Category: Blog

Today, the terms ‘financial freedom’ and ‘time freedom’ are often thrown around, touted as being the benchmarks to success. While achieving financial independence and having an abundance of free time are worthy aspirations, we believe they are only a small part of what’s important.

Think of someone you know who is extremely successful but has made a very little positive impact in the world. This is the individual who has it all – all the time and money in the world, with anything and everything at their disposal – and yet they’re unsatisfied. They have plenty of personal freedom, but what they’re missing is a clear and purposeful ‘why.’
At Freedom Land Capital, we define success a little differently. We believe that using our God-given talents and resources to serve others is a marker of true, significant success; our purpose extends beyond our own wellbeing and looks outward to the wellbeing of those around us, such as our clients and our peers.

As a brand, FLC aims to promote and exemplify True Freedom – living an abundant, vibrant, and joyful life of serving God by loving others. We at FLC have set goals on how to achieve our purpose, and we seek to do so alongside our valued customers. We have defined our ‘why’ based upon several key reasons:

Our Values

The conception of FLC was founded on our set of shared values, and these values propel us to work in a way that serves our clients best. As lovers of integrity, discipline and quality stewardship, you can depend on us to help you through your journey to financial freedom. For no reason do we engage in any activity that jeopardizes these values, as they form the integral foundation on which our company is built.

Our Principles

Along with these core values, we have principles that are governed by them. These principles include:

• Intentions. We have your best interest at heart, and will be transparent and honest with you.
• Experience. We work towards ensuring that your experience with us results in high profit, win-win deals.
• Outcome. By partnering with us, you will be sure to gain access to the capital, clarity, and connections you need.
• Partnership. You are part of the team when working with us – and we are glad to have you!
• Education. We stay ahead of the curve so that our business can serve you to the highest standard.
• Integrity. You can expect our utmost honesty, transparency, and respect at all times.

Our Customers

You are the reason our company exists, and we do not take that lightly. We understand your pain points; we know that many people have been scarred in the past by dishonest real estate agents, and as such, we prioritize transparency when dealing with you.

What we seek to achieve by doing this is to build your trust in us. We value well-formed, long-term relationships built on reliability and trustworthiness. For this reason, we are very intentional in hiring the right people and doing the right thing.

Our Goals

As a company, we have goals that we strive to achieve. Hitting target goals and exceeding them where possible is encouraging; it reminds us that we are indeed making an impact in the world. We work hard to ensure that meeting our goals is our minimum achievement. Our topmost, of course, is to become the #1 most recognized and respected brand in the land investing industry.

To Set the Pace

As our customers, you may be business owners just like us. Perhaps you find it difficult staying focused on your goals and remembering why you do what you do. Your individual or company purpose may look entirely different to ours, but we encourage anyone searching for lost motivation to think about their greater purpose. It’s never too late to define or redefine your ‘why’!

So, what is our ‘why’? Look holistically at everything we have listed in this article – our values, principles, and reasoning – and there you have our purpose. We strive to bring fairness and honesty to every action that we take, whilst ensuring each step is consistent with our purpose and helps us achieve our goals. In sharing our purpose, we hope we have been able to inspire you to define your purpose – and, if need be, redefine what you already have to help you sail ahead.

In light of Labor Day, we reflect on the meaning, purpose, and blessing of WORK. Why does work matter and why should we be thankful even when we don’t feel thankful?

For some insight, we look at the book, Every Good Endeavor, by the late pastor and theologician, Tim Keller. To learn more about what work is from a biblical perspective and practical ways we can do a better job of integrating faith and work.

In the book’s foreword, by Katherine Alsdorf, we connected and agreed with, “Each day, I wrestled with what it means to be ‘called to serve God’ as a leader in business. It’s a nice concept, but what does it mean in practice?”

Like Kate, we love the idea of being called to serve God. We are thrilled by it; however, we are practical people and nice-sounding concepts are not enough for us. As with everything we do, we want not only a deeper understanding but also direct application, because that is the only way we can do the work we’ve been called to do by Him.

We haven’t read about work in the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 15:58, we hear, “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Why it Matters

Why is the topic of work such an important thing to think about?” We spend about eight hours of our day working at our workplace, plus 1-8 hours or more working on personal projects and endeavors. That’s a ton of time…working! Work is challenging and we all know how hard it is to consistently put significant efforts towards something and to remain purpose-driven – especially if it’s not our favorite thing to do. For this reason, a good understanding of what work means to us as land investors is vital if we plan on living a purposeful life and maintaining a balance between work and life.

What is Freedom, Really?

Many people define freedom as being able to do what you want when you want, and how you want to. But freedom doesn’t mean being free from work. It is not the absence of restrictions. We fail to realize that we can get trapped and bound by those indulgences we are “free” to make and end up living in more bondage than if we were more disciplined. 

As Christian entrepreneurs, land investors, and business owners, we are most free when we operate, live, work and play within the boundaries of God’s commands and His will, according to our gifts and talents. Romans 2:9-11 reads, “If you go against the grain, you get splinters. But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs.” 

You must have had times in your life when you just had to trust God, even though it felt like you were giving up your freedom – only to get to the end of the process and finally realize the good God was working all along. 

Even when we do not see His path, we need to step forward in faith. Even when we cannot see a way through, we need to continue to do His work. We need to stand firm, to give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord. We need to discipline ourselves under God to watch our purpose-driven lives bloom.

Why Do We Work?

Work is good, it’s part of our design and it should be a part of our life. We don’t work to live or to make a living. Rather, work is something we live to do. 

Understanding work as an essence of life is a significant mindset shift, one that takes time and intentional effort to fully grasp. This is one reason why we feel satisfaction when we’re productive when we’re progressing and growing. We thrive when we grow from all the work we do.

The purpose of work goes beyond making money. We should elevate our perception of what work is and why it’s important and we are doing so.

Final Thoughts…

A great quote by Tim Keller in the book says, “We are the fingers of God, the agents of his providential love for others. This understanding elevates the purpose of work from making a living to loving our neighbor and at the same time releases us from the crushing burden of working primarily to prove ourselves.” With this, we can see the necessity of integrating faith and work in our businesses as Christians.

Again, we want to stir our imagination and creativity about how to integrate faith and work, but this time, we want it to lead to action! Everyone has a slightly different vocation, so this means something different for everyone, but the concepts are the same, and biblical truth is constant.

Business (and all of life) is a challenge without high-quality partnerships. 

Let’s face it, we can’t be the best at everything! And even if you were an expert in everything you do, there’s not enough time in the day to execute all that needs to get done – especially if your goal is to maintain a thriving business.

On top of making business enjoyable, funding partnerships and real estate investors provide business owners with arguably one of the most important elements of a growing business: leverage. 

Romans 12:6 says, “…God has given us different gifts for doing things well…”. 

In other words, we can succeed by trying to do all we can with the gifts we have and then lean on others for everything else. Whether it’s time, expertise, cash flow, skills, resources, contacts, ideas, or motivation, there will always be something that your team lacks.

The good news is that business owners like you can find those missing parts in a partnership with others who can specialize in things like business administration, marketing, rental properties, commercial properties, or various types of land investments.

The key is to be self-aware so that you can identify what your company cannot do well and then, with humility and resourcefulness, find the team or tool that will help you fill the gap. 

On top of that, when you partner up with people who are passionate about their work, they become more invested in helping you grow your business than just being paid for their services. This means that they want to see you succeed as much as you want them to succeed.

This principle applies to all partnerships including the ones in real estate investing.

Okay – so, there’s value in partnerships, got it! So how do we find good partners? And once we do, how do we create lasting partnerships? There are many answers to this, but we think that it comes down to simply being a good partner first. 

As Bob Buford says in his book, The Go-Giver, “you give, give, give because you love to.  It’s not a strategy, it’s a way of life”. 

First and foremost, seek to add value to the relationship and the rest will fall into place. Give, add value, be generous, spend the extra time, go above and beyond expectations! We think this is not only a solid business practice, but it’s also the right thing to do.

Will some potential partnerships be unfruitful? Sure.

Will some partnerships come to you at the wrong time? Of course!

But even when things don’t work out, it’s still rewarding. And when things do work out, you get to make business enjoyable and you get to enjoy success together – both of which would only be made possible only through the time you put into building quality partnerships.

In brief, we believe that partnering up with other businesses is a great idea as long as both parties understand their roles and responsibilities. If they agree to these terms, then the rewards will far outweigh most risks involved.

And remember, no matter what happens, you should never forget why you partnered up in the first place. You probably did it because you wanted to grow your business and add value to your clients’ lives. That’s why you should keep working smart and with purpose every single day.

The end of the year is fast approaching and for small businesses, year-end tax planning is critical!  In addition to a careful review of our business’s financial health, we try our best to be deliberate in our approach to making charitable contributions!  

A Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) is an account through which an individual or a company can support charitable organizations they care about. DAFs are flexible, so you don’t have to worry about converting your donations to cash; simply contribute to your fund in the form of cash or assets. Your donations will grow tax-free based on a variety of investment options that you can choose from, and then you can make grants to the charity of your choice whenever you’re ready. 

There are several Donor-Advised options out there, but we recommend we recommend using the National Christian Foundation (NCF), which describes their “Giving Fund” as an “Easy-to-create, low-cost, flexible account for charitable giving that is a popular alternative to giving directly to charities or creating a private foundation.” Saving a few bucks while giving is always welcome, right?

Our Top 5 Reasons to use Donor-Advised Funds –

Your reasons may differ, but here’s why we used DAFs –

1. We are Called to a Lifestyle of True Generosity

We believe that we are called to a lifestyle of true generosity. Admittedly, this is much easier said than done, but we try to embrace the call to living charitably out of faith. According to Scripture, we are to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37); we aim to fulfill this call through giving and serving with a generous heart.

2. Money Leads, Hearts Follow

We believe that our focus is drawn to the things we invest in. As Randy Alcorn says in The Treasure Principle, “money leads, hearts follow,” which draws from Matthew 6:19-21. Giving doesn’t always come easy, but we encourage everyone to start where they are and grow into the life of giving. We want to be focused on the right things that create a lasting impact. It’s im

3. Convenience and Simplicity

We like DAFs for their convenience and simplicity. Giving is the priority, but we also understand the need to be as efficient as possible with administrative activities. DAFs help to minimize time spent actively managing your giving efforts. We assume that most DAFs are similar to NCF, providing a system to manage your investments and giving all on a simple online platform and from any device. If you are looking to give without spending unnecessary time on administration, DAFs are your best bet.

4. Multiply Your Impact

Giving through DAFs allows you to multiply your impact.  You’ll have the opportunity to choose an investment option that ranges from conservative to aggressive, based on your risk/return profile. This way, you can grow your money tax-free and then recommend grants to various charities whenever you’re ready to do so.

5. Immediate Tax Deduction

We believe that part of quality stewardship is being wise with both your investments as well as your tax strategies. No one ever said you can’t save while giving! Contributing money into your fund qualifies for an immediate tax deduction, but you’ll still have the flexibility of making a grant to the charity of your choice at a later date.

Final Thoughts

Are you interested in Donor-Advised Funds and looking to start one for yourself? If so, we would be thrilled to put you in contact with a Relationship Manager at NCF to figure out what works best for you and your business. Giving is rewarding, especially when done conveniently. Once the hassle is taken out of donating, you’ll likely feel more motivated to donate on a regular basis and hopefully make a profound change through generosity. 

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Matthew 6:19-21

You’ve probably already heard about funding, and now you are wondering if you should look into it further. Maybe your knowledge about funding is limited, and you’re looking to learn more about the potential benefits – or risks – to your business. Wherever you are on your real estate business journey, we’ve got the basics covered here to help you determine whether funding is the right next step for your land investing business.

Bottom Line Up Front:

The land investment business is one in which your biggest expense relies on one thing – property acquisition. For this reason, you should take seriously where this capital comes from. Determine what your risk threshold is and ensure you stay within it. Carefully weigh the pros and cons of using funding and surround yourself with partners you think you’d want to work with long-term. A partnership engagement is a relationship, not just a transactional opportunity!

In businesses looking to expand, funding opens the door to scale. Instead of basing your goals on your own limited capital, establishing funding partnerships forms a business model that you can apply in a repeatable way.  We’ve used funding for our own investments and it was a game changer; we’d encourage everyone on this space to look hard at the opportunities funding provides, but go into it eyes wide open.

What is Funding?

In the simplest terms, Funding in the land investing space is leveraging other people’s money, connections, and experience. It’s bringing on a partner so you have more capital to invest in other parts of your business and not tied up in inventory. 

In addition to just the capital, a partner can provide motivation and encouragement. You’ll gain another viewpoint to confirm you are on the right path with your purchase and development plans. If done right, it will expand your vision, help gain access to larger deals and facilitate scaling your business.

There are a lot of different forms and structures that funding can take, but funding is not a loan: neither a hard money loan nor a short-term loan. Simply put, it’s an equity investment and a true partnership.

Limitations of Using Your Own Money

Using your own money to fund your land business involves many limitations, some of which are detailed below.

1. Entry Barrier

For many trying to break into the land business, one of their greatest challenges is a lack of funds. To get started, they feel they need to only target low-value deals because they don’t have the funds to take on bigger, more expensive, trophy properties. This can be time-consuming, delay growth, and demotivating.  It’s a shame when we see folks get used to doing small deals and then only target properties they can afford based on their account balance. We recommend, if the goal is to scale (not always the case), leverage others’ time, experience, and resources!

2. Tying Up Your Capital in Inventory

If most or all of your capital is tied up in inventory, this will impede growth and may ultimately be detrimental to your business. Many land investors find they reach a point when they hit a limit – everything stalls and comes to a halt and then it becomes hard to get your momentum back.  We’re seeing more and more, where land investors bring in the leverage of a funding partner before you actually need to. You also don’t want to put yourself in a position of needing to sell property just to free up capital to take advantage of a great opportunity; with the right partners in place ahead of time, this can be mitigated.

3. Spending Yourself Out of Money

If you are trying to scale your business, then you need a profitable and scalable business model. This involves repeated turnover of cash for investment, and you want to be ready to invest when opportunities arise. Try not to spend yourself out of money, especially as you start aiming for larger properties to purchase.

Is Funding for Me?

Setting your goal based on what you have is limiting. Your lack of resources, whether financial, experience, or skills, might make you shoot low. 

When setting your goals based on what you want to achieve, determine what your pain point is and how you can solve it. What exactly is holding you back from growth? What do you find fulfillment in? What do you struggle with?

The leverage of funding is probably right for you if:

• You are an experienced investor, and you’re getting into larger deals.
• You have an interest in cash sales, whether exclusively or in addition to seller financing.
• You find yourself being held back by capital flow issues.
• You are working hard for land investment to be a big source of income, so you can achieve other goals in your family, church, or any other organizations you belong to.

Funding may not be the best option in every situation. Some of the times when funding your business is not advised are:

• When the deal is too small to offer a worthwhile return to both parties.
• When the margin on the deal is not enough to split. In cases like this, you can go ahead by yourself if you have the money to fund it.
• If it’s not your goal for your business to grow too much. You might just be into the land business for some extra cash and that’s great!

Conclusion

Here at Freedom Land Capital, we have several clients who change their business model to include funding in every deal. Their target is newer markets and bigger deals, and their confidence in our ability to support the acquisition of any quality deal that comes up gives them the courage to go for it. We hope you do too!

We believe that, like us, most people set goals, and in the process of doing so consider all the steps they’ll have to take to achieve them. They ask themselves questions like, “What are the actionable steps to take?” and “How long will it take to achieve these goals?” By answering these questions, they can start to make plans, asking “If we want to achieve that goal in 3 years, what has to happen in the first year?” To better define the steps, they may break them down further, determining what has to happen in each quarter, or even what they should be doing each week.

For what it’s worth, these are all sound ideas; after all, if you want to achieve your goals, you must take action and be prepared for hard, diligent work. But what if we told you that putting in the work is just one piece of the puzzle – and that it’s the easy part? Wrapping your head around the amount of time and effort you will need to invest to make an endeavor successful is definitely a step in the right direction – but it’s not the whole picture. 

We have found that there’s another piece of the puzzle that often gets missed: the other side of the equation that’s equally important, if not more so. In this article, we will be looking at a shift in mindset that allows you to leverage an inevitable part of each venture, turning a common obstacle into your biggest motivation.

The Other Side of the Equation: Giving Up

This missing part of the puzzle that is so rarely discussed is the ‘risk’ of pursuing your goal. In addition to what you’re willing to do to get to where you want to go and achieve your goals, you must also consider what you are willing to give up. 

These decisions might range from leaps that are as big as a lifestyle change for you and your family to something as trivial as giving up the time you spend watching your favorite TV show, and everything in between. Most times, if you believe your risk to be greater than your possible reward, chances are you won’t take the leap.

What are you willing to give up?

After you have gone through the first step committing to a goal, it is time to get into the second step: deciding what you’re willing to risk. Will it be worth it if you lose those things in the process of obtaining your goal?  These risks take different forms for different people depending on the circumstances and what you need to give to achieve your goal:

1. Stability

As humans, we have a natural tendency towards stability rather than leaping into the unknown. This comes in different forms, including job security and financial stability. People may not be willing to take risks at the expense of their stability such as:

• Giving up the comfort and security of a solid-paying job in pursuit of more entrepreneurial endeavors.
• Giving up their preferred place of residence to move closer to opportunity. 
• Investing a huge amount of money for the possibility of greater returns. You might have big dreams, but you aren’t prepared to risk your financial stability by potentially losing money in a new venture.

2. Relationships

Some decisions call on us to sacrifice our relationships. Maybe this is a current business partner who won’t step with you into your future plans. Maybe it is the time you normally spend with family and friends, which you now need to invest in your business. We sometimes have to make the difficult decision to be less invested in certain relationships, whether for the short term or the long term.

3. Leisure / Instant Gratification

There are few endeavors that do not involve giving up your weekend plans, social life, extra sleep, hobbies, and vacation plans for a period of time.

Other Things We Have to Give Up/Let Go:

There are also many bad habits that we have to let go of to attain success. Although we can all agree that these are things we ought to let go of, it can feel like taking a risk because they are the norm we are used to. But change is a risk we must all take if we hope to get different results. In reality, holding onto these bad habits is the greater risk, as it jeopardises your ability to achieve your much-desired rewards. These things include:

Worry

There is so much we have no control over, and simply can’t influence no matter how hard we try. In such moments, or on such days, learning to let go of your worry and leaving it to God is the healthiest decision you can make to grow.

Fear of Failure

As humans, we have an innate desire to succeed. While this propels us to strive to attain the highest level we can, it can cripple us in one spot when we concentrate more on not failing than on doing what we can. Letting go of this fear of failure will help you to give whatever you are working at your best shot.

Regret

One constant in our life is the past and all of us have parts of it that we would rather have handled differently. Unfortunately, the truth is that we can’t go back to the past, and holding on to it can never help you achieve a better result: it simply leads to a downwards decline. Today, decide to let go of your regrets, while reflecting on what you can learn from the experience and changes you can make to become a better version of yourself. This helps keep your focus on the future, and draw you forwards to your goal.

Why is Risk Analysis Important? 

You might think that the idea of sacrifice is a given. When you say you’re committed to doing something, you’re automatically committing to giving something else up. But, in our experience, something happens when we fully acknowledge the sacrifices (big and small!) that we’re about to make, and realise that we’re still willing to pursue that particular goal. We are more dedicated and more likely to succeed when we are fully aware of all the sacrifices involved.

We have also realized that the process of naming the risks that come with pursuing certain ventures helps us decide if they are worth pursuing. When we decide the venture is valuable but the risks are too dear to take, having the risks identified in this way helps us come up with a point of compromise for the risk and the venture.Final Thoughts

What we are willing to give up to achieve our goals varies from individual to individual – we each have different definitions of needs and values. Despite these disparities, next time you set your goals and think about what you’ll have to do to achieve them, and don’t forget about what you’re prepared to give up. When deciding on the risks you are willing to take, we hope that you stand firm with your values and the things that matter the most to you, as nothing is worth risking them for.

Final Thoughts

What we are willing to give up to achieve our goals varies from individual to individual – we each have different definitions of needs and values. Despite these disparities, next time you set your goals and think about what you’ll have to do to achieve them, and don’t forget about what you’re prepared to give up. Become clear minded about the sacrifices necessary,yet stand firm with your values and the things that matter most.

At Freedom Land Capital, we believe it is truly vital for any company or individual to define their purpose – aka, their ‘why’ – when embarking on any new venture. As Simon Sinek puts it: “Very few of us can clearly articulate why we do what we do. The WHY is the purpose, cause, or belief that drives every organization and every person’s individual career.  Why does your company exist? Why did you get out of bed this morning? And why should anyone care?” 

Answering these questions helps to determine the value of your actions. With a clearly defined ‘why’, you can decide whether or not a venture is worth continuing, and you can set up milestones to make visible progress over time. With Sinek’s words in mind, let’s dive deeper into finding your purpose in everyday endeavors.

Prioritize Your Activities

Nothing kills a new venture faster than a lack of focus! The time you spend defining your ‘why’ will give you a clear aim and focus, ultimately saving you time in the long run, as you will be far less inclined to procrastinate. When you have a lot to get done, ask yourself: What tasks on my to-do list most directly contribute to my purpose and my long-term objectives? This way, you can prioritize your tasks in a way that maximizes time and shifts the focus on to your goals.

Say No to Other Opportunities

Seeking out fresh opportunities is both exciting and fulfilling. It’s rewarding to remind yourself that you have the skills and the capacity to face a new challenge. Taking on more than you can handle, however, is detrimental to your productivity. 

At times, what looks like a good opportunity is actually a distraction in disguise. Deciphering opportunities from distractions becomes a challenge when you don’t have a clear understanding of your purpose – when your actions are not aligned with your goals. This highlights the necessity of defining your ‘why’ and sticking to it; in doing so, it will be easier to tell which new opportunities are for your benefit, and which will only prove distracting.

Stay Motivated By Your Why

Our excitement about a new venture is generally short-lived. Bursts of motivation aren’t enough to keep us focused, either – so when our work starts to look like a monotonous daily grind, it can be a real challenge to keep pushing onward. This motivation burnout happens more often than we’d like to admit. By reminding ourselves of our purpose and goals, however, we can tap into a consistent supply of inspiration, creativity, and motivation!

Be Consistent

Successful businesses understand that consistency truly is key to reaching and surpassing your goals. Without consistency, growth is slow and stagnation is imminent. Your staying power determines your growth rate; the more you stick to those monotonous daily tasks, the more progress you will see. Defining your purpose can help with this consistency, as it brings you a clearer view of your goals and consequently bolsters your grit.

Define Your Relevance

Optimism is rarely lacking when starting a new venture – and positivity is a great thing. Without defining your purpose, however, you risk overlooking the significance of your business and its relevance to potential customers. Relevance is very important to every venture as it affects its sales and its continuity.

Boost Your Confidence

Sometimes, we avoid defining our purpose out of fear. Fear is the destroyer of progress: it talks to our subconscious, asking, what if you’re just not good enough? This self-talk dissipates once your purpose is defined – you just need to take the leap of faith. While your fear may still linger at first, defining your ‘why’ reminds you just how important your contribution and your business is to society.

The key points discussed here are intertwined: They work in synchrony to form a solid platform for your venture. Neglecting any one area can lead to instability of that platform. If you are motivated but inconsistent, for example, there will be no significant progress – it is only a matter of time before your initial motivation is lost. Conversely, strengthening one area will help to strengthen the others: Prioritizing your activities gives a clearer view of your timeline and helps you choose which opportunities to take on. Underlining each of these tools is the need to define your purpose – why you do what you do!

Identifying an area of specialization is critical to success as an entrepreneur. We have found this to be especially true in our real estate investing careers. Over the years, we’ve had exposure to many other asset classes – far too many to become experts in all. We intentionally chose a niche to enter and familiarize ourselves with, and we are encouraging you to do the same.

As an individual or business, it is important to understand the difference between a distraction and an opportunity. Once you resonate with a particular investment strategy and business model, don’t get sidetracked by the shiny object! Remember the famous saying, “All that glitters is not gold”. This is not to say that other opportunities are not worthwhile, but time is a fixed asset. Delving into too many areas prevents you from specializing in one specific niche. 

To operate at peak performance, you have to know your trade inside and out. Your niche needs to be your area of total expertise. This takes a lot of time and money, and as such, you can’t afford to be investing your time elsewhere. Let’s discuss the reasons why this level of focus leads to success so you can realize its necessity.

Six Reasons Why a Niche can Save Your Business

1. It allows you to conduct thorough due diligence (properties, partners, deal structures). When you are only focused on your niche, there is little to no distraction so you can meticulously consider every detail. This, of course, leads to risk mitigation and ultimately a sustainable business you can be proud of.

2. More efficient operations – When you’re focused on one niche, you can create a team and systems around that particular model for an optimized workflow. You will deeply understand the needs of your investment or business, allowing you to resolve issues and come up with solutions. Focusing on your niche facilitates “Rinse and repeat” – repurposing your system for a more efficient workflow.

3. It sets your business apart – As we earlier mentioned, focusing improves your efficiency and thoroughness, thereby positively affecting the overall performance of what you do. This helps you stand out to clients or customers and facilitates your becoming a brand. You are then memorable and less likely to be forgotten.

4. It fosters reliability – Everyone wants to work with someone they can trust and rely on, and this includes your clients (customers). Niche-focused businesses are thorough with their dealing and prove to be very reliable. You can broaden the narrow path of your business, discover all the holes that need filling, and then work towards doing so. It is only natural that niched businesses would be relied upon, as they have all the information needed to cater to the needs of their customers.

5. It attracts the right customers – We live in a time where we are bombarded with too much information and too many choices. A niche-focused business will thrive on the demand for clear and concise information. They allow their customers to find what they need more easily, creating shortcuts by using their expert knowledge within a specific niche.

6. It grows competitive advantage – The world is moving very fast, and technological processes are constantly advancing. If you’re in one specific niche, it’s much easier to stay on top of current trends and tools, giving you a competitive edge against your diversified competition.

Focus Point

Knowledge is empowering, but there’s no need to be an expert at everything. A master of one trade is most certainly better than the jack of all! It’s infinitely preferable to focus in on your chosen niche, whilst being open to learning about others. This knowledge might come in handy as you flourish and excel in your own niche. 

“The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time.” – Mozart. 

Evaluate your current position, align your focus, and discard the extras today!

We land investors operate in a specialized business model within a very niche real estate asset class. With the ever-increasing number of entrants into the space, one might ask, “What is it exactly about the vacant land niche that attracts so many new investors?” “Is this a hidden honey well we’ve been missing?”

We’d never be able to capture all the reasons – there are far too many – but here’s our stab at the Top 6 Reasons why people enjoy investing in vacant land.

1. Risk/Return Profile

The first thing an investor notices in this niche is the potential ROI that one can achieve. Buying from motivated sellers creates an incredible amount of margin, even when selling at a slight discount to retail market rates. In other asset classes, the investor would have to assume much greater risk to achieve similar ROI levels. With land, however, you can acquire property on such a low basis that your risk is significantly mitigated. Additionally, because the purchase price per property is typically lower with vacant land, the investor can spread his or her risk over multiple properties across several counties/states. With vacant land, you can purchase more and risk less.

2. Low Barriers to Entry

Land is relatively cheap. Be it a $1,000, $10,000, or $100,000 acquisition, there’s a low barrier for investors to acquire property relative to other asset classes. Similarly, land investors can maintain a thriving business with minimal operating expenses/ overhead. It’s difficult to pass on incredible benefits like this!

3. Efficiency and Automation

The incredible software tools available today allow land investors to streamline the full lifecycle of a transaction. From sourcing, due diligence, and closing, through to marketing and selling, the operator’s efficiency is limited only by his knowledge of the right tools and proper execution. With the digital world as it is today, it simply makes sense to opt for an automated investment.

4. Scalability

Unlike many other business models or investment strategies, vacant land investment is extremely scalable. The operator can increase his or her production/profit while changing their structure or processes by a relatively insignificant degree.  They may need outside capital, but internal processes should always remain relatively unchanged.

5. No-hassle inventory/property

Unlike single-family residential or other commercial asset classes, vacant land is simple. There are no tenants to deal with and no property maintenance to worry about, saving you a huge amount of time and money. This benefit thrives on what makes it cheap – its vacancy!

6. It is a Finite Resource

This is one of the most persuasive reasons to invest in vacant land. As vacant land supply is limited and becoming more so each day, its demand is bound to increase enormously. An investor can buy vacant land in an area for a cheap price and see its value skyrocket in the years that follow.

A Sound Investment

Land investing favors those with strengths in diligence and organization. Those who are naturally process-minded and detail-oriented tend to be successful. We like to think our strengths are in line with these characteristics, so we find particular fulfillment in this space. Additionally, we enjoy the people in the land investing niche. Especially compared to other asset classes, we have experienced a collaborative and friendly bunch of like-minded investors and entrepreneurs.

We Americans love our rights spelled out in the Declaration of Independence – Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness! We defend them and hold them close to our hearts, and for good reason indeed. Today, we want to focus on the Pursuit of Happiness. What does it mean to pursue happiness and meaning in life? Where, or to whom, do we turn for guidance?

As with most things, we at FLC like to consult God’s Word and lean into His wisdom, because the wisdom that comes from the world will often fail us. In this case, we will try to glean as much as we can from one of the wisest men who ever lived, one of the greatest and most successful Kings of Israel – King Solomon. 

We begin unpacking true happiness and the search for meaning in Ecclesiastes. This book has been called “The search for happiness under the sun”, so it seems like the perfect place to start.

We acknowledge that not many people study Ecclesiastes for insight and wisdom. Stylistically, the book is quite difficult to understand due to its rambling monologue, not to mention Solomon’s statement that “everything is meaningless” which appears more than a couple dozen times throughout. We wouldn’t blame you for skipping to the more palatable books in the Bible. Today, however, let us dig into the book and pull out some applicable truths for our businesses and our lives.

Where Not to Look

First of all, let’s debunk the myth that happiness and fulfillment can be found in material or superficial things. Despite what the world tells us, happiness is not found in:

Intellectualism

Solomon learned all he could. He educated himself in all things, but still, he wasn’t satisfied. He may have been the wisest man on earth in his time, but no one would claim he was the happiest. It’s questionable whether he was often happy at all.

Having fun and seeking pleasure

This is what worldly wisdom would call happiness. According to worldly people, having fun equals happiness and fulfillment – but Solomon says that this is not the case either. If anything, it is a paradox of pleasure where the law of diminishing returns applies; the more people seek pleasure, the less they find it. It’s like trying so hard to fly and always falling to the ground – the higher you climb to jump from, the more painful it is when you fall.

Wealth

Acquiring and growing wealth, seeking money and the things that it can buy, and everything else that materialism consists of can’t give you lasting happiness. Even Solomon wasn’t satisfied with the things his riches could get him. We often think that happiness goes hand-in-hand with financial stability, but that is only half true. Your happiness will be fleeting and momentary if monetary gain is your only goal.

Lessons from Solomon

It’s clear that Solomon tried – and failed – to find happiness in many of the places we commonly search for it. Let’s take an extensive look into the life of Solomon and what we can learn from his time testing the various ways men seek happiness.

• Wealth – He was one of the richest men who ever lived, so he could buy anything he wanted.
• Power – He was the King and had tons of power, so he could do whatever he wanted.
• Gratification – He had the means to get whatever he wanted, and he did just that. He was married to 700 wives and had 300 concubines.

Solomon had tried all the worldly things that was possible to try and did everything that he could do, but at the end of the day, he felt just as unfulfilled, tired, disappointed, and unsatisfied as he was before. At the end of his lifelong search, he had come up empty – and that must have hurt a lot.

All these things we mention above are not bad in and of themselves, but we know they shouldn’t be the sole target of our lives. We also know they don’t lead to happiness and fulfillment by themselves.

Our Discovery

From our journey through the book, we find that Solomon doesn’t give solid conclusions, unfortunately. It seems his goal for the book was simply to illustrate our inability to find meaning and purpose in the world around us. Solomon’s findings were that ‘everything’s boring, utterly boring – no one can find any meaning in it,’ (Ecclesiastes 1:8, MSG).

• Solomon refutes our expectations that we can live our life on our own terms and be satisfied.
• He asserts that true peace and purpose can only be found in the Lord, seeking His Glory and the advancement of the Kingdom

Where Does Happiness Truly Lie?

If we can’t turn to money, and we can’t turn to material things, where do we search for happiness? Is it our careers; our loved ones; our possessions? You might ask, what do we do here on earth? How do we live a happy and meaningful life?

First of all, Solomon says we need to enjoy our work. 

• Eccl 3:22 (NIV) says that Solomon “saw that there is nothing better for one than to enjoy their work.”

His response is so simple – you might have expected more from someone who had tested and tried everything. Work hard, enjoy the journey, but don’t expect this to satisfy the soul. 

• Eccl 3: 12-13 (NIV) says that there’s “nothing better for people than to be glad and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift from God.”

This response reminds us that our satisfaction does not come from what we do to gain happiness, but we should still enjoy the things that bring momentary joy. It is all that we can do – it is the most we can do! While we go ahead doing what we can do, being good, eating, drinking, and relating with people – all while looking to God for support and guidance – we will find satisfaction with all we do.

The Home of Happiness

We have understood that no matter how far we search, so long as we are searching among the things of this earth, we will not find lasting happiness. We have also established that we should do what is within our power and aim to do it well. 

In his book, Every Good Endeavor, Tim Keller let us know that a biblical perspective of our work improves our desire to make value from the resources that are available to us. “A biblical understanding of work energizes our desire to create value from the resources available to us. Recognizing the God who supplies our resources, and who gives us the privilege of joining in as co-cultivators, helps us enter into our work with a relentless spirit of creativity.” 

If we truly desire happiness, then we should go straight to its source – our amazing God. Recognizing the Giver of all things and constantly seeking Him are all steps in the right direction. When we make our home with God, we are also building our home into the source of everything else we could possibly desire. It sounds so simple, yet it is so tasking; one of the hardest things we can do as humans is letting go and trusting God when we know we can’t help ourselves. Seek God in all things, and satisfaction will flow abundantly from your cup. 

Bottom Line

From Solomon, and maybe some of our personal experiences, it is clear that our meaning, purpose, and happiness cannot be found in this world. We are to take a lesson from Solomon – the man who tried it all – to save ourselves some time and not search for happiness as he did. Do your work as best you can and leave the rest up to God. Take comfort knowing that it’s our privilege to work, and that we’re to use all that God has given us to do it well. We hope you are encouraged by this, and that it prompts you to lean into God for your truest sense of happiness.