William Edwards Deming, the father of productivity, may not seem to have much to do with providing real estate investing tips. After all, Deming had nothing to do with real estate investing at all - he was the mastermind in turning around the Japanese economy after World War I.
However, Deming's Deadly Diseases outline what so often goes wrong in many businesses, and as such, we've enjoyed adapting 10 anecdotes and turning them into what we believe Deming would have provided as the 'Top 10 Real Estate Investing Tips' Investor's should heed while learning how to build a real estate investment business:
Real Estate Investing Tip #1. Lack of constancy of purpose.
Deming once said "A system is a network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish the aim of the system. A system must have an aim. Without an aim, there is no system. The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the system. The aim must include plans for the future." Without definitive plans, your real estate business has no system and you can hope for, at best, a haphazard approach to deals and profits - not exactly the best way to ensure future success.
Real Estate Investing Tip #2.
Emphasis on short-term profits. Sure, when it comes to real estate investing, the idea is that you get money into your pocket sooner rather than later. However, when formulating your business plan, you should be thinking long-term profits. That may mean setting up deals for the future and having a solid real estate investing business plan that ensures another group of deals soon.
Real Estate Investing Tip #3. Evaluation by performance.
If you evaluate your potential real estate deals only by performance potential, you are missing out on the potential to make your fortune. Deming strongly believed that a big part of success was intangible and that's why he felt that businesses who cut costs to become more cost-effective ultimately failed. The companies that Deming helped turn around did not focus just on the bottom line and on performance, but on rather intangible elements such as value, quality, and customer happiness.
If you consider profitability in your real estate investing deals but also start taking into consideration what you can offer your client base, and what you can do that other real estate investors are not doing, you will be amazed at how quickly your investing business will grow. Try to make an impact and try to help others in your real estate dealings. Deming's work shows that small, incremental improvements and a focus on quality gets more done than simple money counting.
