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There are a number of things you can do to successfully build your profile in the HMO industry. Doing this effectively is key in helping you scale your HMO business. In this guide, we’ll talk about the importance of building your profile and how to do that in the property world!
Importance of Building Your Profile
In the HMO industry, there are a lot of benefits that come with building your profile, and it’s even crucial in order to be able to grow your portfolio. So, here are some of the main reasons to prioritise doing this!
Showcasing Your Authority, Branding & Credibility
For starters, building your profile can allow you to demonstrate your authority and credibility, and you can show off what you’re doing in the industry. This can then help you build a brand and showcase your values, so people know your positioning.
To help you do this, make a point of telling everyone you meet what you do. Really embrace your business and be confident in what you’re doing. Find your voice, and take the time to build a content strategy around that.
Building a Power Team & Network Around You
Elevating your profile will also help you expand your network and build a power team. Working with the right professionals can allow you to save time and money, reduce your risks and avoid making huge mistakes.
You can create a team of experts from a mortgage broker, solicitor, property manager and agents to an architect, planning consultant, builders and tradespeople. When you create a dream power team, you’ll be able to achieve so much more in the industry and much more quickly too!
Investing in HMOs comes with a lot of challenges, so it can also be extremely beneficial to have a supportive network of people around you who are doing the same thing as you. This can help you find encouragement, motivation and even guidance, which can be so essential when starting and scaling any property business.
Providing Opportunities for Raising Finance
As property investment, and especially HMO investment, is incredibly capital intensive, we all will run into issues with not having enough cash! Raising private finance can allow you to scale your HMO portfolio almost infinitely, and building your profile is vital to help you do this. But investors need to be able to find you, and you need to take the time to build relationships.
Keep in mind that people invest in people. So, if you can demonstrate you’re the right investment partner, that can be more than enough. Show the experience, skills and credibility you have in the industry and other areas of your life.
Gaining Advice & Support
By building your profile, you can also use your platform to gain advice and support from others in the industry. This can then help you learn first-hand from fellow HMO investors who may have more experience than you in certain areas and can help you overcome challenges and scale up your business!
Utilising Social Media
Having a social media presence can really help you build your profile. It’s an opportunity for people to see what you’re doing and allow you to demonstrate your credibility and expand your network. Over the years, I’ve used social media to raise millions of pounds of investment and been invited for interviews, to write for magazines and to talk on podcasts through it.
There are lots of benefits of using social media when building your profile in the HMO industry, but it’s important that you do this the right way and don’t end up spending hours scrolling aimlessly!
Doing this the right way can help you reach a bigger audience, fast-track relationships and can even provide an endless supply of opportunities. But you need to make sure you’re using social media to effectively serve your personal and business objectives. Here are some of my top tips to help you do this!
Create a Strategy
Firstly, you need to spend time planning and documenting a social media strategy. Just like anything in business, you need a clear strategy and to execute it properly. Make sure you’re being really intentional about what you’re doing and sharing.
Focus on the Right Platforms
Don’t just get on every social media platform out there! This is a mistake I see a lot of people make. If you try to post everywhere, it’ll be too much. Personally, I post predominately on Instagram and Facebook and some on LinkedIn. Find the right balance for you and where you get the best results.
Be honest about how much time you need to devote to this, what your skill set is geared towards and what you’re more comfortable doing and sharing. As all the platforms are so different, you need to pick the ones best suited for you and your objective.
Block Out Time for This
It’s challenging to keep up with social media regularly. It’s so easy for social media to fall to the bottom of our list day to day, and if that happens, you won’t post and engage and you won’t build a following.
What’s helped me stay on top of this is planning a lot of my content in advance, and every single day, I have time carved out in my diary making sure I’m posting, engaging and answering questions.
Be Honest & Real
Most importantly, you need to be yourself… Don’t fall into the trap of pretending to be someone else or more of an expert in order to find opportunities or investors on social media. If you just be honest and real and share what you’re doing, you’ll build a following of people who are interested in you and what you’re doing!
Prospective investors will want to see your track record. If you haven’t got that but you’ve been talking online like you do, that’ll be really disappointing. So, be honest about who you are, where you’re up to and exactly what you’re doing in the property industry.
Occasionally Ask What You Need
When we’re posting on social media and showing people what we’re doing, it’s easy to forget to ask what we need sometimes. It sometimes might be help, support or guidance and other times it may be finance for the next deal. So, don’t forget to ask!
I’ve found a ratio that works very well… For every nine posts that offer value or entertainment, I do one post that will hopefully result in me getting a bit of what I need, so make sure you’re taking the time to do that.
Investing Time & Energy in Networking
You can also build your profile by networking. Building a network doesn’t necessarily cost you anything, but this can allow you to build your profile in the industry and find guidance, support, motivation and encouragement you need when building a HMO business.
If you’re a new investor and don’t have any family or friends in the industry, it can be absolutely key to build a network. Find a group of people or a mentor that can help you and lift you up. Here we’ll talk about some of the best ways you can build a network and your profile!
Find Online Networks
Online networking is easy and free, and there’s a lot of ways to do this. You can join us over in our free Facebook Group The HMO Community, which has more than 10,000 investors, landlords and other professionals in the HMO industry.
Attend In-Person Networking
There are also lots of opportunities to attend in-person networking, including property and business events and local and regional communities. These experiences can ultimately build your profile and even turn into opportunities down the line. These could be finance, deals, private investors and all sorts of other things that will help you build your HMO business!
Frequently Talk About What You’re Doing
Anytime you meet someone, be sure to tell them what you’re up to and the deals you’re doing. Embrace your business and be confident in what you’re doing, but also make sure you’re showing interest in other people and what they’re doing
Carry Your Portfolio Around With You
Have examples of what you’re working on everywhere you go – even if this is on your phone. You never know when you could get into a chat with someone interested in what you’re doing!
It’s even better if you can have a collection of materials or a physical case study that you can take to any in-person networking events. And if you’re speaking to potential investors, giving them something to walk away with and remember you by can be extremely beneficial. This can help you stand out and could be the difference in them forgetting about you or following up.
Build Relationships & Rapport
Take the time to build relationships and rapport. Building a good network around you will also help you leapfrog issues and stand on others shoulders. This personally was one of the single most important reasons behind my successes in the property industry. The people I’ve worked with along the way have helped catapult me forwards.
Building your profile can also help you meet people to have on your power team, including mortgage brokers, agents, architects, builders and other tradespeople. You can then leverage your network.
So, make sure you set time aside to network and build the right relationships. You don’t have to be a social butterfly or an expert at this, but it’s something that we all need to do and get better at as we grow our businesses!
Pipeline Relationships & Opportunities
To really step up your business, pipeline potential opportunities and relationships. When building your profile and a network along with it, sometimes months or even years down the line, someone you crossed paths with might reach out about an opportunity.
Keep in mind that it often takes around seven touchpoints before someone is comfortable with the idea of working with you. This could be a quick email, an exchange on social media, a catch-up call or an in-person meeting. All of these touchpoints can help you solidify trust and build your relationships.
Continuously Improving Your Knowledge
Another essential part of boosting your profile is ensuring you’re constantly improving your knowledge in the industry. There is SO much to learn and keep up with in the HMO industry, and it’s an area that’s ever-changing too.
When speaking to people, they will be able to tell whether you know what you’re talking about or not. And if you effectively boost your knowledge, this will help you be able to do more deals and bigger deals!
To stay ahead of the curve by continuously learning, find tools and resources that can help you streamline the learning process. Check out The HMO Podcast, which is the UK’s leading resource for HMO investors and developers! Every week we share valuable tips, tricks and strategies to help you boost your HMO portfolio.
Additionally, if you’re looking to really scale up your HMO investment and take your knowledge in the industry to the next level, become a member of The HMO Roadmap, where we have tons of resources, lessons and advice to help you effectively build and grow your investment business!
Get Started Building Your Profile
If you’re able to do all of these things, you’ll be able to build your profile and scale your HMO business, helping you achieve bigger results much more quickly! But this won’t happen overnight… It’ll take time to build up your profile in the industry, so make sure you focus on doing this.
Do you need help with building your network and want to be a part of a supportive community of professionals in the HMO industry? Join us over in our free Facebook Group The HMO Community! Start a thread, ask a question or discuss anything about investing in HMOs with our inspiring community.
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, 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!