Monetize Everything

Monetize Everything

Real Estate Investor · Solomons, MD · Member since 2015 · 4 posts · 0 votes

2014 was my wife an I's first year as real estate investors and we managed to get our first fix and flip under our belt.  Exciting!  

I've learned more this year actually doing then I ever did reading and researching and trying to figure out how to overcome my fears and take the leap (thanks in part to our mentor and a great network of people!).

But what I've realized in reflection is that "rehabbing" is a means to an end, even though I love the entire process.  Although it is a great way to build up some capital and maybe build a rental portfolio and some passive income, it is not going to get us living the shivas life on a beach anytime soon unless we can do some serious scaling, outsourcing, and automating.  

This realization has also got me thinking about how I can monetize everything that I do to generate other streams of income.  It appears to me that paying for a stager is a quick fix, but starting a staging business to compliment my rehabbing business is better.  Why give free advice when I can become a coach.  How can I sell this excel spreadsheet I spent months refining.  How can I capture all of these profitable ideas running through my head and manifest a real business model around them; maybe write a book like @J Scott did.  

All of these ideas have once again got me feeling stuck, not sure which direction to go in.  I can see that focusing on too many things at once can lead to every aspect of my business suffering.  I can spend the next decade rehabbing 500 houses too.  Ok, then what.  

I guess I was hoping to open this discussion and hear how other people feel on the subject.  Does anyone have experience monetizing aspects of their business?  Success stories?  Challenges?  

I was a bit surprised to see that there was very few threads on BP discussing monetization. 

Jason

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Wholesaler · Whippany, NJ · Member since 2009 · 412 posts · 183 votes
11y

Hi Jason,

As a person who has fallen victim to this myself, you have to watch that you don't spread yourself too thin.  It's a great thought to try and monetize different aspects of your business, but splitting your attention at this point in your flipping career might be a mistake.  

Every time I try and do multiple things at once, everything suffers.  I say, keep working on flipping houses for a year or two more.  When you have a more automated process and have people working for you.  Then try to add another piece to the business (coaching or selling your spread sheet).  

This is just my 2cents.

-Scott

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  • Wholesaler · Whippany, NJ · Member since 2009 · 412 posts · 183 votes
    11y

    Hi Jason,

    As a person who has fallen victim to this myself, you have to watch that you don't spread yourself too thin.  It's a great thought to try and monetize different aspects of your business, but splitting your attention at this point in your flipping career might be a mistake.  

    Every time I try and do multiple things at once, everything suffers.  I say, keep working on flipping houses for a year or two more.  When you have a more automated process and have people working for you.  Then try to add another piece to the business (coaching or selling your spread sheet).  

    This is just my 2cents.

    -Scott

  • Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2014 · 592 posts · 765 votes
    11y

    Life is short.  Give your undivided focus to the stuff you enjoy doing.  Outsource everything else to qualified individuals.

  • Real Estate Consultant · Chicago, IL · Member since 2014 · 720 posts · 439 votes
    11y

    @Jason H. do what you are passionate about! The more you love what you do, the more time & effort to invest and the better you get. Creating business is easy, marketing them, managing them, paying bills is a different story. Every year out of 100 business that are started, 90 business fail, and in the next five years, out of the last 10 remaining only 5 will be standing.

    Choose one business: rehab, buy & hold, a different business and run with it. When you get great at it, have systems & people in place and your presence is needed, than you can move to the next project.

    Hope this helps!

  • J ScottPro Member
    Moderator
    Investor · Sarasota, FL · Member since 2008 · 18k+ posts · 17k+ votes
    11y
    Originally posted by @Jason H.:
    Although it is a great way to build up some capital and maybe build a rental portfolio and some passive income, it is not going to get us living the shivas life on a beach anytime soon unless we can do some serious scaling, outsourcing, and automating.  

    So then, why don't you focus on serious scaling, outsourcing and automation instead of trying to spread yourself thin by doing lots of stuff that's not yet a core competency?

    If you can't scale and systematize your rehabbing business, it's unlikely that you'll find starting a staging business to be a good source of income -- scaling a staging business is similar to scaling a fix-and-flip business.  If you can't get 20, 50 or 100 flips under your belt, what makes you think you'd be able to do a good job coaching or writing books about it?

    Btw, you used my books as an example of monetizing a flipping business.  Given the number of hours I spent writing the books and given my average hourly earn flipping houses, I can almost guarantee that I would have made more money by not writing the books and just using that time to flip more houses.

    The reason I wrote the books was that I love writing, and I'm willing to take a pay cut to do it!  I'm doing a lot more writing these days, but I'm realistic about the fact that I'm probably hurting my earning potential by doing it...not increasing my earning potential.

    In summary, focus on flipping...it's likely to be more lucrative (if you can scale and optimize it) than the ancillary stuff you're thinking about...

    Just my $.02...

  • Investor · Cincinnati, OH · Member since 2015 · 374 posts · 120 votes
    10y

    Great topic and even better replies.  Like the others, I agree that you need to focus on your niche, which should align with your top ability/love and let go of all the other ideas floating in your head.  Believe me, I have ideas all the time but I know I can't pursue them all; I must maintain focus.

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