“Getting Things Done” by Lance Edwards

In my No.1 best-selling book, “How to Make Big Money in Small Apartments”, you can learn how to create a real estate business, but you also need to be concerned with creating your net worth.

There is a process that I, like many others, like to use called “Getting it Done,” and it is a blueprint for success in anything you want to do in your professional and personal life.

If you haven’t heard of it before, you are in luck because we’re teaching it here.

The five-step process of “Getting it Done” is:

1. Define what role you will play
2. Establish your vision
3. Create your storyboard
4. Create your plan
5. Create your performance dashboard

When you follow these steps, there is no stopping what you can accomplish.

Defining Your Role
Knowing exactly what you’re going to do by defining your role in the real estate business can help you develop a strategy for success. The roles that you can play in the real estate business include:

– bird dog

– wholesaler

– rehab, and

– retail properties or rentals (income) properties

The more focused you get in defining the role you wish to have, the more effective you will be. Do not try to do everything or you will get distracted and bogged down by stretching yourself too thin.

Establish Your Vision
Your vision is your reason “why” you are creating your real estate business. Plan on creating a three-year vision for yourself and identify:

– Where you want to live

– What you want to do

– What you want to have over the next three years

“But, Lance, why three years?” you might ask. The reason I want you to consider the next three years is because this is a timeframe long enough to keep you both focused and engaged.

Create Your Storyboard
A storyboard, sometimes also known as a “vision board,” is a physical representation of what you want to accomplish—your vision in photos and images. Since your mind thinks in pictures, keep this board in front of you every single day. Cut photos of your dream and your vision from magazines and other periodicals. Paste them together on a poster board or other medium so you can keep them together.

When you have closed on properties, make sure to post photos of these properties, too, to help keep you focused on building upon these successes.

Create Your Plan
How can you get from the “Getting it Done” phase to realizing your three-year vision? What milestones can you envision reaching along the way? Create a map or a storyboard of the sequence of steps you will need to reach along the way, and define the action steps that need to be taken in order to reach each milestone.

Create Your Performance Dashboard
This will be your daily and weekly “scorecard” of how you are doing in accomplishing your goals. You will be able to see what goals you haven’t met each day and each week. This is a great way to actually “see” where you are on your path to financial freedom.

Once you put this five step process into place, you will be able to “see” the big picture and more effectively work your business. As you progress and begin to achieve goals that you have set for yourself, you will begin to realize your dream of financial freedom.