You can’t do it alone.
There’s no way around it; if you want to build a thriving real estate investing business where you don’t have to work 15-hour days…
(bye bye entrepreneurial freedom)
…then you’ll have to hire A-players to help you out. Business will be more fun with others aboard, anyways. By hiring people to help with your business, you’ll be able to finally enjoy the fruits of your labor (time with family, vacations travelling around the world, and new hobbies you’ve always wanted to pursue).
But, of course, hiring the right people at the right time and paying them what they deserve is easier said than done. If you’ve ever made a bad hire, then you already know that.
So I put together the 6 basic positions you’ll want to hire for in your real estate investing business, what order you should hire them, and how much you should pay them. I hope it helps!
Note: Every business is different. And while I did my best to compile the high-level picture for who you should hire, when you should hire them, and how much you should pay them, stay flexible. Your business will likely take a slightly different path than what’s outlined below. But now at least you’ll have a general idea of what’s ahead for your business. 🙂
Want to give Call Porter a try? Click here.
1st Hire: Personal Assistant, $16/Hour
The beauty of a personal assistant is that they can help you do a lot of different things. That’s why they’re one of the first positions you should consider adding to your business.
A personal assistant can manage your email and your calendar, help with due diligence, and even take phone calls. As your business expands, you’ll want to take some of those duties off his or her shoulders to leave room for more urgent tasks. But to start, a personal assistant will give you the freedom to focus on business-growth tasks that you otherwise wouldn’t have the time for.
2nd Hire: Accountant, $100/Hour
If you absolutely hate book-keeping, paying taxes, and managing receipts (like I do), then hiring an accountant should be one of your first priorities. To get a good accountant, you’ll want to budget at least $100 per hour and maybe up to $300 per hour. The good news is that most accountants don’t need to spend a ton of time on your business to get everything ready for tax season (especially if you keep your business expenses organized).
Once you hire an accountant, you’ll be glad you did — you won’t have to worry about getting documents ready for upcoming taxes or payroll. You can just focus on growing your business.
3rd Hire: Sales Representative, $14/Hour + 10% Commission
As your business expands, you’ll become increasingly busy finding and closing deals, marketing, branding, and training — all important tasks for growing your business. And at the point where it becomes too much, consider hiring a sales representative to lighten the load. If you hire someone who’s actually a good salesperson, then you’ll be glad you did. And $14 per hour with 10% commission on profit should be able to secure a talented salesperson who can answer the phone when you’re busy working on other critical business-growth to-dos.
Heck! You might even be surprised at how many more deals you close because one person is dedicated to answering the phone when it rings, without distraction.
4th Hire: Answering Service, $1/Call
Eventually, you’ll be receiving so many phone calls that one sales representative and a personal assistant won’t cut it. You’ll need to hire more people… or you can sign up for an answering service like Call Porter that can screen and schedule your inbound calls and will even scale with your business. Our expert trained, U.S.-based reps will answer the phone for you, screen the prospect and record pertinent details, and then schedule a call on your own business calendar.
You could, of course, just go hire a remarkably cheap answering service to do that for you (as low a $0.05 per call) but they aren’t going to know anything about real estate or about how your business functions. And they definitely won’t know anything about your prospects and what they’re going through.
At Call Porter, we pride ourselves on the quality service we offer our members — you can apply for a free demo over here.
5th Hire: Acquisitions Manager, $18/Hour
Up til’ now, you will have been running the acquisitions side of your business. You might be getting some help from your personal assistant, but you’ll still have your hand in due diligence, direct mailings, market research, and determining cash offers.
An Acquisitions Manager is just what it sounds like — you hire someone to take over everything that has to do with acquiring new properties. That way, you can work increasingly on your business rather than inside your business. Our Call Porter service can schedule the follow up with your Acquisitions Manager if you already have one (this is what many of our members have us do).
And we have an entire article dedicated to helping you find the perfect person for the job. Check it out.
6th Hire: CEO, $100,000 Salary
When you set out to build a thriving real estate investing business, you didn’t dream of working 15 hour days and never seeing your family. You dreamt of freedom. Financial freedom and time freedom.
That’s where hiring a CEO comes into the picture. Once the systems are in place for your business to run like a machine and once you’re almost entirely out of the daily workings of things, only working on polishing processes and inspiring workers, you know it’s time to hire a CEO.
This person will take over the rest of what you’re doing. They will work on the business rather than inside the business — you might even consider giving them shares in the company — and you can sit back and relax while someone else works to grow what you started.