Mortgage Free - so good they'll do it twice! Wynnvegas aiming for the big house

Evening All,

Let's see if we can get a bit of the update sorted this evening before bed. I've got the latest podcast charting the ever-entertaining demise of Rangers Football Club ready to go which, even if it doesn't come as quickly and as hard as is hoped, is cause for daily optimism at the moment.

Speaking of which, we're doing alright on all fronts. After my laptop died a death on Christmas Eve, I lost all use of my business planning software and the ability to play with any documents (as good as the iPads are for web browsing and the like, they're uniformly hopeless with office documents). That had, in my mind, set me back a good bit but I'm catching up with things quicker than I had thought. Most happily though, I really feel as though I've got about half a dozen people around me with complementary skills who can engage in some of the ventures that are really starting to take shape. I'll go through the activity individually to keep some semblance of order:

1. Work. The day job has been absolutely hectic in the last month. I'm fast beginning to lose interest in pushing it forward as hard as I used to want to which makes me feel as though I'm cheating. I do my job now and do it as well as I can but I'm now not putting in any significant extra effort at nights, weekends and neither am I being quite as proactive in seeking additional projects to play with. I think this is the entrepreneur coming out in me as my focus is shifting quickly to my own projects but I think it's partly the frustrated manager who, with limited control, can only get so much done whereas I'll have a considerable say (if not the final say in most things) in all my own ventures. Things in my world will move very quickly and be so much the better for it. Even when there is an error made, we'll be able to identify and turn it around as soon as it is identified but I'm getting off track - I can't even write a paragraph about the day job without losing focus! I'll likely have a trio of tribunals in the next couple of months which I'm trying to head off at the pass and a trio of dismissals which I'm trying to run through as quickly as possible. Things should calm down a bit after that as the restructuring that is necessary is going pretty well in the main.

2. Business #1 - BTL. We've had a real hiatus on the BTL stuff over Christmas and New Year and it's only really kicked back in this week. Estate Agents, Lawyers, Financial Advisors et al pop on holiday for a fortnight at least and erect the do not disturb signs quite firmly. We have agreed 5 properties with the potential to add in a sneaky wee sixth on Friday if all goes well. The first five are all three bedroom semis or three bedroom terraced houses. The sixth is a 2-bedroom upper flat. Property number 1 has been causing us some issues in the last day or so as the attic conversion that was done clearly didn't have any permissions attached (as the stairs and the room are hidden behind a wall panel in bedroom 3, we've named it the Fritzl attic. It's now apparently been boarded back up and there has been a new loft hatch put in to access it which isn't what we wanted. We now need to wait on a letter of comfort (which sounds like something you'd get from a G.P. from pmsl-ing too much in my view) from them explaining what they've done and we'll likely put a retainer on a portion of the sale monies (a new tactic I learned about yesterday!) as we may have to undo or redo some of what they're currently up to. We've also found out that the previous owners generously (but thankfully informally) gave away twenty square metres of the garden to a neighbour so we'll be having that back in short order also! Property number two should complete on Friday so we'll need to then arrange a transfer date. At that point, it all becomes very real!!!

3. Business #2 - Home Improvements. Our Colin has been doing a grand job of building the brand in recent weeks. We're updating his website before we officially transfer 49% ownership to us and we've yet to fully decide on what percentage he should be looking to get from business #1. In strict monetary terms, a staight equity swap would see him with less than half a percent equity given our five year projection but we're looking to set up a deal which will see him either get or work his way up to 10% equity holding in the BTL portfolio. At £5m, he would then own £500k minus whatever debt portion exists within the portfolio of mortgages. We do have trigger points whereby he will start earning money from us and we'll start earning from business #2 (most likely a couple of years away yet) but the marriage of the businesses is much more than a straightforward commercial relationship as this guy has all the knowledge, skill and network that we'll need. I can see us topping out business #2 at five vans in the coming three years as that will give us the ability to manage our own properties as well as keep the rate of external works going strong. With some of the developments which became a little clearer today, we could very well position five vans and five teams in a single project for over a year but that £750k opportunity is going to come along too quickly. If I've learnt anything from my employed time, it's the value of keeping overheads down through multiskilling as overhead recovery very quickly leads to a situation where you can wave any sort of competitiveness cheerio. Colin is coming round for dinner tomorrow night and we'll discuss business plan 1, business plan 2, business plan 3, the £750k opportunity (in terms of what portion we may be able to participate in) and the renovation of the squalor during the summer when we're in Vegas.

3. Business #3 - employability. We have a name. We have a logo and we have some branding set up for this one. It's looking very very good and, in all honesty, whilst this one won't make millions in the way business #1 is intended to, this is the one that is closest to my heart and this is the vehicle which will take me, sooner or later, out of employment. I love every aspect of this business as it is as much of a social enterprise as it is a strictly commercial entity. I can see massive potential for it and the ability to diversify into all sorts of stuff down the line but I can't say too much about it as yet. There's a meeting to be held on Monday which will heavily inform the progress and speed of this one.

4. Business #4 - Umbrella Group Co. / Consultancy. We'll need a brand to take care of all the constituent parts of the Group, however structured and owned. That's been largely taken care of and it's also likely to be the vehicle for my own Business / HR / Legal Consultancy. I've cut back on the Consultancy work recently as we're not desperate for the money at the moment and most have been pretty far afield. Mainly, I can't afford the time away from everything else that's going on so I need to apportion a specific amount of time for this or it will be swallowed up by less profitable activities. It's an easy money spinner and it's still something that I really enjoy but my heart hasn't been in it for the last three or so months and I think it's now about finding interesting contracts to take up rather than taking anything that comes along. It's nice to be in a position to be very selective (although we're probably not there yet) and I aim to be in that very position within 18-24 months (that's a new goal - £100k in the bank and easily accessible vehicles).

5. Charities. I'm already seeing the benefits of being on the boards of my three chosen charities. My business network has grown remarkably and I've already been able to help a few folk out in relatively minor ways that have been a massive deal to the people involved. Small contributions or actions can make such a difference and the satisfaction gained from doing something for someone else and having them appreciate it to the point of tears is pretty overwhelming. I already love doing this and this will be a big part of my life for quite some time. There are, quite bluntly, massive business advantages to being involved with some of the organisations but I'm aiming not to deliverately exploit these in a blatant fashion. I'll certainly stick my oar in where i believe it to be the right thing to do but, for the most part, each will be a selfless exercise. I'm also tempted with setting up a charity of my own or working with an established charity for a specific purpose I've had in mind for a few years and never gotten off the ground but there'll be more on that later on as well. I worry I'm being overly cryptic but if I put everything down on a regular basis, my book won't shift a single copy!! Speaking of the book, I'm finding it an extremely cathartic experience. Any final cut will probably mean a lot of the innermost thoughts being omitted but the act of writing something down (and detailing exactly how you feel about everything that's going on) is strangely relaxing.

6. Top Secret! If I was being cryptic before, then this one is off the charts as it's something that hasn't been discussed with anyone other than a single person in the world at the moment. There's a plan being built just now but it's extremely sensitive and could cause unholy hell if it breaks loose. I'm all for a bit of chaos if it proves to serve my purpose but, whilst nothing illegal, immoral or unethical, I do have my concerns about it as it could be seen in a certain light and it wouldn't be a light I'd bask in. It needs a bit more thinking over and a discussion planned for next week to see if and where we take it any further.

As for everything else, we've got the web designer beavering away, the 3D modelling artist continuing to assist, the mother wondering a) whether she's going to be able to put together enough spending money for Vegas and b) why, if we buy her house from her and take away the existing mortgage, shouldn't she keep receiving the rent from her two lodgers, Moyra's mum and dad, having paid back £1,100 of their loan in the last year, needing to borrow £500 again, Moyra's sister losing her latest job due to her sickness absence and potentially needing a hand and me trying to find time to do all the things we need to ahead of the Vegas trip in the summer (passports, ESTAs, flights, hotels, shows, treatments, car hire, day trips....and on and on).

Hope everyone is appropriately grand, dandy and full of the joys. I, having managed to put on no less than eight pounds over Christmas, am delighted with myself for having lost seven of those in the last 8 days and I'm trying to avoid the serious temptation to have just a wee nibble of the white chocolate cheesecake in the fridge! Today was my rest day from the Wii Fit and EA Active but we're back in the game tomorrow...

Cheers,

Billy

Hi Gally,

Not at present. There is a familiar pointy cap in evidence however...

Cheers,

Billy

Morning Hurdler,

I wouldn't be putting up with that at all. I've not paid a penny yet and I'm already resenting the 5% we've agreed for the full managed service - and our agent is absolutely lovely and a longstanding friend. I still think that 20 is the stage where it will make enough sense to start managing the properties ourselves but that's still in the early planning! Bomb your lot out ASAP!!

Cheers,

Billy