Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been much uncertainty for the past year. This has included uncertainty in the HMO market and economy as a whole.
With this uncertainty, it may be difficult to know whether you should be focusing on growing your business or just focusing purely on survival. Here we’ll discuss those challenges and cover how to operate your HMO business in an uncertain market.
Find these helpful tips below or listen to the full episode on The HMO Podcast with me and my good friend, advisor and mentor John Paul.
What Does Economic Uncertainty Mean for Your HMO business?
There’s no question about it, the past year has been an uncertain time. When it comes to operating your HMO business, it can be challenging to know what to do. There is still a big question mark over not just the property market but the economy in general.
The deadline for the stamp duty holiday is looming. And after numerous extensions, the furlough scheme is set to come to an end on 30th September. Given this uncertainty, you may be asking yourself how can I even operate in the market? How can I look for results, or should I even be looking for results?
Everyone is feeling the effects of COVID. No one knows what the economy or house prices will do in the coming months. It could continue to be a challenging year, and there’s no better time to start strategising than now. A few tweaks and changes to your attitude and behaviour could drive stronger results.
Advice for Performing in an Uncertain Market
With all this talk about the ongoing uncertainty, you may be feeling overwhelmed or anxious. But don’t worry, we’ve made it easy and outlined our top tips to implement into your HMO business in an uncertain market. So here we go!
1. Have a Strong Mindset
First and foremost, it’s more about creating a strong and resilient mindset than anything else. Don’t dig your head in the sand and think the uncertainty and problems that go with it will all go away. The reality is you need to pull up your socks and face any problems head-on.
2. Go Back to Basics
When it comes to things like occupancy or what you’re buying, an uncertain market can seem particularly challenging. But prioritise doing the basics consistently. Make your products and services as good as they possibly can be. And ensure your whole team understands what they’re doing and what you’re trying to achieve.
3. Overcome Overwhelming Feelings
Whenever you’re feeling overwhelmed, compartmentalise any problems you’re facing and deal with them systematically. Write each overarching problem down on a sheet of paper and list every single issue involved.
Next, go down that list and delegate the tasks that you can. Knock out the easy items first. For the bigger problems, write down next to them what you need to do to solve them and the amount of time it will take. Then, block out the tasks and activities in your diary. This allows you to clearly see a way out.
4. Focus on What You Can Control
When there is uncertainty, especially from something as impactful as a pandemic, there are certain things you simply can’t control, so it’s important to focus on what we can actually impact. Keep in mind that every problem doesn’t necessarily have a solution and not every problem can be solved.
5. Make Your Business Bulletproof
Look at your business and try to make it as bulletproof as possible. Is your business systemised? Do you have a clear strategy in place? Do you know where you want to get to?
That doesn’t mean that in January last year you had a plan and it didn’t change much. It might have been that in January 2020 it was all about growth. And then in March, April, and May 2020, it was all about survival. That’s fine. You just need to be able to adapt.
Make a strategy that allows your business to become more agile and get your members of staff on board with it. This will allow you to act quickly and be able to pivot if and when you need to.
6. Buy for Yield
With the stamp duty holiday coming to an end and the property market running hot, many HMO landlords are unsure if it’s a good time to buy a property. If your strategy is to buy and hold on to the investment, it doesn’t matter when you buy.
It’s always been said that the best time to buy property was 10 years ago, and the second-best time is today. If you want a property, the figures work and it fits with your strategy, then buy it.
7. Build a Sustainable Business
Creating a sustainable HMO business can help you be successful even in an uncertain market. Your business should be founded on sustainable services and products. And then the right measures need to be put in place to build sustainable foundations that can weather the storm of uncertainty.
So there you go! I hope my 7 tips have got you thinking about what you can focus on to perform effectively in an uncertain market. But it can be easy to get lost and overwhelmed with how to run your HMO business, and that’s why I built the HMO Roadmap membership site to help you every step of the way.
For more useful resources and tips, join The HMO Roadmap today!
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!