Nikonomics - The Economics of Small Business
00:19:23 · Peter Lohmann, Nikolas Hulewsky
[00:19:23] S0: No, they're kind of organic. Yeah, Definitely look on Facebook too, but I would start with a Google search. [00:19:28] S1: Yeah. Alright. So let's say I go to BiggerPockets or I go to real estate investor meetups and I've got a fish on the line. When you got your first customer... First client, excuse me, was it one door? Was it a package of doors? Like, how did you land that first client? [00:19:43] S0: I believe our first client was a small handful of doors. I think that was just chance. [00:19:49] S1: Did you offer a discount? Were you like, hey. I'm just trying to get into this. Let me let me do it for a month or
00:19:49 · Nikolas Hulewsky, Peter Lohmann
[00:19:49] S1: Did you offer a discount? Were you like, hey. I'm just trying to get into this. Let me let me do it for a month or [00:19:54] S0: I mean, I think that back then I didn't offer a discount exactly, but our pricing was really low because I knew that I needed to offer something to entice people since we didn't have, you know, experience really. And what I said to our early customers was like, listen. We're a young small company. I am young and hungry. I wanna make this work. You are going to get a ton of personal attention from me to make sure that everything's going well at your property, which was a 100% true. And so in those early days, it's like, hey, you're gonna be my thirteenth client, but that means you're gonna get a ton of attention from me. And I have a background in engineering and we own our own rentals. And so we know, you know, we're gonna treat your rentals just like our own. So you got to work with what you got, right? So these days I don't say that. I don't even talk to our The sales pitch that our salesperson gives us completely different than that and leans on the strengths that we have today.
00:20:45 · Nikolas Hulewsky, Peter Lohmann
[00:20:45] S1: Interesting. So my background was healthcare and in hospice, there are sort of these benchmarks. Once we get to 10 patients, it's like, okay, we have our team. Once we get to 30 patients, that was the point where it's self sustaining and profitable and you have a good agency quote unquote. And then 50 is another benchmark. It's like, alright, you're at 50. Now you're kind of a real player in the market. You have some sophistication and then over a 100, you're one of you're one of the big guys. Those are broad, but that's generally generally what it is. Are there other benchmarks like that in property management? Like, let's say, once you start, is there a certain number of doors you're aiming for? What does that look like? [00:21:24] S0: Yeah. There definitely are. So a 100 doors is a big deal. When you start a management company, you'll be able to do everything yourself for the first 50 to 100 doors. Once you hit that 100 door mark, first, that's a big milestone for a few reasons. One, you're generally gonna be able to afford to hire your first full time employee if you... Oh, okay. And you're going to start to need someone at that point because you're going to be stretched really thin. Also, by the way, you you would then qualify for Crane, which is my paid private community for property management business owners. [00:21:55] S1: Crane? I've never heard Please tell me more.
00:21:55 · Nikolas Hulewsky, Peter Lohmann
[00:21:55] S1: Crane? I've never heard Please tell me more. [00:21:58] S0: Yeah. So Crane is is... It's a community of property management business owners that I started a year ago with a friend of mine, Wolfgang Kroski. He owns a management company too, and it's a place for those who are already up and running and looking to grow to communicate with each other, share best practices. We do real life meetups as part of the conferences and things [00:22:19] S1: like that. Those communities are are so valuable. Like [00:22:22] S0: They're they're great. [00:22:23] S1: Because you're learning from other people. It's not necessarily, I am Peter here to distill all of my knowledge onto this community. Like, they're... I'm assuming, I don't know Crane, but most communities are like, hey, what are you doing in this market? How does this work? Would anybody talk to a lawyer who's done a, you know, transaction before? Exactly. I said, like, those, they're just invaluable as you're trying to get up and running.
00:22:23 · Nikolas Hulewsky, Peter Lohmann
[00:22:23] S1: Because you're learning from other people. It's not necessarily, I am Peter here to distill all of my knowledge onto this community. Like, they're... I'm assuming, I don't know Crane, but most communities are like, hey, what are you doing in this market? How does this work? Would anybody talk to a lawyer who's done a, you know, transaction before? Exactly. I said, like, those, they're just invaluable as you're trying to get up and running. [00:22:42] S0: Yeah, and there's actually a bunch of these groups on Facebook too, and they're really valuable as well, but on Facebook, first of all, it's super noisy, right? And you have all different skill levels, you have vendors mixed in there, you never know what you're getting. And then the other thing with Facebook is that because it's it's not really private, there's no vetting. People are not comfortable sharing sort of what's really going on. What I like about a paid private community is you you... Is everyone who joins is highly vetted by myself and my cofounder. And then once you're inside, everyone agrees to a a code of conduct where what happens inside there stays in there. So you get people sharing very transparently and very, very raw experiences. And then that's really kind of where the magic happens, where the real juice is. But... [00:23:27] S1: Yeah. [00:23:28] S0: So anyway, so that's 100 doors, and once you reach 100 doors, it's sort of like you can make a living off this, you're not going have to go back to your normal job if this is something you start on the side or whatever.
00:23:28 · Peter Lohmann, Nikolas Hulewsky
[00:23:28] S0: So anyway, so that's 100 doors, and once you reach 100 doors, it's sort of like you can make a living off this, you're not going have to go back to your normal job if this is something you start on the side or whatever. [00:23:39] S1: Because theoretically at a 100 doors, I'm doing anywhere between 15,000 and 30,000 a month. Right. In top line revenue. [00:23:48] S0: Yep. [00:23:49] S1: And I'm netting, let's just call it 15%. To like... [00:23:54] S0: You're probably netting more actually as a percentage when you're [00:23:57] S1: Because you're small doing everything yourself. [00:23:59] S0: You're doing everything yourself. You haven't reached the point where you have to buy a bunch of heavy SaaS products and you don't have an office really, or you have a tiny one. So like your overhead is still small. [00:24:11] S1: Okay. That makes sense. All right. So when you hit a 100 doors is like, oh, this is a proper business. It's not, it's no longer, you're just a solo entrepreneur trying to figure out how hire your first employee. What's the next?