Interest rates remain fairly stagnant once more.  Looks like they were also ready for the holiday weekend.

Importance of Being Organized and Efficient:

Whether one is an employee, owns their own business, or anywhere in between, it is extremely important to be organized and efficient.  There are plenty of blogs on this topic all over the web.  However, when I looked to see if I could just cut and paste one of them here and move on to my holiday, I decided I needed to jot down my own thoughts.

I see this from three viewpoints (all of which matter).

Yourself:

If you are the type that is great at these skills, then just keep doing what you are doing.  However, if you lack in this area, then it will serve you well to improve.  Most people that I know that are organized and efficient are freed up to work on other tasks.  This increases their productivity and reduces their stress.

Then we get to those that lack these vital skills.  They are in a constant mode of chaos.  Sadly, they work way too hard and typically accomplish little.  You know the type.

• Their desks and email inbox are cluttered.
• Tasks are not completed on time.
• Follow-up and follow-through lack greatly.
• Always look busy.
• Miss opportunities since they are overwhelmed.

Your Client’s Perspective:

• Feel the tension of working with you.
• Concern that you are dropping important tasks.
• Wonders if they are your priority.
• Trying to figure out if they should fire you.
• Telling themselves not to refer you.

Your Business Partners’ Perspective:

• You are hard to work with.
• You make them work harder than necessary.
• You make them inefficient.
• Worried that you are going to not complete tasks on time.
• Worried that they will have to make up for your short-falls.
• Trying to figure out how to avoid working with you.
• Telling themselves not to refer you.

Okay, so what does this all mean?  Well, it means you are vulnerable.  It means you are losing opportunities.  And, unless you fix this, you will remain stressed out.

Fixing these problems is not easy.  When you are already overwhelmed and giving 100%, how do you go past 100%?  I will suggest baby steps.

• Talk to colleagues and ask them what they would do if they were you and why.
• See if they know someone that was in chaos and turned it around.
• Take extra time and work on organizing both the papers on your desk that distract and also your email inbox.

There are some simple approaches that many use.  When working on your desk papers, put them in folders and decide if any action is required.  If no action is required, then that is easy.  If some action is needed, then you need a system that allows you to track all items requiring follow-up.  I personally use Excel.  There are so many systems available today.  You just need to find one that is easy for you to use.

The folks that are best at this seem to always have templates for what they do.  Anything that one does over and over requires a template if one wants to be efficient.  Cutting and pasting to save time really helps.  For myself, I have templates for just about everything I do with my clients and business partners.  I do not like to work harder on something than is necessary.  And, these templates that I create are constantly being changed if I find something should be added to them.

Now I realize that adds more for you to do.  This is why I suggested above that you ask around until you see something that you feel you would commit to.  This is a business disease for you.  If you fail to correct these problems, then you will get sicker (both in business and eventually personally).

Stepping back, this is critical to your success.  It is hard to be good at everything (none of us are).  At the very least, you have to be honest about your weaknesses; and then you have to be willing to get better and ask for help.  Unfortunately, many who lack these skills try to hide their issues.  They make work harder for themselves, their clients and their business partners.  This costs all time, money and referrals.

Okay, I think I have made my point for this week.  Now I want to go back to enjoy my day off.  Hope all enjoyed their holiday weekend.

Investments Opportunities for Purchase with Strong Cash Flow:

Back on the January 15^th update, I wrote about “Creating Residential Listings Using Commercial Opportunities.”  Each week,  I am presenting some of those investment opportunities to better educate all on what is actually available.  Note that these are all Single Tenant Net Leased properties that have listed in about the last 10 days.  In addition, I assumed a 5.25% loan with 50% down.  This is just a small sample of what is actually available.

If you assume investors in the Bay Area are getting a cash flow of 3.5%, then you can see the potential improvement with these properties above.  This approach is great for the investors desiring increased cash flow, an opportunity to get out of daily property management, and/or taking the challenges of rent control off the table.  Should you wish to discuss any of these or others, then give me a call.