This Week Felt Different.

This week has felt completely different.

Since stepping away from the day to day running of the projects, somehow I’ve actually been busier than ever - but busy working on the business rather than just inside the projects.

We attended four networking events, told our story to more than 50 people, built out our investor CRM and property pipeline, had an investor call with another two booked for next week, viewed our first direct to vendor deal and even collected our new Asset Collective signs.

The signs were damaged when we collected them, so they’re currently being made again… you can’t win them all.

But the biggest win this week wasn't any of that.

It was losing a little bit of the imposter syndrome.

I've talked about doing this for years. Building a property business, raising investment, finding deals and eventually creating something that gives us control over our own time.

And this week I had a bit of a moment where I realised:

We’re actually doing it.

I rang Emma in the middle of the week and told her that, for the first time, it genuinely feels like we're building the life we've talked about for years.

Not because we've suddenly made millions or everything has gone perfectly - far from it.

But because we wake up in the morning, we enjoy what we're building, and we're starting to build the business around our lives rather than the other way around.

There's obviously a long way to go. We've got properties to sell, money to raise, deals to find and plenty of problems still to solve.

But I'm enjoying the process.

And that's quite a nice place to be.

Today also marks three months sober for me.

I made the decision to stop drinking while scaling the business for a pretty simple reason: drinking for me has always been very stop / start.

I'll get into a really good routine, make loads of progress and feel like I'm firing on all cylinders. Then I'll go out for a drink and lose that drive for a few days.

Then I'd build the momentum back up and repeat the cycle.

When you're trying to build a business alongside a full time job, renovate multiple properties, raise investment and still have some form of life outside of work, losing a couple of days of momentum actually matters.

It wasn't an easy decision because, if I'm honest, I love a beer.

But on Thursday night I went out with my best mate, had a nice 0% beer and honestly?
It was just as good.

Three months in, I don't feel like I'm missing out.

If anything, I feel like I'm giving myself the best possible chance of building what I've spent years talking about.

I'm not saying I'll never drink again.

I'm just really enjoying who I am without it at the moment.

This has probably been the biggest change.

For a long time, the project was the business.

If there was a problem with a kitchen, I was dealing with the kitchen.

If a trade didn't turn up, I was chasing the trade.

If something needed collecting, there was a good chance I was getting in the car.

And when you're doing one property, you can get away with that.

But what happens when there are three?

Or five?

Or eight?

At some point, being involved in absolutely everything stops being a strength and starts becoming the thing preventing you from growing.

This week was probably the first time I've properly experienced that.

I've trusted the team to keep Industry Street moving while I've spent my time doing the things that will hopefully create projects four, five and six.

Finding deals.

Building investor relationships.

Following up conversations.

Networking.

Building systems.

And actually thinking about where Asset Collective is going rather than what needs doing on site tomorrow morning.

It feels strange because being busy on site makes you feel productive.

But I've realised that me being stood inside a property all day doesn't necessarily move the business forward.

Another slightly ridiculous milestone this week:

Asset Collective now has departments.

Nothing particularly glamorous.

It's still Emma and me building a business.

But we've started separating what needs doing into the different functions of the company rather than having one enormous list of jobs floating around in my head.

Project delivery.

Property pipeline.

Raising Capital.

Marketing.

Finance.

Admin.

Each area now has its own priorities, actions and importantly, clear ownership of the jobs that need doing.

And for the first time, I've started structuring my week around those rather than simply waking up and dealing with whichever problem shouts the loudest.

Did we complete everything we set out to do?

Absolutely not.

Did we get considerably more done than we normally would?

100%.

I even had a diary this week.

Revolutionary stuff.

But there's a serious point behind it.

If we want Asset Collective to become what we think it can become, we need systems that work when we're managing multiple projects and multiple investor relationships at the same time.

We can't rely on remembering everything.

One of the less exciting but probably most important jobs this week was building out our CRM.

We've now got two proper pipelines.

One for properties and one for investors.

Until now, a lot of these relationships have lived in WhatsApp conversations, Instagram DMs, emails, notes and occasionally, my memory.

Which isn't exactly scalable.

The investor pipeline means we can now see every relationship, where that conversation is at and when we need to follow up.

The property pipeline does the same thing with deals.

New opportunity.

Assesed.

Viewing.

Deal stacked.

Offer made.

Negotiating.

Then either into nurture if the deal isn't right today, or into conveyancing if we get it agreed.

Because one thing I'm learning is that:

“No” doesn't always mean “never.”

The seller who rejects an offer today might be having a very different conversation with us in three months.

The investor who isn't ready today might be ready in six.

The important thing is maintaining the relationship.

That leads nicely onto another first this week.

We viewed our first direct to vendor property.

No estate agent in the middle.

Just us speaking directly with the owner and looking at whether there's a deal that works for both sides.

That's something I want us doing considerably more of.

Agents will always be an important part of how we find opportunities, but building our own pipeline gives us another route to deals rather than waiting for something suitable to appear on Rightmove.

Again, it feels like another small shift from simply looking for our next renovation to actually building a real pipeline.

Networking was also a massive part of this week.

We attended four events and finished yesterday at Prosperity Network with around 350 property people in one room.

I set myself a target before I went:

40 new connections.

Did I get 40?

No.

Did I basically not stop talking for eight hours?

Absolutely.

I came away with 22 genuine new connections, with a couple of follow ups already arranged for next week.

And I'd take that over collecting 40 business cards from people I'll never speak to again.

I've probably told the Asset Collective story more times this week than I have in the previous six months.

And something interesting happens when you have to explain your business repeatedly.

You get better at understanding it yourself.

What we do is actually pretty simple.

We find properties where we believe we can create value, work with private investors to fund those opportunities, improve the assets and use a mixture of flips and longer term holds to continue growing.

The more I've said it, the less I've felt like I'm trying to prove that we have a property business.

We just have one.

Building investor relationships has become a much bigger part of my week too.

We've had another investor call this week and have two more booked for next week as we continue raising the capital required for Project 3 and future projects.

One thing I'm becoming much more comfortable with is that these conversations don't need to feel like a sales pitch.

My job is to explain what we're doing, how we do it, where the risks are, how investors are protected and what return we're offering.

Then people can decide whether it's right for them.

Some will invest.

Some won't.

Some might invest six months from now.

And that's fine.

The goal is to build relationships, not chase people around asking them for money.

While all of that has been happening, the actual properties haven't disappeared.

Camm Street has now had its first run of viewings.

The feedback has been positive, although we haven't received an offer yet.

Of course I'd love to tell you we listed it and somebody immediately threw the asking price at us.

Unfortunately property doesn't always work like you see on social media.

So we're being patient.

We've created a product we're proud of, the feedback from viewers has been good and we'll continue working with the agent to get it sold.

Industry Street has been ticking away in the background, although we've hit another lesson there this week.

We now need to bring in a new joiner and tiler, and we've made the decision to delay the kitchen and bathroom rather than rush ahead just to hit a completion date.

Camm Street taught us something important:

A delay is better than bad workmanship.

I'd rather take another week, find the right person and finish the project properly than rush somebody in because we're desperate to say it's complete.

That's probably another change in mentality.

Earlier in the year, a delay would have driven me insane.

Now I'm trying to look at the bigger picture.

One week means very little compared with living with poor workmanship or having to pay somebody twice to put it right.

And finally, we're continuing to raise the capital for Loxley Road, which will become our third project.

Next week we've already got two investor calls booked.

We need to find the right joiner and tiler for Industry Street and I want to work on systemising our projects.

We'll continue pushing the investor raise for Loxley Road.

We are still negotiating the small portfolio.

We now have a direct to vendor deal to negotiate as well.

There are properties in the pipeline that need following up.

And there are 22 new relationships from this week that I don't want disappearing into a pile of business cards.

There's still loads to do.

And plenty will inevitably go wrong.

But something definitely changed for me this week.

A few months ago, most of my attention was on:

How do we finish this house?

Now I'm thinking:

How do we build a business capable of doing this repeatedly?

That's a completely different question.

And honestly?

I'm loving it.

Till next time,