing, replying to emails and setting up viewings and things also needs to be in your priority list. So if you do end up finding that you have a to-do list, put a line down your middle of your paper and have, on one side, priorities these are the things that are going to move my business forward and these are non-negotiables. And then have your little to-do list, if you have to have your to-do list. I don't believe in to-do lists because I think we make these massive lists, we take a handful of things off and we never end up going through all anyway, or we get overwhelmed, we get demoralized because we're not taking enough things off, and that's no good for anybody either.

Speaker 1:

So make sure you have some sort of calendar set up. I use Google Calendar for mine, but make sure you're planning out your chunks of time and you're allocating those tasks to that time. And maybe you give yourself 30 minutes to do a phone call and maybe you only do need 15. Then you've got 15 minutes spare. Do a phone call, and maybe you only need 15. Then you've got 15 minutes spare. You can move on to another task or you can just have that time to yourself. Give yourself little rewards, but also set time into your calendar and into your schedule.

Speaker 1:

That is a priority for you. A lot of the time we can fill it up with everything with family life, with work, with building a property business with education, with building a property business with education, with all of those things, and we never actually put any time in there for ourselves. So put down, like I do, fun time. This is time for you. This isn't even family time I put family time in there and everything but I have a little bit of time for me just to do whatever, whatever I want to do for a couple of hours, if I can do. You know you might be thinking well, at the weekend I'll do that anyway, but schedule it in so that you know that you've done it. Set specific goals.

Speaker 1:

At number two, you've got to make sure you're setting specific goals and targets. You've got to have a destination. You've got to know where you're trying to get to. How many deals do you want to get in the next month or two or three months? I like to work in 90-day slots, in basically three months conformity. And if you've never read the book the 12-Week Year, I highly recommend that you read it or listen to it on Audible, but that you take the actual nuggets from that book and start incorporating them into your life. It really will help you break down the next three months and make you more successful, potentially, if you take these actions in three months than a lot of people are over the course of 12 months.

Speaker 1:

So it's really, really important that any goals that you have, you break them down into smaller, manageable Okay. So really look at your end goal. I want to have 10 deals in a year. Potentially, let's have some big targets here, and if I only get five, I'd still be a very, very happy person. But how are you going to do that? Well, I need to roll that back because at the moment, I need funding. I need, obviously, leads. I need to make sure that I know what I'm doing. So those are the three things that I need right here, right now. So, firstly, let's work on I need to know what I'm doing.

Speaker 1:

Are you educated in whatever strategy that it is that you're trying to do? If you are, fine, great stuff. Take that one off. You don't need to worry about that. Just make sure you always keep yourself up to date with the latest regulations, the latest changes and what's going on out there. Never think you know everything. I don't know everything. I'm always looking and striving and learning and pivoting with the times. But make sure that you know what you're doing, first and foremost because you can lose so much money by not knowing so.

Speaker 1:

If you're building a rent-to-rent business and you have no idea what to do, you've just read a couple of books, listened to some podcasts, watched some YouTube videos and you think it's a good idea. First stop is to get yourself educated in whatever strategy that it is you're trying to do. If you need help with HMOs, serviced accommodation, rent to rent deal sourcing, head over to thepropertyunleashedcom, my website. Go to the free resources tab, click on that and we've got some masterclass trainings. We've got some free PDF guides that you can download. That'll start getting you educated for free. Okay, now, I put these out there for free, but just think, at the end of the day, these are actually worth money. I just put them out there because I like to try and help people build on those stepping stones to create the lives that they desire. So head over to the propertyunleashedcom, click on the free resources tabs and help yourself to anything that you want there. Okay, it's there to help and support you and, if you do that, schedule in some time to be able then to go through what it is that you're downloading, what it is that you're keeping for yourself the masterclasses, make notes and things. Go over them, read the books, the PDFs and everything and really start to educate yourselves in those sectors. If it's not any of those things, it's something else. Look elsewhere, see where you need to be to really hone and really learn what it is that you want.

Speaker 1:

The next thing, of course, is finding deals. A lot of people like to just scour the portals. Oh, I just look online and that's all they ever do. You're never going to get a deal sat on your behind. You've got to get out there and you've got to be talking to people. You've got to be looking at properties. You've got to be negotiating on deals and things. As the old saying goes, the more hands you shake, the more money you can make. It's all about building up those relationships and getting out there, so start scheduling in that time to get out there.

Speaker 1:

If you have no money, you need to Start making sure that you are posting about your property investment business that you're building, that you're talking to everybody about the opportunities not trying to sell to anybody, but you're talking about the opportunities that are out there to be able to help people get better returns on their money. Of course, start saving yourself. Sacrifice some stuff right here, right now, some subscriptions and things, short-term paying for long-term gain. When I started in my property business, we did as a family. We cut the fat off of everything that we could possibly do. We got rid of subscriptions, we really went down to the basics and I always will thank my family as well for supporting me on this because we needed to do so. We didn't have a large chunk of money to get out there and do things, which is why I always help and show people now how to get out there and build a property business with little to no money.

Speaker 1:

But you will need some money, even if it's just to get educated or just to have a coach or just to have that support. But you will need it. For marketing, you will need to get out there. Some people say I'm not going to start until I got 10 grand. Well, depending on the strategy that you're doing, you don't always need 10 grand. 900 pounds was all I needed to do. One rent to rent deal that started cash flowing 550 pounds a month and that was a 900 pounds for a couple of carpets and a bit of painting, and that is the most I've ever spent on a rent to rent deal, people are spending tens and thousands of pounds. You don't need to do that Now. In some cases you might do, but there's lots of different ways and I show my students how to do this Lots of different ways that you can fund deals that you don't actually have to put your hand in your own pocket.

Speaker 1:

But make sure again, that you've taken the time to sort that out. You've penciled in who you're going to be meeting, how you're going to be talking to people and how you're going to be positioning yourself out there. Okay, so once you've done those three things, you've broken them down into bite-sized chunks. You can then schedule them in week on week, day on day, so to speak, month on month. Over the next three months, you should be able to get yourself out there and get yourself a deal. It really is as simple as that. So we've touched on this already.

Speaker 1:

But at number four, it is about using time blocks. So set out chunks of time that you know that you can stick to to put in the tasks that you need to be doing. So if you're educating yourself, what sort of timeframe, what's the best time for you? Is it worth getting up early? Setting out the first hour or half an hour of the day to start educating yourself before the day takes over and sweeps you away. If you have lunch breaks, can you set a chunk out of that lunch break to maybe sit and have your lunch whilst making phone calls, whilst looking for property deals, whilst also posting and things like that. Set out time slots, allocated time slots, and give yourself some buffers around those. And, of course, don't try and cram everything into all week. Try and cram things into Monday, tuesday, wednesday. Give yourself some buffer, some time slots on the Thursday and the Friday, if you can, maybe even the Saturday and Sunday, just in case you don't manage to do what you had set out Monday, tuesday, wednesday because life got in the way. It's a great technique to use and it'll make you feel like you're making great progress, moving forward in your property investing. And, of course, finally, at number five, it is all about taking 10 to 15 minutes each week to review and adjust what it is that you're doing. If you do not take time to review and see what's working, what's not working, what could be better, to review and see what's working, what's not working, what could be better, then this will all fall apart very, very quickly.

Speaker 1:

I call it my general's tent. Now, a general's tent was what they used to have on the battlefields, which is where they did all the planning. If you didn't have a general's tent, you'd have all of your soldiers, all of your armies, running around like headless chicken. No, they had a general's tent where they would plan, they would review what's just happened and they would plan what they're going to do going forward. Have your own general's tent. Okay, take that time. It can take about 15 minutes Initially. It might take you 20 minutes or something.

Speaker 1:

But really have a journal or whatever it is that you keep your schedule in and just review what has worked well this week. Well, that worked well. What could I tweak next week? Because maybe I struggled to fit that in, maybe I couldn't go and make those phone calls I wanted to make, or I couldn't spend that time educating myself because stuff got in the way at that very moment. Okay, so next week, if that's going to happen again, I need to move these time slots. Make sure that you're always adjusting and always reviewing.

Speaker 1:

Don't just set a calendar out and say, well, I'm going to go to the gym three times a week from this time, this time, this time, by the end of the week you haven't even gone once. Why? Because it's just not a time that works for you. Okay, you make sure that it works for your schedule, that it works for you, and of course, that will help you get the results that you want. Help you get the results that you want. If you need any further help or assistance with that, then do feel free to reach out to us. Visit thepropertyunleashedcom and see all the tools, resources, training and coaching that we offer there. I hope this episode's helped you and I tell you now it's absolutely changed my life and helped me to create the life that I desire. I want the same for you, so get out there and put it into practice and, of course, let me know how it works for you. Take care. I'll see you all very soon. Bye for now.