Are you in the early stages of starting your HMO portfolio or business? You may be asking yourself where do I even start? What’s the first step? And what about the step after that? It’s easy to start feeling overwhelmed, especially if you want to scale quickly.

But don’t worry, here we’ll reveal our seven-step action plan that can help you nail down how to start and scale your business, including tips to help you get there MUCH faster.

Read the step-by-step action plan on how to do this below or listen to the full episode on The HMO Podcast.

7 Steps for Starting Your HMO Business

There are key areas you need to focus on in order to kickstart your HMO business. Following these steps as you start your business will save you a lot of time and money in the long run.

Building any business is an evolutionary process, so you’ll need to keep coming back to these steps as your business grows and evolves.

Keep in mind that these shouldn’t be rushed or implemented all at once. And there is no need to spend a lot of money on these steps either. To start with, it’s all about addressing these areas and putting a plan of action in place.

So what are the seven steps? Let’s get started!

1. Get Informed, Pick a Strategy and Stick to It

We need to do our own research and due diligence. You need to know with absolute confidence that you’ll be investing in the right property in the right location that makes sense for your circumstances and goals.

Take the time to understand what particular strategy and type of property suits your lifestyle, ambitions and financial requirements. To some extent, you have to start with the end goal in mind. And once you have a plan, stick to it. If you’re persistent and consistent with your actions, you will see good results. 

2. Set Your Goals and Priorities

Set goals on a short, mid and long-term basis. It’s really important that we all have that flag in the ground – even from right at the beginning. Think about what you want to achieve and what you will need to do to actually get there. 

Then, prioritise what you need to do to accomplish those goals. You will have to make some sacrifices along the way, but keep in mind that your business will ultimately be the victim if you don’t commit the time that it needs.

3. Set Up Your Business 

If you want your business to flourish, then naturally you’ll need to start properly setting your business up. This involves a number of activities, including:

• Implementing structure
• Planning how you’ll keep track of compliance and regulations
• Deciding how you’ll finance your business and raise capital
• Creating a brand that visually represents your mission

Once you’ve started thinking about these four areas of your business, you can start prioritising them and putting time aside to build upon them. 

4. Create a Business Plan

A business plan sets out what your key objectives are and how you’re going to get there. It’s your compass – a document you can refer back to at any point to keep you on track.

Once you start creating your business plan, you can also begin setting out a forecast and timeline. You need to be realistic with this and have a sensible plan of action. The goal post might move a little along the way, but it’s better to have a plan and be prepared from the outset. 

5. Set KPIs

We need to set key performance indicators (KPIs) that we can target and measure. On a granular level, this allows us to look towards our goals and break them down into bite sized actions that we need to do on a daily and weekly basis. This can help you be proactive about achieving your goals.

6. Implement Systems

Systems should be implemented for everything you do in your business, from managing properties and building investor relationships to managing your social media accounts and even how to deal with phone calls.

Implementing systems involves pulling all of the pieces together on how to deliver a specific task. Writing these down allows you to have a process that you and future staff can follow. Systems help ensure that tasks are done consistently and to the right standard and provide a way to hold yourself and your staff accountable.

7. Surround Yourself with the Right People

Finally, the people that you surround yourself with can really help you accomplish what you want to achieve. There is so much value and power in building a diverse network, so put time into building relationships in HMO and business networks – and even in your personal life.

A good place to start is by joining  The HMO Community Facebook Group, which is full of people just like you. You can get advice, support and insights directly from people with hands-on experience in the HMO industry. Come and join us!

So there you go! I hope this action plan has got you thinking about the key areas you should be focusing on to kickstart and grow your HMO business.

For more step-by-step lessons on how to start and scale your HMO business quickly, 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!