This week has been a funny one.

On paper, it's actually been a pretty good week. We've raised another £30,000, made some big decisions on our projects and continued putting systems in place to help us grow.

Yet, for some reason, I'm ending the week feeling a little bit gutted.

Let me explain.

Over the last few weeks, we've been meeting builders and project managers to find someone who can take on our renovations from start to finish.

We found a team we really liked.

They completed some work for us at Industry Street, the standard was excellent and, although there were a few snags, that's construction. Things don't always go perfectly. What matters is how people deal with them.

Unfortunately, when we sat down and worked through the numbers for our next project, Loxley Road, we just couldn't make it work.

And I'm genuinely gutted.

I'm not sure whether that's because I really liked the team or because, for the first time, I could properly picture what the next stage of Asset Collective might look like.

A property investment company where the projects aren't the business itself, but part of a business that can run without me being on site every day.

I think it's probably a bit of both.

For me, the whole point of building Asset Collective is to create something bigger than the projects we're working on. I want to be spending more time finding opportunities, building relationships with investors and growing the business, rather than worrying about who's turning up on site on Monday morning.

And for a moment, it felt like we'd found the people who could help us make that happen.

When you feel like you're finally about to take that next step, only for it not to work out how you'd hoped, it's disappointing.

But then I started thinking about where we were six months ago.

Emma and I had just returned from America and went straight back onto the tools.

Within half a day, with a mucky face and nursing a hangover from thinking it was a good idea to drink on a flight home through the night, we'd both decided enough was enough.

We needed to change how we operated.

Fast-forward six months and we've built a team around us. I'm no longer needed on the tools, and I've gained back a huge amount of time.

That's a massive step forward in itself.

I might still need to project manage Loxley, but hopefully it'll be the last one.

And now we've gone through the exercise of outsourcing an entire renovation, we have a much better understanding of what it actually costs. We can start factoring those margins into future deals rather than trying to make the numbers work afterwards.

The reality is, if we want to operate differently, we need to buy differently. The numbers need to work with a project manager or build team included from day one, not just when we decide we'd like to outsource.

So, not quite the result I wanted, but definitely not a wasted exercise.

Industry Street is now signed off and ready for the decorators to start on Monday.

We've been debating whether to hold off marketing until January, given how close we're getting to Christmas.

But we've made a decision.

We're going for it.

The plan is to get the property on the market by mid-November and hopefully have an offer accepted heading into the new year.

There's always that temptation to wait for the perfect time, but ultimately, if the property is ready, why not give it a go?

Worst case? We don't get the result we're looking for, lose around £350 in marketing costs and relaunch with a new agent in January with a fresh listing.

A risk we're happy to take.

We've put a huge amount of work into this property, completely changing the layout and creating something very different from what we originally purchased.

I'm looking forward to seeing it finished, staged and photographed. It's always at that point where the months of dust, decisions and unexpected problems finally start to feel worth it.

So it's all guns blazing now to get Industry Street finished and on the market.

A big positive this week was securing another £30,000 in investment.

We're continuing to grow our investor network and, with two more properties progressing through legals, there's still some capital left to raise before the end of the year.

One thing I'm learning is that raising investment isn't necessarily about having hundreds of conversations. It's about building genuine relationships, being transparent about what we're doing and giving people the confidence to work with us.

Every new investor relationship is another step towards being able to move on opportunities when they come along.

I've also been working on version two of our investor pack.

Version one went out to a few people for feedback, which was genuinely useful. We made some changes, tightened things up and version two is now back in the hands of our feedbackers. 😂

The aim is to have something that properly tells our story, explains what we're building and gives potential investors a clearer understanding of how we operate.

It's another little piece of the business we're trying to get right as we grow.

We've also finally brought an accountant on board on a monthly retainer, rather than waiting until year-end to clean up our accounts.

Not the most exciting update in the world, I know.

I spent pretty much an entire day this week downloading bank statements, reconciling transactions and collecting mortgage statements from our portfolio.

All the little jobs that individually don't seem like much, but together take up a ridiculous amount of time.

And as we bring more investment into the business, take on multiple projects and manage more moving parts, the financial side needs to keep up.

One of the challenges I've never really spoken about is managing and forecasting cash flow.

At the moment, far too much of it is manual.

When you're managing multiple projects at once...

Actually, pause there for a second.

Managing multiple projects at once.

That's something I used to dream about doing, and now we're actually doing it. Sometimes I forget that.

Anyway, back to the boring stuff. 😂

Money is constantly moving. Contractors need paying, materials need ordering, legal fees are due and investment funds are coming in at different stages.

Keeping on top of all that while trying to grow the business can become a job in itself.

So we're moving our accounting software over to Xero and putting a proper structure in place.

Each property will have its own project code, with spending broken down into categories such as legals, refurbishment, utilities and so on.

We're also introducing a proper invoicing and payment process.

The idea is simple:

Obviously, we'll agree the details with our team first so everyone knows exactly how things will work going forward.

But the goal is to stop spending so much time chasing invoices, checking payments and trying to work out exactly where we are financially on each project.

Ultimately, this will become one of Emma's responsibilities, overseeing invoicing and bookkeeping alongside our accountant.

And the end goal?

To be able to open our accounts and see exactly how much we've spent, how much we've got left to spend and what's due to go out, all at the click of a button.

It might sound like we've taken our foot off the gas slightly over the last couple of weeks.

But this is the stuff you don't see.

It's not particularly exciting to post on Instagram or Facebook. Nobody's going to get excited about a new invoice process. (apart from me)

But it's these systems that will allow us to take on more projects without creating more work for ourselves.

There's no point doubling the number of properties we're working on if it means doubling the amount of time we spend dealing with paperwork and problems.

And right now, while we've got a little bit of breathing space, it feels like the right time to get them sorted.

A few weeks ago, I spoke about how important structure has become as we've grown, and how Emma has been brilliant at bringing that into the business.

But after reviewing this week, I've realised there's another area we've not properly accounted for.

Sales progression.

Right now, we've got:

That's four separate transactions, all with solicitors, lenders, brokers and various other people involved.

And I've realised I need to be managing this much more closely.

It's easy to get caught up in what's happening on site, but ultimately, finishing a renovation is only one part of the process.

We still need to get properties sold, refinanced or purchased, and make sure nothing is sitting on someone's desk for two weeks without us knowing.

So that's another area we're going to start treating as its own department, with regular updates, clear next steps and someone responsible for keeping everything moving.

Because there's no point getting quicker at renovating houses if we're losing weeks waiting for paperwork. 😂

With just November and December remaining, I've been thinking about what we'd like to achieve before the year is out.

It's an ambitious couple of months, but there's no reason we can't give it a good go.

And when I look at the bigger picture, it's actually a little bit mad.

We collected the keys to our first project in June this year.

Somehow, just a few months later, we're working towards having four live projects, we've raised more investment than we originally planned and we've completely restructured the business to prepare for growth.

I'm still not entirely sure how we've managed all that. 😂

I think sometimes when you're so focused on what needs doing next, you forget to look at what's already been achieved.

As soon as one problem is solved, there's another one waiting. As soon as one milestone is reached, you're already thinking about the next.

And I think that's probably why I've felt a little frustrated this week.

Because in my head, we're already at the next stage of the business. But in reality, we're still putting the pieces together to get there.

Six months ago, we were on the tools.

Today, we're building the business around the projects.

We're not quite where we want to be, and there's still plenty to figure out. But we're a lot further along than we were at the start of the year.

And if we've managed to make this much progress in six months, I'm genuinely excited to see what the next twelve might look like.

Here's to finishing the year strong.