The end of 2020…. What a year!

It’s my last blog for 2020 so I thought it would be the perfect time to look back at the year and reminisce. It has been an interesting year, and although we haven’t grown the business like we intended to do at the start of 2020 we have learnt and grown in different ways which I’m sure will help us going into 2021.

So, let’s go back to January 2020…. I had just left my full-time job to go into this business full time with lots of enthusiasm for this year to be the BEST year yet. It started off really well and 9 weeks in we were looking at a contract to sign for a block of 15 micro flats and a 2-bed apartment in Nottingham City Centre. We had our business plan at the ready for serviced accommodation and I was so excited as this was life changing for me, dad and our family…. Until Covid-19 struck. Within 10 days the deals were no longer deals and the hard work of the last few months came to nothing. To say I was heartbroken was an understatement. Like so many other people within days the world had changed, and everything stopped! I had to wipe away the tears quickly and refocus. Unfortunately, I don’t have any superpowers and can’t look into the future so with all the uncertainty the first thing to do was to make sure what we had already was going to be sustained and our customers were ok. We worked out a plan for the possibility that all our tenants stopped paying (sounds drastic now but we didn’t know how long this was going to go on for). Once we had a plan for the now, we started looking at what we can do to try and grow our business. We started watching, listening and taking in what others that are far more successful than us were doing and the advice they were giving. We made a plan and started actioning it. In that time, I did a marketing course, worked with the Prince's Trust, joined a business club, became an expert in how to use zoom (I’m sure you can all relate to that), and was featured on Next Steps for Business podcast. Here's the link if you want a listen -https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Hbmj2yQEfkQMmpe5vbjB9?si=CGgV8oroTjCRkhcM1gQpOw&fbclid=IwAR3QaDPhFBtNy69ezjpQ7RwiYxFVtJ7plMVQMUtmBfoyiAnExM1ZJnY0lj0

We have built up new contacts with investors from all around the country which we are really excited about going into 2021. I love the fact that we can build our business whilst building other people's property portfolios and/or giving them a great return on their money (which we all know the banks just aren’t doing).

We have also been busy building up connections with supported living organisations in our local area and can’t wait to start working with them. This is something that was not on our original plan but it’s a great opportunity for us, our investors, our community and our supported living joint venture partners (if you would like to know more about this drop me an email).

We have big plans for 2021 all based around giving great service to all that we work with, but for now I would like to wish a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year from my family to yours.

Until next year...