Welcome back, While learning, growing, and stretching our investing businesses many of us have inevitably make mistakes, not acted fast enough, or speculated more than we should. I know I have. “Focus on the bright side” is a popular and cheery mantra we often say to ourselves in moments we need to feel a little better about a particular negative situation or event in our lives. With regards to building your real estate investing business, this “focusing on the positive” in most situations may be the very best thing you do for your business. Although I believe in the power of positive thinking to lift our moods and really help motivate ourselves, this is not the type of “focusing on the positive” I am referring to in this article. Below are some real world examples of how and where to start being more conscious about seeing the positive and trying to increase what is already working in your real estate investing business. While Advertising: Perhaps the most common example many of us see on a regular basis is with regards to our marketing and advertising efforts. Over the past 12 years I have paid for, implemented, tested, and tracked almost every advertising method I could afford. Some of these methods works beautifully and other methods lead to zero incoming calls. While tracking every dollar spent on your advertising and marketing budget you can see where your dollars are most effective. Ideally for every dollar you spend to generate seller or buyer calls you should aim to generate well over one dollar in revenue. Keep what works and focus on these methods, and ditch what is not working. Related: The Ultimate Guide to Using Direct Mail Advertising to Grow Your Real Estate Business While Branding: When I first decided to start my career as a real estate investor I began advertising and looking for the same properties many other investors in my area were already looking for. I quickly realized I was a very small guppy in a very large sea. It wasn’t until after 3 months of actively looking for my first SFR deal that I coincidentally stumbled upon a seller of a clean and spacious 3 bedroom mobile home with 2.5 acres of land. Soon after this point I began ditching the Real Estate Investor title, and instead took on the brand of active Mobile Home Investor. Being one of only a few mobile home investors in my area, my results and productivity went through the proverbial roof. I ditched the common-place investor title which wasn’t working for me, and started calling myself a mobile home investor that was already producing more results in a few weeks than in my first 3 months. While Picking Partners: You have strengths and you have weaknesses. We all do. Although I am not a fan of a full-time business partner unless you are able to produce more than 2 times the results as you would alone, partnering with other investors for the occasional deal may make great business sense. While we are choosing the right partner make sure they have skills and talents you do not possess. See some examples below: 1. Money investor: An investor that has the capital or credit to close the deal. Without this investor this deal would be difficult to fund. 2. Deal Finder: An investor with a lead/deal. Without this investor you would never likely have access to this deal. 3. Seasoned Investor: An investor that has the experience in this niche of investing. Without this investor you would be learning by trial-and-error versus experience. In all of these examples the people mentioned may or may not have very significant character flaws. With that said make sure that the purpose for them being in your partnership is worth having them there. Focus on what they do bring to the table, and ditch what they don’t bring to the table. When Negotiating with Sellers: Perhaps one of my favorite ways to focus on the positives is while negotiating with sellers. In my niche of mobile home investing, as with most niche of real estate, we create value by helping sellers and buyers. While working with each seller there are typically 5-10+ editable aspects of every mobile home deal. Depending what a seller wants and needs we can offer them a myriad of purchase offers to buy their unwanted mobile home. Related: Why Appealing to People This Way Will Help You Close More Deals… After presenting offers to every seller many of them will wish to negotiate a bit before agreeing to a selling price/terms or passing. While in this negotiation I always aim to focus on what they do love and ditch what they don’t like. If there is a way I can add to what they like to get the deal closed, I will always aim for this. Investor reminder: While investing I ditch what doesn’t make the seller happy and keep what does. With all this said it is important to note that as investors we ideally should only close deals that are very-very profitable for us and win-win for all parties. In conclusion remain active and start being on the look-out for how you feel, what is producing results in your business, and what is making you happiest in your business. Track these numbers and ditch what isn’t working and increase what is. Love what you do daily, John Fedro