During this holiday season, why not set some time aside in between family gatherings and office parties to work on your HMO business? Whether you’re a veteran HMO investor or brand-new to HMOs, there’s always more you could be doing to scale your portfolio or business.
Here are our 12 days of Christmas for HMO property investors, providing actionable tips on how you can grow your business this holiday season.
1. Assess What You’ve Achieved This Year
It’s key to know how your HMO business or portfolio has been performing and how it can be improved. The holiday season is a good time to look back on what you’ve achieved this year and start thinking about how you can scale your business further next year.
2. Start Putting in Business Shortcuts to Help You Work Less and Achieve More
There are a number of solutions that can help you get the most out of your HMO business, while allowing you to work less. This is a big part of business success, so this holiday season put a plan in place to ensure you are prioritising income-generating activities.
Next, look for areas in your business where you can eliminate, simplify, automate and delegate. Then, as we often repeat some of the same processes over and over, find certain bodies of work you can batch together. Finally, find what processes and structure you can put in place to allow yourself to be proactive and not reactive throughout 2022.
3. Improve Funding Strategy to Scale Your HMO Portfolio
There are four pillars of funding that you can master when it comes to HMOs. If you get the right strategy in place, this will ensure when you want to buy your next HMO property or do the next refurbishment that you already have the cash in place to do so.
The four pillars are knowing your numbers, raising private finance, recycling capital, and accessing HMO mortgages. Write down your strategy to improve these pillars, so you can tap into all four at any point. This will give you a solid foundation to be able to act on opportunities as and when they come up throughout the year.
4. Prepare Your HMO Properties for The Future
Running a successful HMO business is all about ensuring your properties work for today, tomorrow, next year, in five years, and even 10 years down the line. Put together a plan for how you can start implementing future-proofing solutions across your portfolio.
Finance and stress test every deal thoroughly before making any purchases, so make sure you understand how to do this effectively. And as prioritising location is key, take the time to learn the ins and outs of an area you’re interested in investing in.
Additionally, research ways you can stay ahead of the competition, understand your liabilities and the legislation, and look at ways you can provide a more superior management service.
5. Think About How You Can Better Motivate Staff
Managing and motivating your team is a crucial part of getting better results from your HMO business. Whether you’re hiring your first staff member or you already have employees within your business, if you can get this right, then it’s much easier to run a successful business.
Reflect on what you could do in 2022 to better motivate your staff, including putting progression schemes in place, creating the right business culture, thinking about the little things, undertaking appraisals regularly, and hiring the right staff members in the first place.
6. Make a Plan for Implementing Structure, Processes, and Procedures
Make sure you have systems and processes written down in detail to create structure within your HMO business. This provides accountability and ensures standards are being maintained.
Look at each facet of your business and work on implementing structure into it. Start by writing down a list of problems you’re currently facing. Then, analyse these issues and prioritise tasks.
From there, you can start writing down and creating Standard Operating Procedures. If you already have these in place, map out time after the new year to audit your business and see if you’re getting the performance you need.
7. Prepare for Changes in the HMO Investment Market
Moving forward, there are a number of factors that could influence the future of the HMO investment market. Rethink your HMOs and the type of property you’re buying and developing. Be prepared to make changes, and be aware of what the competition is doing.
Additional legislative changes could also be on the horizon, and as a HMO investor, you need to stay up-to-date with the industry regulations. Put measures in place so you can better keep up with any industry updates.
8. Make a Plan for Building a HMO Business and Not Just Another Job
It’s hugely beneficial to build a HMO business – instead of just having another job or being self-employed. To do this, look at what you need to do to actively drive results and prioritise those tasks.
Consider recruiting a staff member to help free up your time. Also, systemise your business and reinvest your profits into systems, processes and staff. We all want to generate more cash flow, but you have to invest in these areas to grow.
It’ll take time to get to the point where you can step out of your business. However, if you start putting the right plan in place, you’ll be well on your way, and if you start thinking about this during the holiday season, you could put a plan in place for the new year.
9. Write Down an Action Plan for Finding HMO Deals
Set out a plan to help you find the right HMO deals, even in a tough market. Write this down on paper to help keep yourself accountable, and then you’ll need to set aside time to tackle this and execute the plan.
To get you started, reassess what a deal really means to you and re-evaluate the location you’re wanting to invest in. Then, get your diary out and start blocking out time for you to work on finding deals.
10. Work on Smashing Your Limiting Beliefs
If you have been dealing with negative thoughts that are holding you back, identify your limiting beliefs. These are convictions that we believe are true and that in some way, limit us from achieving what we want.
Once you’ve identified your limiting beliefs, analyse them and assess your skills. Then, find solutions to give you that confidence to replace your limiting belief with a belief that you can do it. Start the new year off with a newfound confidence in yourself and what you’re doing!
11. Put a Step-By-Step Plan in Place for Scaling Your Business
There are a number of critical areas you need to focus on in order to scale your HMO business, so pick a few to mull over during the holiday season. Building a business is an evolutionary process, so you’ll need to create a step-by-step plan and keep coming back to it as your business grows.
These steps include doing your own due diligence and research, creating and updating your business plan, setting KPIs and priorities, implementing systems, and surrounding yourself with the right people.
12. Set Goals for the Year Ahead
Setting goals and assessing what you’ve achieved is crucial to improving the success of any business. Set goals on a short, mid, and long-term basis, but over the holiday season, think about your goals for the year ahead and what you’ll need to do to get there. Then, prioritise the tasks and activities that will help you accomplish those goals.
Do you have extra time this holiday season to sharpen your tools and learn more about the HMO industry and running a business? If so, check out The HMO Podcast, the UK’s top resource dedicated to HMO property investors and developers.
And for more step-by-steps lessons and resources on how to start, scale and systemise your HMO business, become a member of The HMO Roadmap today!
Happy Christmas, and happy investing!
About the Author:
Andy Graham is the founder and the lead trainer at The HMO Roadmap! He is also the co-founder of The HMO Mastermind and Smart Property, a specialist HMO property investment and management company. He writes as a regular columnist in different magazines about a variety of HMO topics and is the host of The HMO Podcast! Follow Andy on Instagram!