Understanding the important fundamentals of managing your investment projects will go a long way in empowering an investor with peace of mind that confidence in clear decision making. As with most things in life, simplicity is the key to understanding the core principles of project management.
Simplicity is elegance and efficiency as well. While there are many tools, methods, and tactics to be used within each of the three basic components... the principles themselves don’t change. Hence the title of “principles”.
Use these three foundational blocks as the broad strokes on the canvas of planning out every foreclosure investment project you find yourself needing to manage. Listed in proper chronological order of what should be addressed first...
PLANNING
This is where all the main questions of the project find an answer and things begin to take shape. This is where you plan on how you are going to plan; what management methods will you use for your project? It is here that you establish the all important ‘exit strategy’ so that there is a clear path to profit.
During your the ‘Planning’ is when you have opportunity to think through the entire project from start to finish... thinking through finish to start is actually better. Reverse engineer. Deductive logic works better here rather than inductive logic. You are more likely to hit your target and achieve your goals.
During this time is when you establish the milestones and vision for the project, speaking of seeing the end first, this way you have a full project cycle thought through with all the specific steps you need to take in between clearly defined.
Identify your important elements. What are your strengths going in? What are your weaknesses? How are you planning to minimize your risks? Think everything through.
SCHEDULING
Okay, you have now gone through the ‘Planning’ stage with a fine toothed comb and are ready to start placing everything you planned out onto a calendar. Schedule every little detail you can think of and see if your timetable goals in the planning stage were realistic once you create a schedule.
Pay attention to the scheduling of things that are dependent upon other action items being completed... make sure you create a buffer in between these things as rarely does a project go exactly according to plan.
You can use software tools like a Gantt chart to schedule things out in a visual format that allows you identify overlaps and potential clustering. This will ensure a smoother process for your project management. New investors especially tend to under estimate the amount of time things take to get done. Get feedback from the people you are planning to use for the different divisions of work to make sure you have created realistic timetables from the beginning.
CONTROLLING
You planned things out after thinking the entire project through... you scheduled all the components and moving parts to make sure there would be smooth transitions between all the phases of the project.
Now it is a matter of managing it to make sure things going according to plan; or as close to it as possible. Remember this adage: People respect what you inspect.
Check periodically that all is well. No need to micromanage, especially if you aren’t the project manager, simply understand that the buck stops with you and check the details periodically throughout the project life cycle.
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