When you desire to hire an assistant, you need to be sure that you are not actually training your competition, while still hiring someone with the motivation to get things done.
Same Initiative, Different Interest
It is important to understand that not all people who have such initiative are those who are interested in real estate investment. Several people are interested in investing in real estate and do nothing about it. There are just as many people who have the initiative and are willing to take on the task of becoming a personal assistant to property investors, but do not necessarily share the same interest in the real estate market.
Think about it, you do not see very many office managers and secretaries working at an accounting firm who yearn to crunch numbers in their spare time. Likewise, you will not find many law firm receptionists who would rather be preparing briefs and arguing cases. Assistants take the types of jobs they do because they want to work as an assistant. You do not have to hire an assistant who is interested in closing his or her own deals.
Keep Your Secrets
When you hire someone who is interested in becoming an investor, you run the risk of losing their services once they decide to do their own deals. This will end up costing you extra time and money in the long run finding a replacement.
Confidentiality is also a concern. If the individual you hire as your assistant decides to open a real estate investment business of his or her own, they may attempt to steal your deals, prospects and trade secrets. They will have the opportunity to get to know your private lenders, potential buyers, seller leads, and not to mention your best top-secret marketing techniques. You could lose thousands of deals and opportunities.
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Tags: assistant, buyers, competition, hire an assistant, Property, property options blog, Real Estate, real estate investment
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sean,
This is a really interesting view of the pitfalls of hiring an assistant. You really don’t want to train someone who will eventually become your competition. But, I guess this is inevitable if they have any interest in investing in property.
I think you’d really need to find out their level of interest in real estate investment at the interview. Then again, you could just offer them some kind of employee incentive plan to show them you value their loyalty.
Good points Sean. I was always told that if you want to start a business get a job in that business first to see if you really like it, work the job to learn..not earn, and find out if it is actually profitble and how it all works. I guess this is what you are warning business owners to be wary of.