While 2023 was a year of growth by building off of and learning from mistakes, 2024 is going to be a year of systems and processes. This year, my team and I worked hard on our vision. We have a great group of people around us in our wholesaling and acquisition company we’ve created, Guerilla Investments LLC, and are excited to put the processes in place to scale our vision with the right systems in the new year. For us, this means several things.
- Solidifying our company-wide day-to-day key driving activities so we can isolate them and use that isolation to accelerate growth.
- Make sure we are at the cutting edge and always looking for new ways to make our business predictable. With predictability comes scale.
- Nail down our processes and onboard/retain talent to help them grow and reach their potential within our business.
These drivers will be our core focuses in the new year. Isolating these focuses is good practice for any entrepreneur to make sure they’re on the right track. Clarity is absolutely essential when looking to scale and with a clear and precise area of focus, you can be sure you’re hitting your targets.
Isolating our roles
Clarity on roles is a system my team and I have struggled with in 2023 with much overlap and loosely defined roles and responsibilities for the majority of the year. As the year progressed and we became more settled into our verbal agreement on roles, business flowed well. However, there is still overlap to a degree where expectations aren’t as clear as they could/should be on what each partner’s role is. Having an iron clad JV agreement where responsibilities are designed to the letter ensures that nothing falls through the cracks when things get hectic in our process. Right now, we are doing anywhere between 6-10 deals a month. Things are already getting clunky at those numbers and that is nowhere near where we want to be in 2024. Getting crystal clear on our written agreement will take more than a few hours to fine tune and finalize. This also includes team member responsibilities under the owners of our company including our callers and lead manager. Having clear expectations and a unified vision tightens up unsuspecting loose ends in a scaling business and keeps unnecessary growing pains largely unnoticed. This will be one of our main focus points right out of the gate for 2024.
Staying on the cutting edge
In the business of real estate, staying ahead means staying on top. Having multiple lead sources and being able to manage and scale them in 2024 is going to propel our business into the stratosphere. Staying on the cutting edge means investing in education and studying the trends of the marketplace. We are currently working on MULTIPLE avenues of lead generation and systems to maintain them now. One of these is an AI software designed to cold call and text potential prospects as well as answer incoming calls through our dialer and vet leads so our closers can come in and talk to warm to hot leads. This advanced system allows us to replace human error with a software that literally runs itself with the occasional tweak. It also learns and improves based on feedback over time. Another system we are implementing is an email software that allows us to send mass letters of intent to realtors and sellers in major metros around the country. We can then field responses and cultivate conversations. Currently, we are in the process of looking for a solid source of off market lead gen. We have several options we are currently exploring. Staying at the cutting edge of your industry will make sure you lead the pack and stay on top! Its importance cannot be overlooked!
Cultivate and retain talent
Perhaps the most important focus for us in 2024 is to cultivate and retain talent on our team. Without the talent, our business would be nonexistent. Talent is what keeps the lights on and pushes us to where we need to go. Having a clear vision where everyone can buy into helps tremendously. Additionally, having role clarity and clear expectations goes a long way as well. There are many things besides compensation to consider to retain talent. One major aspect of retention comes from control. Does your best talent have control and autonomy over their schedule to a degree that makes sense for both parties? Do you value their input and take their ideas into consideration when scaling? Do you offer things like equity to your top talent to vest their interest? These are all things we are actively taking into consideration and weighing our options. Our goal is to help our people reach theirs. With that attitude and their best interests in mind, we feel as though we have a strong chance at retention and growth of our top talent in 2024 and beyond!
Conclusion
2024 will be a year of cleaning up systems for us. We will learn from 2023 and grow in 2024. Above is not a compressive list of all of our 2024 focuses, but it’s a great summary of where we expect to be and what we intend to work on closely. My hope is for you, the reader, to take value from this and implement it in your own business and life where you can. Check your systems and processes to make sure you’re ready to take on 2024 with a full head of steam!