It’s Time to Get DIY Out of Our DNA

David Vinsen

Owner of Quinovic Parnell
www.quinovicparnell.co.nz

Here’s a sobering statistic: About 25 percent of New Zealand residential landlords use a property management company. In Australia, that figure is around 80 percent and it’s even higher in the UK.

Why are we so out of step with other countries? More to the point, what is it costing us?

One reason we’re out of step is because we’re a nation of DIYers.

Who doesn’t love the Mitre 10 ad with the kids discussing putting up a retaining wall. “Nah, do it yourself, mate,” says the down-to-earth one, talking his mate out of “getting some bloke in”.

Awesome stuff. But a dangerous attitude when applied to business investment.

And here’s where New Zealanders are, relatively speaking, naïve. We continue bringing a DIY attitude to all kinds of business enterprises.

It’s why so many owners started out with big ambitions but now find themselves stuck in a rut – working hard for little return, and seeing no way forward other than to work harder.

Smart business people allocate time and effort to where it will make the biggest difference, and engage others to do the rest.

Almost every new client who comes to us after having managed their own property has been leaving money on the table, often for years.

As someone who’s owned and sold multiple businesses during the years, I know that every time I did something that someone more skilled than me could have done, it ended up costing me money.

The problem is, that cost doesn’t show up as a line item in our expenses column. Instead, it’s a lost opportunity.

Rather than creating wealth – the very thing we created the business for – we were knee deep in minutiae.

We may have been saving ourselves $30 an hour, but the cost in lost opportunity was many times that. In those cases, DIY is actually spelt DUMB.

Ambitious business owners aim high. New Zealand has plenty of them: witness Rocket Lab, software company Vista, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and others. World beaters who not only work hard, but think smart and surround themselves with great people.

I’d like to see ambitious people, including property investors, flourish in this country and build serious long term wealth.

So here’s something to ponder: regardless of how you are growing your wealth, how much more could you create with the support of committed experts who are out to have you win?