Outsourcing is Easy and Hiring Staff is Difficult in Current Times (LA 1894)

WP Outsourcing is Easy and Hiring Staff is Difficult in Current Times LA 1894

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Steven Jack Butala:
Steve and Jill here.

Jill K DeWit:
Jack and Jill here.

Steven Jack Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.

Jill K DeWit:
And I’m Jill Dewit, broadcasting from the valley of the sun.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today Jill and I talk about how outsourcing seems to be easy, but hiring staff seems to be difficult in these current times.

Jill K DeWit:
We’ve had ongoing discussions… Well, right now in this part of career path where we’re talking about creating systems and thinking about where you’re going to take your company and you often need help. If you’re doing this right, having a little bit of help is going to free you up to really focus on the tasks that you as an owner should be doing. So these are the discussions. So we’ve been talking about hiring and outsourcing, and also we’re having as a whole separate side note, and we’ll talk more about this, having our own issues, if you will, with hiring staff. And so we’ll share what we’re doing to solve that.

Steven Jack Butala:
Everybody wants to get wealthy and everybody doesn’t want to work that much.

Jill K DeWit:
Correct.

Steven Jack Butala:
And that’s why you’re here. And it’s very possible we have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of case studies, including ourselves, about having that happen and getting people to do what you want them to do when you want them to do it is a challenge. Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free. Before we get into that though, I hope you know by now, we have a complete full blown commercial printing company created solely to help you get inexpensive direct mail offers in the hands of sellers fast. It’s called offers2owners.com. Jill and I set this company up several years ago out of our own frustration because we couldn’t get our mail out with the regular commercial printing companies. Fast forward to today, we send out eight or 900,000 mailers a month on behalf of members and non-members. Go to offers2owners.com.

Jill K DeWit:
Josiah wrote, “I was just texting a friend asking about purchasing landlock property for a flip. I thought I’d post some of the text message here. I can remember at least four deals I’ve done that were landlocked. In every case, I sold the property to a neighbor or sold the property extremely cheap to someone who didn’t care about the lack of access. The numbers on each deal were like this: Deal one, buy for $46,000, property worth $300,000 plus with access, sold it to a neighbor for $108,000. Deal number two, buy for $6,000, property worth $60-80,000 with access. Sold it to a neighbor for $22,000. Deal number three, buy for $3000, property worth about $50,000 with access. Sold it to someone who didn’t care about the access for $6,000.”
These are great. “And then number four, deal number four, buy for $1000. The property’s river access only two acres of waterfront property on a beautiful river. If the property had access, it could have been worth $100,000 easy. Sold it to someone didn’t care about the access again for $10,000. So I think I’ve done two or three,” this is probably back and forth. Now we’re back to another participant here. “I think I’ve done two or three other landlock deals, but I can’t find them.” Okay, there we go. “The other two or three we’re similar numbers to the four examples above.” That’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
So here’s the point. And this string in Discord, it caught on like wildfire. Kind of went viral in our own little Discord environment. Landlocked property, or accessless property I like to call it, is not valueless. There’s always some value. It just depends on how you manage it and how you handle it. So there’s always ways, not always, there’s a vast majority of circumstances. There’s ways to get access to property. It’s just all how much you want to deal with it. What’s your business model? If your business model is buying crazy rock bottom price, property grant, getting it access through neighbor cooperation or through lawyers and stuff.
And Jill, sorry, it goes on in Discord to really explain this about how he strategically does this and why and how he’s got a law firm that he never has to really use a law firm to start filing lawsuits, all he uses the law firm for is to have the lawyer contact the neighbors to say, “We’re not the suing kind. That’s not how we approach things. Rather than that, we would rather use this thorough way that we can both see us here that nobody’s using that runs across your property, create an easement and we pay you a little bit and now you’ve got access.” So there’s all kinds of ways to slice this up, but more and more, it’s a regular theme here at Land Academy always has been, always will be about, “Hey, I sent the mailer out and I got a bunch of property back with no access.” Sky’s not falling.

Jill K DeWit:
Nope.

Steven Jack Butala:
Today’s topic, outsourcing is easy, hiring staff is more difficult in these current times. This is why you’re listening. Like I said earlier, we’re all here, especially the people in career path are here because we want to get wealthy or maintain wealth or create more wealth for ourselves and we want to work less. That’s what everybody wants. It’s the American dream. Maybe not everybody, but people in our group. And so more and more and more, one of the essential ingredients that is having people work for you or with you that are on the same page, same mindset and all of that. And more and more and more in this environment, Jill and I are finding that it’s difficult to find staff that stick around in a longevity type way and take a personal interest and personal responsibility for their performance at work. And I’m from the era where that was the only option, hiring employees, but that’s just not the case now.

Jill K DeWit:
How did that change?

Steven Jack Butala:
Well, because of the internet, there’s just amazing amount of outsourcing.

Jill K DeWit:
No, but I’m just thinking back to your first point. I just want to touch on this for a second. You and I were raised, you show up and do a good job. I didn’t know anybody that didn’t do that. I don’t care where you worked or what you did. It could have been McDonald’s, it could have been Disneyland, it could have been on a little real estate office where I worked. I every day strove to do the best I could and make my boss happy and proud and get more responsibility and then eventually get paid more.

Steven Jack Butala:
In the bitter end, I don’t think that the world has changed that much. I just think that’s who we are, you and I. And I think most of the people in that academy, if not all, are like that too.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s it, then that’s it. That’s who I would surround myself with. And that’s where our Land Academy is, we surround ourselves with these same people.

Steven Jack Butala:
But the good news is we have a lot of options now because of the internet. The internet’s got great things about it and negative things about it, like everything in the world. And it’s so easy to outsource people to get to do specific tasks for next and nothing. We spent an entire, Jill did a presentation on career path yesterday about this exact topic. And it’s something that I want you, no matter where you are in your career, so some people have a tough time just giving up control. Honestly, Jill was one of those people early on and we hired a group in the Philippines who is now the go-to people to help people in Land Academy and other people who are buying and selling land.

Jill K DeWit:
With repetitive menial tasks.

Steven Jack Butala:
Exactly. So the outsourcing people are there. And unfortunately, when you contact anyone to say “Hey, can you do this?” They’re going to say “Yes.”

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
So you got to sift through a bunch of stuff and make sure that you find the right people. Maybe you just realize there’s 5, 6, 7 people you’re going to have to go through before you find one good person that can do a few of the things that you need them to do.

Jill K DeWit:
Very true.

Steven Jack Butala:
So I think this is a great environment right now to outsource, but-

Jill K DeWit:
I agree.

Steven Jack Butala:
If you’re brand new, I want you to really, and you don’t really have the vision to see where you’re going to be financially and work wise, hours wise per week, a year from now or two years from now, I want you to please start thinking about that because you don’t have to do all this stuff yourself. You have to learn how to do it and do it yourself for a while so you can teach somebody else how to do it. Or hire a person internally who then can manage, which is what we’ve chosen. We’ve chosen to hire people, department heads that are good at stuff and then all the VA’s report to them. The important thing is, and what I really think this episode is about is that we’re making this shift and I think it’s permanent to part-time slash VA type labor that’s all over the world from full-time employees. And we’re seeing serious evidence of that. And it’s good. It’s not bad.

Jill K DeWit:
I still think there are people out there that do want to work. They do show up, they’re like us and they have it in them and maybe they want to work because they want to learn to maybe do this for themselves by the way, I understand that. One of the things that I didn’t talk, thank you, you did a good recap of my presentation from yesterday.

Steven Jack Butala:
Oh.

Jill K DeWit:
That was good. The one thing that I didn’t mention yesterday, which I just was thinking about last night and today is people could share a person. If you find one good person, someone brought up, I would do this, I would hire this person. Someone who’s in our group is successful using VA’s for different tasks. This one does this, this does that, this is this and it takes all the stuff off my plate. I’m like “You know, could take that one step further, not even have to manage them and fill in the blank, these other things off your plate too. So you really only do this stuff.” And they’re like “But I don’t know if I have a work for a full person to do that. I don’t want to take someone on full time.” I’m like “Hit me.” I’m like “You could share something like that.” I think that would be beautiful. If you’re in Land Academy, you’re listening and this is you, I hope you have this dialogue inside of Discord with your peers and start saying “Does someone want to share a transaction coordinator? Does someone want to share a…” That’s-

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s really funny you mentioned that because I was in there.

Jill K DeWit:
Are they doing it?

Steven Jack Butala:
Yeah.

Jill K DeWit:
Oh, good.

Steven Jack Butala:
As of two days ago, somebody posted a “Hey, this person, I only need her 15 hours a week. She wants a full-time job. Can we split her?”

Jill K DeWit:
Perfect.

Steven Jack Butala:
And so I think it’s a great idea too.

Jill K DeWit:
I’m sure there’s six people that said “Yes.”

Steven Jack Butala:
I wonder how much that would wear on the employee though.

Jill K DeWit:
That’s the only thing I have to be careful of is, for me to do it correctly, I’d say you work for me in the mornings and that person in the afternoons, A. And then B, there has to be a fine line and an NDA going around because you can’t share what I’m doing and vice versa. It’s kind of like little bit of, you know what I’m trying to say?

Steven Jack Butala:
I’m going to tell you a true truth time real story.

Jill K DeWit:
Okay.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s somebody in this space that we’re in on the internet who the word “geek” is involved in the title of their company. And he had huge, and this is him admitting it. I have a mental block, not me saying, “Hey, you have a mental block.” He’s saying, “I have a mental block about hiring people and hiring someone. It’s $60,000 that’s coming right out of my pocket.”

Jill K DeWit:
Way back when.

Steven Jack Butala:
So I never had that thought. And I’m a former accountant, I never had “Wow, this person’s costing me money.” I always had the opinion that we have so much money and so many deals coming in and so much more opportunity to do the same thing.

Jill K DeWit:
True.

Steven Jack Butala:
That if I could get this stuff off my plate and I’m a numbers freak, I know how much it’s going to cost to hire somebody, but I wouldn’t hire somebody until I have so much work to do and so many deals coming in that I can’t even effectively review them anymore.
So hire that person, spend two weeks training them so that they can do all this other stuff. And I did that and I’ve been doing that ever since for decades now. And I just think, I understand when I hear somebody say, “Yeah, I don’t have any employees at all. I’m just a one person show. I have it all worked out. I have all these VA’s and they only cost me about a couple thousand dollars a month and I’m happy.” What I immediately think when they’re done with that little speech is this is as big as it’s ever going to be.

Jill K DeWit:
I just thought of something and it sounds like the progression is a lot of people come to Land Academy and they want to quit their job. And I always tell them “Don’t do that too fast.” Right? Wait to quit your job until you have so much in the bank. What do you know, whatever your number is. And you’re at that point too where you’re saying “Now I’m losing money. My job is costing me money now, I’m losing deals. I could be doing so much more and I would be making way more money.” Then you know you need to leave your job. Well it’s the same with this.
There’s going to be a point you just said where as a one man show, you’re like “And now I know I’m done.” You will hit a ceiling. I know I could do 10 more deals, I could do 50 more deals, if I had one more person sitting next to me, I could just shove this off on them.

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s how you got to see it.

Jill K DeWit:
And there you go. And then that’s how you financially go “I have to hire somebody.”

Steven Jack Butala:
That’s it. I totally agree with that train of thought. And we both have it. So on Thursday, the title of my show, The Jack Thursday, is The Laws of Abundance and we’re tapping into that because people subconsciously put caps on themselves about potential, time usage, and personal wealth and all of that. And that’s what this is.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah.

Steven Jack Butala:
Hiring employees has just been drinking a glass of water for me, it always has been and always will be. If my payroll goes from $8,000 a month to $12,000 a month and I have another person that’s solving some huge thing that allows me to still just bang on acquisitions, how fast does that make up for itself if I do one more deal a year? It pays for all of that.

Jill K DeWit:
Yeah that’s good.

Steven Jack Butala:
So it’s not a numbers thing, it’s a head thing.

Jill K DeWit:
Mindset.

Steven Jack Butala:
Yep.

Jill K DeWit:
Yep. Happy to join us today. Five days a week. You can find us here on the Land Academy Show.

Steven Jack Butala:
Tomorrow, the episode on the Land Academy show is called The Power of Skip Tracing Neighbors of Land That You Own. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

Jill K DeWit:
Which is how you can sell property to the neighbors. I love this. It’ll be good to talk about.

Steven Jack Butala:
There’s many people, young people that I talk to about what we do for a living and many of them scoff at like “What do you mean you send stuff in the mail? How can you send paper out in the mail?”

Jill K DeWit:
Right.

Steven Jack Butala:
“Get with it, Grandpa.”

Jill K DeWit:
It’s so funny.

Steven Jack Butala:
Then I explained skip tracing and they’re like-

Jill K DeWit:
“Oh, oh, okay, now I get that.” Hey, thank you for tuning in. By the way, Jack and I are aware that not everyone has a hundred grand lying around to buy land to do what we do. Well do not worry, we fund many Land Academy members and non-members land deals every single week. It’s called landfunding.com. And by the way, in addition to us, our members have a combined, I don’t know what the last count is, but I’m going to go with at least $50 million available to fund your deals. So just send a note to support@landacademy.com if you want to find out if this level of involvement is for you.

Steven Jack Butala:
We’re Jack and Jill. Information-

Jill K DeWit:
And inspiration-

Steven Jack Butala:
To buy undervalued property.

 

Thanks for listening, and finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.

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Each level comes with a preset amount of included data, Concierge Mail service, and postage. For example, the Green level includes 6,000 units of completed-for-you mail completely out the door at no extra cost to you.

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If you’re making this a business, Land Academy PRO takes the work off of your plate so you can focus on the things that matter – like running your business.

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Subtotal: $8,550 value $8,550 value $9,550 value $12,050 value $12,050 value
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Total Value: $39,050 $42,800 $47,550 $53,800 $57,550
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Green

$10,060

per Month

Concierge Data+ (with data) Included mailers each month (data + concierge + mailer + postage). Our team will do your data for it and get it out the door.
6,000 mailers
PatLive introduction at no cost We will help you establish your first script and get PatLive set up on your behalf to answer your phones.
$500 value
Transaction Coordinator Use of our personal Transaction Coordinator team to manage your deals. Trained and ready to go!
$7,500 value
AirTable Ready-for-you CRM managed by your personal Land Academy Pro Transaction Coordinator
$100 value
Personal Consulting 1 on 1 personal consulting with our Transaction Coordinator each week.
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Regular Office Hours Regular office hours with Jack and Jill + our staff. Private for LA Pro Members Only. (Think Career Path Office Hours)
$2,500 value
ParcelFact ParcelFact is included in your LA Pro membership with unlimited pulls.
$150 value
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PatLive introduction at no cost We will help you establish your first script and get PatLive set up on your behalf to answer your phones.
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Transaction Coordinator Use of our personal Transaction Coordinator team to manage your deals. Trained and ready to go!
$7,500 value
AirTable Ready-for-you CRM managed by your personal Land Academy Pro Transaction Coordinator
$100 value
Personal Consulting 1 on 1 personal consulting with our Transaction Coordinator each week.
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Regular Office Hours Regular office hours with Jack and Jill + our staff. Private for LA Pro Members Only. (Think Career Path Office Hours)
$2,500 value
ParcelFact ParcelFact is included in your LA Pro membership with unlimited pulls.
$150 value
FREE Career Path Access
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PatLive introduction at no cost We will help you establish your first script and get PatLive set up on your behalf to answer your phones.
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$7,500 value
AirTable Ready-for-you CRM managed by your personal Land Academy Pro Transaction Coordinator
$100 value
Personal Consulting 1 on 1 personal consulting with our Transaction Coordinator each week.
$1,000 value
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PatLive introduction at no cost We will help you establish your first script and get PatLive set up on your behalf to answer your phones.
$500 value
Transaction Coordinator Use of our personal Transaction Coordinator team to manage your deals. Trained and ready to go!
$7,500 value
AirTable Ready-for-you CRM managed by your personal Land Academy Pro Transaction Coordinator
$100 value
Personal Consulting 1 on 1 personal consulting with our Transaction Coordinator each week.
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PatLive introduction at no cost We will help you establish your first script and get PatLive set up on your behalf to answer your phones.
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Transaction Coordinator Use of our personal Transaction Coordinator team to manage your deals. Trained and ready to go!
$7,500 value
AirTable Ready-for-you CRM managed by your personal Land Academy Pro Transaction Coordinator
$100 value
Personal Consulting 1 on 1 personal consulting with our Transaction Coordinator each week.
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Regular Office Hours Regular office hours with Jack and Jill + our staff. Private for LA Pro Members Only. (Think Career Path Office Hours)
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