Founder and Director, Mark Fernihough, started out in his family business selling cars, before a change of industry led to him and his family educating themselves in property and starting a now thriving property business, Prosper Property, which serves the tourist industry in their home county of Cornwall. Mark and his team find undervalued commercial properties and turn them into highly profitable serviced accommodation businesses. Having developed their first rental property in 2005, Prosper Property now has over 70 live units, owning and managing properties valued at a total of £6.5m. Tune in to hear Mark’s tips on how to maximise your occupancy all year round, so you are no longer relying solely on the tourist season. Learn how Mark sources and negotiates the right property deals and the systems and automations Mark has put in place within the business which helps maximises profits and enables him to work on the business, rather than in it, without lowering the quality of the service he provides.
Founder and Director, Mark Fernihough, started out in his family business selling cars, before a change of industry led to him and his family educating themselves in property and starting a now thriving property business, Prosper Property, which serves the tourist industry in their home county of Cornwall.
Mark and his team find undervalued commercial properties and turn them into highly profitable serviced accommodation businesses. Having developed their first rental property in 2005, Prosper Property now has over 70 live units, owning and managing properties valued at a total of £6.5m.
Tune in to hear Mark’s tips on how to maximise your occupancy all year round, so you are no longer relying solely on the tourist season. Learn how Mark sources and negotiates the right property deals and the systems and automations Mark has put in place within the business which helps maximises profits and enables him to work on the business, rather than in it, without lowering the quality of the service he provides.
Resources Mentioned In This Episode:
>> WT011 - Creating leverage using FIRST
>> Register for the live SSAS Webinar
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>> Join the WealthBuilders Community
>> Join the WealthBuilders Academy
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Unknown Speaker 0:01
The purpose of wealth talk is to educate, inform, and hopefully entertain you on the subject of building your wealth. Wealth builders recommends you should always take independent financial tax or legal advice before making any decisions around your finances.
Christian Rodwell 0:19
Welcome to Episode 182 of wealth tour. My name is Christian Rodwell, the membership director of wealth builders and I'm joined by our founder Mr. Kevin Whalen. Hello, Kevin. Hi, Chris.
Unknown Speaker 0:29
Good to be with you again, as usual. Yep. Feeling refreshed from your break. Yeah, refreshed, recharged ready to go. And look, every couple of months or so. I like to do something that just gets my own batteries recharged. And it's also a reward isn't it for, for doing good work. And I like to do that. So it can be golf, which I love, as you know, and I was in the Carolinas playing a little bit of golf 72 degrees, much better than the terrible weather we've had here. But if it's either golf or nice food, nice wine or even a little bit of nature as well, whether it be Scotland or whether it be Scandinavia, whether it be American or whatever. And by the way, Super Bowls been on as well, which was, which was good fun. So yeah, lots of good things, Chris, I love sport, too. And you and I both being mad football fans, aren't we as well. So yeah, all of those things I love to do. But thanks for the question. And while factor 50 is definitely something that's important to me, giving my Celtic colouring, even attempt to do grew here. I don't look like I've been anywhere. but believe you me I had a good time.
Christian Rodwell 1:36
Yeah, well, back to it now. And I should just mention as well, we've got our next webinar coming up next week, which is on Tuesday, the 21st of February. And this is going to be a webinar all about SAS pensions, it's how to fund your property portfolio using your pension. Any little teasers Kevin of what people might expect on that webinar.
Unknown Speaker 1:55
Well, you know, the big thing for me with SAS is it's it's leverage. And that's a big theme coming out of today's conversation. And it's the leverage of being able to transform something where for most people pensions are on the Do Not Disturb till 65 list, right? It's something that's there in the background, it's in a box in a folder or in a file somewhere. But it's not part of their life, it's apart from their life for the most part. And in fact, Chrism as you know, I'm writing a book, working titled pension chaos, while the whole pension system in the UK is broken, and what to do about it. And this is part of the problem. And what SAS does the small self administered scheme, well known by good, you know, avid listeners to the podcast, it allows you to turn your pension money into money you can use to build wealth for you today. You don't have to wait till you're 55 or 57, or 65. You can use it today, and properties a great one, but you can use it to help your business, buy a franchise, you can use it to buy funds, but as a wholesale customer instead of a retail customer. So you're paying a fraction of the price. I did a little post on the Facebook group the other day when somebody said, how cheaply can you get access to funds, I said, the platform we use is naught point one five, you know, in the biggest platform in the UK charges point 453 times more expensive, Chris. So there's so many more ways that SAS can bring really great value. So I encourage anybody who has heard of it, but doesn't really know about it. Everything you wanted to know about SAS but we're afraid to ask Tuesday the 21st. UK time of course.
Christian Rodwell 3:38
Yep, kicks off at 7:30pm. So go and register now head to wealth builders.co.uk forward slash SAS webinar. That's S S A S. webinar all one word, and we'll see you there. Okay, so today, Kevin, we are focusing on the property pillar. And we have a fantastic guest, Mark Ferny hoe who's the founder and director of prosper property. And this is a family business. They were selling cars, and that's an industry obviously, that's changed over the last few years. And they educated themselves in property and they now have a thriving property business, which serves the tourist industry in their home county of Cornwall
Unknown Speaker 4:17
and not just the tourist industry fire call. I think in the winter months, they have a different strategy because there's less tourists but you know, Cornwall, always people of Cornwall, don't they so it's always going to be a great place and great for them because they've got a fantastic location. But the point being, that it is possible to pivot into change completely. And you know, in terms of their change, it was a complete change, wasn't it? Moving from cars to properties, a whole family. And this is part of the benefit of being a creative minded wealth builder. You can see changes. you're participating in changes, you know you're react thing to change is in a way that the kind of traditional pensions industry, as I've talked about, don't react to anything everything's about. Don't worry, it'll all be okay. In the long run, you know, stick stick, stick with the same thing. Just hang on. For the long term, everything will be okay. And of course, as wealth builders, we need creativity and creativity doesn't come from that place.
Christian Rodwell 5:20
That's right. And there's a lot of leverage at play in today's conversation. So perhaps we'll leave the listeners with that and see how many they can pick out. And we'll run through that after this interview. So let's head over to today's conversation with Mark Ferny. Hi, Mark. Very warm. Welcome to wealth talk today. How are you?
Unknown Speaker 5:38
Yeah, good. Thanks very much. Yeah, yourself.
Christian Rodwell 5:41
Yeah. Well, I'm doing pretty good. I'm doing pretty good. Thank you. It's a Friday. So you know, spirits are high weekend is coming. But I'm looking forward to talking to you today, Mark, because you've got really, really interesting business and one that I think will be of great interest to our listeners. And you were chatting with Kevin recently, weren't you? And Kevin kind of pulled me aside and he said, Hey, this guy's doing some amazing stuff. We got to get him on the podcast.
Unknown Speaker 6:04
Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, thanks for the compliment. I was chatting to Kevin and he's sort of learned over the last year or two quite a lot about our business. So yeah, it's nice to, for him to as a new to to invite me, basically.
Christian Rodwell 6:18
So Mark, you're the founder and director of prosper property, and your tagline is interesting, protect and grow your wealth. So you know, couldn't be any more relevant really, for today's conversation? I'll find out in a minute, you know, what made you choose that tagline. But let's begin with just if you don't mind explaining a little bit about your business and what you do.
Unknown Speaker 6:37
Yeah. So we basically acquire commercial property, specifically guest houses and small hotels, to refurbish. So we have value three refurbishment to start with, but then actually to drop our automated service accommodation business model into. And it's a strategy that we sort of have come across, which is obviously perfect for our location. And it's got two big upsides, I suppose, really, and that is the fact that it generates so much cash flow, run in the way that we do, and it's very lean. And then also, because these properties are generally run by Mr. or Mrs. guesthouse owner, and not really traded, sort of purely commercially, they're almost sort of hobby jobs, lifestyle jobs. They're always valued on bricks and mortar. So we sort of season the income over a period of time to three years. And then after sort of three or four years, we can actually get these properties commercially revalued. So there's an uplift in value on them once that happens, as well.
Christian Rodwell 7:49
So some some leverage is definitely coming into play. It sounds like
Unknown Speaker 7:53
Yeah, yeah, I suppose just a lot of a lot of adding value through different sort of streams, I suppose. Really?
Christian Rodwell 8:01
Excellent. All right, well, look forward to finding out exactly how you're doing that. Let's come back to that tagline quickly. So protect and grow your wealth. What What made you decide on that?
Unknown Speaker 8:11
Well, I suppose from our perspective, we are investors as ourselves, but also from sort of people that we work with who are investors. It's what we all want to do, isn't it? The wealth that we have, we want to protect whether that's whatever that is, really, and the majority of it, want to grow it as well. It's yeah. Simple as that. Really?
Christian Rodwell 8:36
Yeah. And maybe just can add about how you go about protecting, you know, funds, because you work with joint joint venture partners as well. Don't you raise funds?
Unknown Speaker 8:45
Yeah, we do. Yeah, well, I suppose the great thing is with property is that obviously, it's a very secure asset, so to speak, whether that's sort of whether you've got charges, or not just from the simple fact of the matter, that it's the property, it's not going anywhere, it's not getting stolen, you have it insured, they are sort of historically very secure, safe assets, ultimately.
Christian Rodwell 9:12
Right. So let's get into the strategy then. So you said you know, you're finding undervalued commercial properties, and you're turning them into highly profitable service accommodation businesses. So you mentioned location, but let our listeners know exactly. Where are you based?
Unknown Speaker 9:27
So we're in Cornwall and we we have very specific target locations, and actually locations within target towns really is down here in Cornwall, and obviously sort of Cornwall is a brand in itself in a way really, so 4 million people a year coming to Cornwall, and the cliffs and the beaches aren't going anywhere. So it's gonna continue to grow without a doubt.
Christian Rodwell 9:50
Okay, so we'll go back to kind of where it all began. But just to give people a perspective of, you know, where is the company at now in terms of size,
Unknown Speaker 9:59
so we We have about 70 Live units across multiple different properties, mostly guest houses and hotels. The value of the properties that we own and manage is about six and a half million. The majority of that are ours rather than management. We do manage properties for for clients as well, who, who fully understand us and the business model. We only we only manage properties for people that yeah, get it and the properties are right, and that they're on board with exactly what we do. So yeah, we've we've grown that over the last five years, basically.
Christian Rodwell 10:38
Okay. And as you mentioned, this is a highly cash high cashflow business.
Unknown Speaker 10:43
Yeah, yeah, exactly. That is the one of the benefits is the fact that the majority of people that own these properties, they, because because it's so busy down here in the summer, most owners just trade up to the VAT threshold, and they're open for four months in the summer. And they can easily get to that figure. And they're happy with that, because they're working in in the in the business themselves, making breakfasts, washing, linen, changing beds, cleaning rooms, and is actually quite hard work. So they that's the most profitable part of the of the of the year, obviously. So they do that and a comfortable with a lot, so to speak. But actually run pure as but run far more commercially. You can in some of these buildings, you can triple that. That income, if you're perfectly happy, obviously being VAT registered and having having a team and obviously sort of leveraging a team and outsourcing stuff, then, yeah, it's it can be run entirely different to a sort of lifestyle job or lifestyle, lifestyle business that most of them are. Yeah,
Christian Rodwell 11:57
so obviously in Cornwall, you've got the tourists in the summer, right? Absolutely packed out. So how do you maintain full occupancy all year round? Mark?
Unknown Speaker 12:05
Yeah, well, it is very, very seasonal. So our rates are completely different in the winter offseason to the summer. But it's it is surprising how many tourists actually do visit our offseason as well. We're not We're not by any means fooling us in the winter. But we do also get contractors in the winter as well, because our rates are down sort of more like the rates that contractors are sort of comfortable with. So we have a mix of tourists and contracts through the winter and and get sort of reasonable occupancy through the winter. And it is it is it is profitable through the winter. But obviously the summer is really where you make make the money obviously.
Christian Rodwell 12:45
Yeah, so for anyone listening now who's perhaps got serviced accommodation, and, and they're really finding a struggle, you know, when they've got a really busy period, then they're just completely quiet. Any tips there, you know, as to how how you went around, you know, finding those contractors, or which sites perhaps you're using,
Unknown Speaker 13:02
I suppose we just leverage as many of the online travel agents as possible. So we have our system set up so that we're on as many as possible, it's just a case of getting eyes on the rooms, really. And there's various other sort of strategies and sort of, I suppose, tricks that you can sort of in in a way do to to get more eyeballs on your properties. And that's sort of them, I suppose, independent of each OTA, really, God has their little intricacies, etc. So that's something that we we concentrate on, but we also concentrate on repeat business. So obviously, we mark it to everyone that stays with us. So if suppose we use the try and use the online travel agents, like a dating agency, you hope you only have to use them once for a particular guest, and you want to obviously take their bookings direct once they've stayed with you. So then, yeah, obviously, you've you're saving the commission then.
Christian Rodwell 13:58
Okay, so would you mind Mark, can you just maybe take an example of a project and walk us through just give us the sort of overview quick overview of, you know, how did you source it? How did you find it? What How did you negotiate, you know, what kind of revenue perhaps was that business doing? And what were you able to turn that into? Yeah, sure.
Unknown Speaker 14:18
We source properties in different ways. So we've we have relationships with agents, we also sort of scrape, scrape, but obviously, yeah, I suppose scrape the portals as well for properties that are actually advertised and my team do that for me to save me time. And then we also send letters out to owners of these guests as a small hotels as well, so that we sort of go direct to them. And we've sorted them in all of those different ways, basically. But once we've, once we've acquired the property, well, actually before acquiring the property, ultimately, we've got to agree a deal and Everyone's circumstances are always very, very different. So we've we've acquired properties on lease options. We've bought properties outright using investor funds. We again manage properties for for the odd client as well, people that maybe have the property on the market, but it was it was on the market for a specific reason. And then we sort of worked out that actually. It suits them, if they actually keep it, and we manage it for them, because that actually solves their problem. So there's lots and lots of different things that we can do to just make sure that a deal works for everyone. Because ultimately, if it doesn't work for them, or it doesn't work for us, then it's, it's not going to happen. So it's just a case of, yeah, asking lots of questions, finding out actually what people really, really well, what they want, what they need, and seeing if we can help. Excellent.
Christian Rodwell 15:56
And I've seen, obviously, some of your pictures of the before and after. And it's quite a transformation. So you obviously have a good team, who can go in and turn that around, you know, due to how much kind of resource and investment you put into your refurbishments.
Unknown Speaker 16:12
Ultimately, it depends on what the property is like to start with. So some properties will go in there and literally gut them and replace all of the on suites. Some properties, and we're only adding extra rooms, because actually, the suites and the rooms that are there are nice. So we'll obviously if we can save, save money or not spend money, we will obviously, it's just a case of getting them up to a certain standard. And in the specific, I suppose layout or model that we need to run our, our business model in that. So
Christian Rodwell 16:49
yeah, and something I'm really interested in is like the automation, the systems that you've created mark, and, you know, explain why this is so important. And give some examples of kind of the areas where you've, you've really minimise the amount of kind of, you know, human resource and touch points. Yeah, I suppose
Unknown Speaker 17:10
systemization. And optimization is key to our model. Ultimately, it's, it's very lean, which saves us money. Simple as that. So everything is self checking and self checkout. So all of the all of our communication is is electronic. So it's about sort of giving people the service that they want, but obviously doing it in as systemized and as automated fashion as is physically possible. So yeah, self check in, self check out. We still have a phone system so people can contact us. And that's, but again, that's very, very systemized as well with lots of different messages. And we've tweaked that over the over the years. Initially, a long time ago, we said, we're not having a phone system, we're going to be completely electronic. But from a customer service perspective, we realised actually, we do actually need to be contactable for certain things. Because obviously, it's a hospitality business, you want people to have a great, great service. And if something happens if there is an issue, which there obviously is always going to be issues, for whatever reason. If Yeah, a light bulb has gone in their bedroom, for example, or something they need to get ahold of someone quickly. So being, I suppose to remote is obviously a bad thing. So we found that balance now we think we found we think we found the perfect balance.
Christian Rodwell 18:41
Yeah. Now, sure. It's not you that it's jumping up and running to go and change the light bulbs these days, although maybe it was back in the beginning. So let's talk about the team now mark, because he got to, you know, co directors, business partners. And, you know, how did the three of you work together?
Unknown Speaker 19:00
It's myself and my dad and my brother, basically, my dad doesn't. He's sort of more of an advisory role. He's retired. So my brother runs the whole sort of maintenance and operations side of the business. And his he actually does, he loves running around and actually doing jobs. So although he's the director, he's actually is the Mr. Fixit as well. And then we also have other people on the team that sort of help with all the sales and marketing. The system's in the operation side as well. So people that we've worked with for quite a few years, who helped us set all of that up. And then we've got customer service team, which we employ, which are actually VAs abroad. And obviously we have systems in place to obviously communicate with them all day every day and they run off the back of our systems and processes. So they do all the customer service basically and then we've also got housekeeping team as well, which is all outsourced to a local company that we've worked with for three years now. So they also work off the back of the software. So every day, they know exactly what needs to be done in what property, because that's all in the software. And then obviously, in the messaging systems through our project management, if VAs needs to get ahold of housekeeping teams, they'll communicate through the project management software. So yeah, we think we're, we're we're certainly pretty efficient. But there's always room for improvement, obviously.
Christian Rodwell 20:33
Yeah. So leveraging systems, maybe you could share a couple of the software systems that you use that you find really helpful and might be a good tip for our listeners.
Unknown Speaker 20:43
Yeah, sure. Well, I suppose our entire business as far as the project, as far as everything, actually, it lives in project management software called Asana. It's, yeah, I suppose there's loads of different bits of software out there. But it's something that we came across through a programme that I did sort of many years ago. We invest a lot of time and energy into actually into into training and learning and went before we set the business up, we went through, I went through a programme to learn how to systemize and outsource in this day and age really. And it was actually that programme that recommended lots and lots of different types of software for different things. So Asana is the main one, we use LastPass, to share all the passwords, because obviously, everything is online these days. And there's so many of us obviously logging into different things. So it's obviously keep all the passwords secure, we use LastPass. They're just there to that we use it in a very high level, I suppose they're the ones we use the most.
Christian Rodwell 21:51
And we do as well, Mark. So let me I can definitely concur that those are those are great platforms. And you know, both of them, actually, you can start using them for free. You know, try them out. And if they're working for your business, then you can upgrade. So yeah, tips, good tips.
Unknown Speaker 22:08
Also, combined with those actually, is the whole Google Suite, basically. Which is it's relatively normal these days for everyone to be obviously, I suppose using using that sort of stuff. But yeah, it's we find Google far easier than Microsoft, although we have to use that as well, for certain things.
Christian Rodwell 22:28
Yeah, well, you know, we should be thankful, shouldn't we that we're in business in this day and age where these tools just make life so much easier? And give us the, you know, ultimately the time freedom that everyone is searching for. Right? And and that's the kind of the test of a true business, right? Can it run without you? Or are you is it completely dependent on you? So leveraging systems and people as you're doing is definitely the way to achieve that. Right? I want to touch on some numbers. And I know, compliance is something that you're very focused on within the business mark. And, you know, having raised funds previously, you've developed your own FCA compliant process, haven't you?
Unknown Speaker 23:09
Yeah, yeah. So we've worked with sole investors to raise the equity fought to actually buy properties outright. And it was really important, sort of before we did that, to actually learn how to do it legally, ultimately. So we've worked with mentors, finance, mentors, and sort of compliance have worked with compliance mentors as well to put together a compliant process to actually meet get to know get to sort of go through the whole no life and trust process with investors in a way that is legal ultimately, before then onboarding people and offering people investment or showing people investment offerings ultimately.
Christian Rodwell 23:57
And because these commercial properties people can use their pensions if they have a SAS as well.
Unknown Speaker 24:04
Yeah, they Yeah, they can it's they're all commercial from the word go. So I'm don't pretend to be a SAS experts. But I know obviously, you guys you guys are having a SAS is something that is on my radar. And we will be setting up a family SAS at some point in the next year or so. I know a little bit about it, and it will suit us as directors of businesses perfectly. To for us to actually yeah, invest in our own our own properties. Yeah, not the other people because that commercial can invest and can buy these properties with us. That's yeah.
Christian Rodwell 24:43
So I guess looking at serviced accommodation, and you're kind of taking it to a new level with with the way that you're operating and Systemising it but again, for listeners now, you know a lot of people have been hit recently. Those that perhaps buy toilets and we know the mortgage rates have really eaten and into a lot of people's profits, and they're looking out other strategies that might return better cash flow for them. And, you know, what are the kinds of you know, it gives some headline kind of numbers that that property doing service accommodation could generate per month or per year for someone?
Unknown Speaker 25:15
It depends on if you're going to be managing it yourself or not ultimately, sort of so obviously, it's a lot of work ultimately. But that's why most people choose to obviously have the managed by by people like ourselves. But a very high level EBIT DA is around about sort of 40 to 50%. So, which is pretty good. Very good, in fact, so yeah, including the management fee for for for us, effectively, we can acquire a property, set it all up, obviously, drop our business model into it. And, yeah, our earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation will be 40 to 50% of that turnover. That's after all of our costs on everything. Obviously, if people want those properties managed, then obviously that does come down a bit, because obviously, we charge a fee to do what we do ultimately.
Christian Rodwell 26:20
Yeah, and obviously, the, you know, room rates going to be wildly different and dependent on location and all sorts of factors. You know, again, just some numbers, perhaps of, you know, a good room, high quality, like yours are, what might that be generating?
Unknown Speaker 26:39
Yeah, so in the summer, obviously, every property is slightly different. And like to say every location is very different. So we've got we've got properties that are sort of more like, I suppose, a boutique hostel in a way, which aren't in sort of, which don't have sea views. And the rates for those sort of properties are generally around sort of 40 on the off season per night to 120, high season. But then there's other properties with for example, seaviews, overlooking somewhere like St. Ives, then the rates there will vary from around about 70 In the offseason, up to about 300. In the high season, per night. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So very broad range. It is. I think it was good at times as much in the summer, as the winter is round fingers go,
Christian Rodwell 27:32
No, it's good, good to get an idea there. And as you say, this is a strategy that is time intensive, and will require, you know, you know, a lot of input and the education, which you touched on at the beginning, right, just switching from a, by the way, you know, a property that perhaps could lend itself to being, you know, changed into service accommodation. Just because it could doesn't mean that you necessarily know how to do it, right?
Unknown Speaker 27:57
No, that's right. And I suppose, yeah, trade training is really, really important about what you do. And we haven't always done this. I used to be in the motor trade. So we were have my own car dealership. And in 2015 16 ish, we realised that actually, it wasn't going to sort of, I suppose long term, provide us the security and the lifestyle that we wanted. So we made the conscious decision to pivot completely from one industry to another. Obviously, we had a tiny bit of property experience, I had a flat that I rented out, my dad had one sort of one HMO one student house. So we invested a huge amount of time and resources into into training. So yeah, mentorship programmes, training courses, mastermind programmes, and that's how we managed to sort of transition from one industry to another with with very little experience basically. And then so yeah, we, we, I suppose 2017 is when we, I suppose what we closed the visit, close the garage and sort of went full time into property.
Christian Rodwell 29:06
Yeah. Which would have been obviously the pandemic hit during that period. How did you navigate that?
Unknown Speaker 29:15
Obviously, it was was tricky for a time no one. No, none of us had ever experienced something like that before. Obviously, being closed is obviously not remotely ideal for our business. We would we were very fortunate in all fairness that all of our businesses are, we pay rates on all of them, because they're all commercial properties. So we had government support for every property, which actually we think was very generous. And then obviously, once we opened, I suppose the property is burned between about three to 4000 pounds a month being closed. Depends on how big they were basically, three to five, I suppose the bigger ones And, yeah, that's not ideal. But the moment that we opened up, there was so much pent up demand from people to actually travel because everyone's been stuck in houses and no one could fly. That actually, the summers the seasons were bumper really. So, obviously COVID was a terrible time for lots of people, lots of different reasons. But from, from our perspective, I think we were just lucky that we're in the industry we're in and we got the support. And we were able to bounce back very quickly due to the due to the just the situation, basically.
Christian Rodwell 30:37
And finally, I guess, looking forwards, you know, what's your your plan for the next few years? And in terms of supply in your area? Do you feel there's more than enough properties that you can continue to? To you know, enhance? Yeah, no,
Unknown Speaker 30:51
there definitely is. There's it's one of those, I suppose, industries in a way that some that a lot of people come in, they, a lot of these owners, Mister missus they come in and they do it for three, four or five years. It's a, it's a semi retirement sort of lifestyle move for a lot of people. So then obviously, when they want to fully retire, these properties come on the market. So there's always a flow of them coming onto the market. And, yeah, that suits us stands on the ground, obviously. So we're, we we generally acquire, or have historically acquired one of these a year. But we're looking to scale that we want to do two or three years. And we're putting the sort of the systems and the processes and the team in place to be able to grow at that rate. So we've, yeah, we're working as they're working as hard as we can towards Systemising. Everything so that we can set up acquire and set up and fund more of these basically.
Christian Rodwell 31:55
Yeah, and as I said before, the the properties look absolutely fantastic. So you're doing a really great job with your brother and father there. So if our listeners would like to take a look for themselves, Mark, go online, look at what you're doing, what's the best place for them to head to
Unknown Speaker 32:12
head to our website. And obviously, there's loads of information on there that is literally WWW dot prosper property.co.uk. And, yeah, there's loads of information, then they can contact us direct through the website and set up a 30 minute video call with needs. They've got any questions at
Christian Rodwell 32:32
all. That's brilliant. Thanks so much, being a great guest on wealth talk today, Mark,
Unknown Speaker 32:37
no problem at all. Thanks very much for having me. It's been brilliant, awesome.
Christian Rodwell 32:42
Interesting stuff from mark there, Kevin. And lots of lessons we can pull out. Before we do that, let's head on over to Trustpilot. And we've got a bit of catching up to do actually, we've had some reviews coming in this year. I'm gonna go back, actually to January. And to a review from Neil which kick things off saying 2023 has started with a bang. Helen Pollack, the Community Support Manager wealth builders has hit the ground running for me at the start of the year. I'm so grateful. And I'm looking forward to my wealth journey. Thanks, Helen.
Unknown Speaker 33:12
We're good for Helen. And, you know, we're, that's the leverage for us of new people. And we've got somebody else starting this week, actually, next week, working with wealth builders and somebody else in our IFA team. So, you know, we're always taking the opportunity to grow by adding more quality people, to our team, who are playing Fallout on the team. And that's the sort of language we encourage people to think about that they're just identifying with the team they want to play for, and they've paid full on. And like any team, you're going to make mistakes, you know, you're going to do some things that are like football, isn't it? Chris, you're going to make an odd, run, pass and make a mistake, and nobody blames anybody for that. But the leverage of doing that is great for us. And the leverage where markers I mean, there's so many points of leverage that you want to pick any out, as you said, you're going to test our listeners to see how money they could find.
Christian Rodwell 34:06
Yeah, absolutely. Well, we, well, you created an acronym, which we use as part of our teachings, caving for leverage, which is F IR s. T, which stands for financial leverage intellectual relationship systems and time. So I'm pretty sure all of those coming into play here. Yeah, yeah. So well, why don't we start with the financial leverage? And, you know, he talks about working with others, so that financial leverage doesn't always need to come from your own money, does it it could come from other people's money.
Unknown Speaker 34:38
No, that's right. And of course, we'll be showing people next week about how the suspension could be a form of leverage that most people don't realise is there. And while that wasn't part of the leverage for the furniture family, I'm assuming will be part of their leverage from the profits they're making as they shelter those profits from all of the main taxes you know, including National Insurance income tax corporation tax capital gains tax and inheritance tax. So pretty powerful stuff there in terms of financial leverage. But the leverage they've they've got his finding private investors. And what's impressed me with Mark is the diligence in which he's applied a thoughtful and legal process to this, you know, he hasn't just gone gung ho and posted things all over Facebook, he's taken good guidance. He's written some good materials. I've checked those materials as well. I'm impressed with the degree of diligence they've applied, because they want to keep themselves safe, and they want to keep their investors safe. And in fact, you pulled it out straight away quiz, didn't you? When they talked about their? Their? What? The the kind of the key words they use on their website?
Christian Rodwell 35:52
Yes, yes. Protecting and growing their members, or clients wealth. So yeah, very key for them to protect. Yeah. Okay. So other points of leverage? Well, we know that leverage really comes from either systems or people. And absolutely, they have put the systems in place here with their service accommodation business, but also, Mark referred to leveraging, you know, the VA is based in other countries to deliver the customer service. So really smart way of working here.
Unknown Speaker 36:20
Yeah, well, of course, that gives you more time I've talked to Mark and Mark is historically was doing a lot of the work now he's not doing the work so we can find more deals and negotiate more deals with with other people. And I think they said their ambition was to move from one significant project a year to three or four. And that's quadrupling the size of your business, which means putting all that leverage in place enables that to happen. So congratulations to them. And the other form of leverage, Chris mentioned is they're not just finding their own private investors. They're also working with crowdfunding sites. So they've, they've aligned on a current project. I mean, I'm not aware of the detail of the project, of course, but but just to like the idea of what crowdfunding brings, and they're using Leo, crowdfunding, and anybody could check out crowdfunding, because it's a place you can invest, you can almost participate in other people's projects, through through the crowd. So you could own a part of a project for 100 pounds, as opposed to getting involved in learning all of the project knowledge for yourself and can build a layer of diversification, whether you've got a CIP or whether you've got a SAS or whether you just want to invest through your innovative Eisah. You can do all of those things. So check them out on Leo, crowdfunding, and of course, other crowdfunding sites are available. So check out crowdfunding as a way to diversify the way you are investing.
Christian Rodwell 37:56
Yeah, technology really playing such an important part, though, isn't it the mentioned the website there, which is bringing people together. And Mark shared some of the tools that they're using as well, some of those that we're using in wealth builders to make our life easier to bring our team together, because we're working remotely now as well. So it's not so easy just to turn over your shoulder and speak to someone but you know, tools now make it easy for people to work pretty much across the world and still be quite seamless in business.
Unknown Speaker 38:23
Absolutely. I think the other leverage is the when you get time back, and that's really quite a critical thing. And it's not one that Mark necessarily mentioned. But I'd like to mention it, that we encourage everybody who's on a wealth building journey with wealth builders to focus their way to income security, so they get financially secure, which means essentially, all their bills are paid for. And that brings time back into play. Because the great thief of wealth is time. We know that because people always say I've got time or I'm too busy in the work life balance for the most successful people in work and in business is always that and you see that played out in their work life balance problems. But part of that in business is creativity. So creativity comes from having more time to allow you to intelligently look at what the problems are, and then spend more time and creatively finding the solutions. Now this particular one I've spoken about before Chris, and I love what they're doing is really identifying that the lifestyle choice that many people make to run a b&b or a small hotel. They get to a certain point, I suppose, like they did in their car business, isn't it really, they get to a certain point. When they're not really maximising anymore. We all know that they'll often trade up to the VAT threshold to around 80 grand or so. And they don't want to go above that because they're quite comfortable. Well, Marc's talking About a quarter million for a property typically. So you've got to just recognise that and say, well, there's a supply of people who get to a point in their life, when they don't want to do it, even 80 grand a year, they don't want to do it anymore. And that's a real skill, where you can give a solution to them, whether it's to manage the property, as you mentioned, or alternatively, to buy it from them, which could be a shared deal, it could be an outright purchase, it could be a lease option. You know what I mean, that creativity, then to spend time with people. And I, jokingly, when I spoke to Mark said, Yeah, this is a really interesting strategy I call crusty people with crusty properties. You know, it's like, they're, they're getting to a point where things are not working as smoothly as effectively. There's no technology, it's all old fashioned. You know, there's no use of I think he used the word OTA, which is online travel agent. But that's a form of leverage, because you're using channels, as we call them, through Airbnb and other channels are available, of course, as well, and, and that brings more people, but you could hear him say, well, we want the channels to bring us the initial inquiry, and then we want to nurture the client to build further inquiries for the future. And I think all of this is very, very smart thinking and I commend the Fernhill family, for how smart they been, in turning this into a good business and looking to expand so check them out. I mean, it could well be something you could learn from in your area doesn't have to be Cornwall, it could be you could learn the lessons they're learning in terms of leverage, whether you're in Aberdeen or Aberystwyth, Cardiff, for Cleethorpes, you know, you could do the same thing.
Christian Rodwell 41:48
Absolutely. And that tired business owner could be any type of business, right? Not just property, its
Unknown Speaker 41:55
property. Yeah, I've got a client who, who's buying franchises from people who just get into well, to run them, you know, so you can look at age, age, that affects people's thoughts in the health, just just the amount of energy they need. All of these things can affect someone's decision about whether they want to run a business and you can solve a problem for a business owner or a property owner. Not by taking it off them and, and almost taking advantage of people. But to give them a solution that they're looking for, in the same way as many landlords who are tired of their buy to let process for example, many of our clients will take those properties under a rent to rent scheme, and then turn them into an HMO or a student accommodation or serviced accommodation, or whatever it would be to get more leverage to get more value. But it takes the problem away from somebody who doesn't want to face that problem anymore. And that's just smart thinking.
Christian Rodwell 43:01
Absolutely. Okay, so that covers off pretty much all of the lessons I think for today. And don't forget, if you'd like to join us for that SAS webinar coming up on Tuesday, the 21st of February, then head to wealth builders.co.uk forward slash SAS webinar, and find out how you can make your pension work harder for you. So Kevin, we will catch up Same time, same place next week.
Unknown Speaker 43:25
Did we will and until then, my friend so yeah.
Unknown Speaker 43:31
We hope you enjoy today's episode. Don't forget that we are constantly updating our resources inside the wealth builders membership site to help you create, build and protect your wealth. Head over to wealth builders.co.uk/membership right now for free access. That's wealth builders.co.uk/membership
Transcribed by https://otter.ai