For many of us, property development often starts out as a side hustle.
What that means is you’re probably working full-time, maybe taking care of kids or ageing parents into the bargain.
While a typical side hustle might see you taking a second job to supplement your income, property development is a very different beast. You’re investing in your education so you can navigate increasingly complex deals, the kind of deals that will eventually allow you to kick your full-time job to the kerb if you so choose.
There’s no way to sugarcoat it: balancing full-time work with property development requires dedication, discipline, and a super-strong desire for financial freedom.
To make it pay, you’ll need to take a structured approach, and this means scheduling time across your busy week to learn, and to find and run deals.
There are no short cuts if you want to be a property developer.
In my opinion you need to invest around 15 hours each week so that you can gradually develop your understanding of the wonderful world of residential development.
Where can I find more time?!
Where are you going to find that 15 hours? Yep, something’s gotta give.
Maybe you’ll give up your Netflix habit, your long, lazy showers or your weekend sleep-in. Study your calendar and see where you can steal back some time. Can you swap out your work lunch break for a study session? Can you delegate the shopping or the cooking or the lawn mowing to another family member to free up some time?
Like learning any trade, it will probably take at least six months of consistent effort for you to gain a solid foundation of knowledge and skills.
However, competence should not be confused with confidence. Even after reaching a competent level, you’ll probably still be second-guessing yourself. Confidence comes with repetition and practice, which means putting in the hours consistently over time. It usually takes about nine months of regular engagement to begin feeling confident and deal-ready. The more deals you analyse and discard, the more your confidence will grow.
Spread your sessions across your week
For the best outcome and the speediest progress, it's better to spread the 15 hours over multiple days rather than dedicating a single day, like all day Sunday, entirely to property development. By incorporating two hours of focused work every day, you can establish a habit and gradually build expertise. It’s like going to the gym every day – it allows you to incrementally increase your strength and stamina, or in the case of property development, your knowledge and skills.
By breaking down your time commitment into daily doses it means if you miss a day, you only miss two hours, not the whole 15 you need to stay on track. Plus, this approach also provides a clear overview of your progress, enabling you to measure and monitor your growth over time.
The four stages of learning
Understanding the four stages of learning is vital in your property development journey, especially when you’re juggling your day job and your side hustle.
It’s just like driving a car. When you start out you don’t know what the pedals do, you’re awkward at the wheel. Once you reach the consciously competent stage you can get from a to b on auto-pilot, barely aware of going through the motions.
The more hours you put it, the more quickly you can move through the stages to the point where all the basic skills of property development become second nature, much like driving a car.
Delayed gratification
Here’s a home truth you need to understand: property development is not a get-rich-quick scheme.
E
ven after becoming competent and confident, finding and running deals can take months, maybe six months, maybe as long as three years, before you get to a significant payday.
And I guess that’s why so many of us have no choice but to balance full-time work with property development as a side hustle: we need cashflow to live on, and perhaps to help finance our deals or to service a loan.
So you need to be prepared to play the long game. Plenty of people can’t stick it out – after falling for the shiny, get-rich-quick schemes so many people promote, their expectations are all out of whack, so they give up halfway through, disheartened by the long wait till payday.
The five-year plan
This is why creating a five-year plan is so important. It defines exactly where you want to get to in a finite amount of time. It breaks down your goals into smaller, manageable milestones so that you can track progress, reward wins and stay motivated. Just like eating the proverbial elephant – one mouthful at a time – the way to tackle a big project is by taking one step at a time, each step bringing you a little closer to your end goal.
And don’t forget to regularly reassess and adjust your plan as needed, ensuring that you remain aligned with your ultimate objectives.
I get it, balancing full-time work with a property development career is tricky. It requires commitment, patience, and perseverance.
But if you embrace the learning journey and maintain a laser focus on your financial goals, there’s no reason why you can’t make it work.
What that means is you’re probably working full-time, maybe taking care of kids or ageing parents into the bargain.
While a typical side hustle might see you taking a second job to supplement your income, property development is a very different beast. You’re investing in your education so you can navigate increasingly complex deals, the kind of deals that will eventually allow you to kick your full-time job to the kerb if you so choose.
There’s no way to sugarcoat it: balancing full-time work with property development requires dedication, discipline, and a super-strong desire for financial freedom.
To make it pay, you’ll need to take a structured approach, and this means scheduling time across your busy week to learn, and to find and run deals.
There are no short cuts if you want to be a property developer.
In my opinion you need to invest around 15 hours each week so that you can gradually develop your understanding of the wonderful world of residential development.
Where can I find more time?!
Where are you going to find that 15 hours? Yep, something’s gotta give.
Maybe you’ll give up your Netflix habit, your long, lazy showers or your weekend sleep-in. Study your calendar and see where you can steal back some time. Can you swap out your work lunch break for a study session? Can you delegate the shopping or the cooking or the lawn mowing to another family member to free up some time?
Like learning any trade, it will probably take at least six months of consistent effort for you to gain a solid foundation of knowledge and skills.
However, competence should not be confused with confidence. Even after reaching a competent level, you’ll probably still be second-guessing yourself. Confidence comes with repetition and practice, which means putting in the hours consistently over time. It usually takes about nine months of regular engagement to begin feeling confident and deal-ready. The more deals you analyse and discard, the more your confidence will grow.
Spread your sessions across your week
For the best outcome and the speediest progress, it's better to spread the 15 hours over multiple days rather than dedicating a single day, like all day Sunday, entirely to property development. By incorporating two hours of focused work every day, you can establish a habit and gradually build expertise. It’s like going to the gym every day – it allows you to incrementally increase your strength and stamina, or in the case of property development, your knowledge and skills.
By breaking down your time commitment into daily doses it means if you miss a day, you only miss two hours, not the whole 15 you need to stay on track. Plus, this approach also provides a clear overview of your progress, enabling you to measure and monitor your growth over time.
The four stages of learning
Understanding the four stages of learning is vital in your property development journey, especially when you’re juggling your day job and your side hustle.
- Unconsciously incompetent: in this initial stage, you don’t know what you don't know. Ignorance is bliss.
- Consciously incompetent: now you know what you don’t know! As you delve into deals, you recognise all the areas where you lack expertise and that can feel overwhelming. Don’t give up!
- Conscious competence: this is where you know what to do but you have to think about it and double-check everything you do. But with consistent effort and education, you gradually move towards the final stage…
- Consciously competent: now you can work on auto-pilot.
It’s just like driving a car. When you start out you don’t know what the pedals do, you’re awkward at the wheel. Once you reach the consciously competent stage you can get from a to b on auto-pilot, barely aware of going through the motions.
The more hours you put it, the more quickly you can move through the stages to the point where all the basic skills of property development become second nature, much like driving a car.
Delayed gratification
Here’s a home truth you need to understand: property development is not a get-rich-quick scheme.
E
ven after becoming competent and confident, finding and running deals can take months, maybe six months, maybe as long as three years, before you get to a significant payday.And I guess that’s why so many of us have no choice but to balance full-time work with property development as a side hustle: we need cashflow to live on, and perhaps to help finance our deals or to service a loan.
So you need to be prepared to play the long game. Plenty of people can’t stick it out – after falling for the shiny, get-rich-quick schemes so many people promote, their expectations are all out of whack, so they give up halfway through, disheartened by the long wait till payday.
The five-year plan
This is why creating a five-year plan is so important. It defines exactly where you want to get to in a finite amount of time. It breaks down your goals into smaller, manageable milestones so that you can track progress, reward wins and stay motivated. Just like eating the proverbial elephant – one mouthful at a time – the way to tackle a big project is by taking one step at a time, each step bringing you a little closer to your end goal.
And don’t forget to regularly reassess and adjust your plan as needed, ensuring that you remain aligned with your ultimate objectives.
I get it, balancing full-time work with a property development career is tricky. It requires commitment, patience, and perseverance.
But if you embrace the learning journey and maintain a laser focus on your financial goals, there’s no reason why you can’t make it work.
