people in property - Vincit Developments

PEOPLE IN PROPERTY

Prab Paul & Tim Hodges Our regular contributor Prab Paul and his business partner Tim Hodges had a very productive and exciting 2016, growing their team from three to nine people in just 12 months. This month we met with Prab & Tim so they could share with us the finer details of how they built their team and why their team is so important for their future.

The move from one-man band to partnership Prab: I was a one-man band up until about five years ago, building my portfolio and doing everything from sourcing to project management and lettings myself. Property can be quite a lonely business and it can often make you feel like you have reached a glass ceiling in your business, not knowing where or how to progress. Because of this I decided to set up a mastermind group and that was when I met Tim. Tim: I was also a one-man band. I’d gone into property in 1998 and became full-time in 2003, trading and building up a portfolio. After Prab set up the mastermind group in 2014, we met each other, and Thierry Lemaire, and that was when we all decided to work together.

we were all looking for integrity and good values, and that was when we set up the joint venture. I was drawn to Prab’s passion and drive, and Thierry’s analytical and engineering background really stood out.

“Surround yourself with people who have strengths to complement your weaknesses”

Prab: Thierry is one of those, as Tim says, very methodical, analytical people and he has that sort of engineering brain which means he sees things very differently to Tim and I. The thing that came across for me with Tim, was the level of integrity that shone through. I was really attracted to that. Also, our approaches were very, very

What was it about each other’s different and that was fascinating for me, skills or strengths that drew you when we came together we suddenly found that we gelled together because of the to one another and made you different dynamic and the decide to work different skillsets that together in the we brought, and I very “Bringing different first place? quickly started to

skillsets and different personalities together is crucial”

Tim: Everyone in that group was already successful in their own right in what they were doing. It was important to me to get to know each other properly first. I wanted to have a drink, a coffee or a pint, and to talk. I didn’t want to go into business with someone who I didn’t know. It turned out

on building my strengths and surrounding myself with people who had strengths that would complement my weaknesses. That’s when I really started appreciating the power of team.

appreciate how our different skillsets and personalities worked together.

Prab: As you grow your business you start appreciating that we all have strengths and weaknesses. I spent so many years of my life trying to fix my weaknesses before I started realising that it was a lot more productive for me to focus

Prab: Putting a team together on just strengths and weaknesses that you can see on paper is very different to putting a team together that’s going to gel, where the personalities are going to complement each other. Because out there in the real world you can add different skillsets together but if people don’t get on with each other, if they don’t have the respect for each other, that can make or break your business. We spent quite some time creating a ‘family’. We spent a lot of time understanding each other at a much deeper level than just a business level, and without a shadow of a doubt, that is one of the key reasons why we now function as we do - within our family environment.

Did you use any personality profiling to help you to build your team? Prab: We understood it was important to understand ourselves and our weaknesses, before we started to work together, and we did a personality profile called ‘Wealth Dynamics’. There are four different quadrants of personality, each

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highlighting strengths, weaknesses, best roles etc and we were not surprised to find that each of us are in different sections of that, which means we complement each other really well. I’m a ‘Creator/ Star’ profile, and as such, as Tim said, I have the drive, passion and vision to do things. What a lot of creator/star profiles lack is the team to build it. Thierry’s ‘Lord’ profile works very well to complement the ‘Creator’ profile, and we have found this to work extremely well in practice. Tim is a ‘Trader’ profile and Harinder a ‘Supporter’ so this brings together all the main skill sets needed for a successful team. As you can see I am the ideas/Front man, (CEO) Harinder is the person who creates and supports the team in working most effectively, (MD/Investor relations) Tim is the Dealmaker (acquisitions director) and Thierry is the person who creates our systems for effective property trading. My twin brother, Harinder, joined us in the business, and together we have now got a really bold vision, that is driven more by our hearts than by money and this drives us towards our goals. We changed the name of our company from Vincit Developments to The Vincit Group and we created The Vincit Foundation, where we work with selected charities to give back to the community.

Getting to know each other inside and out Prab: In order to help us to achieve more we decided to delve a bit deeper and look at our own lives and any areas that might be holding us back. If we wanted to go out there and make a big difference to the world, we needed to make sure that we had a strong foundation to be able to do that. We wanted to be the best versions of ourselves and we were committed to making that happen. We scored ourselves individually from 1 to 10 in each of the areas of our lives: health, relationships, finance, personal growth and

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contribution so basically all the different pillars of success. These are like legs of a table, if one of them is unstable it can collapse the table. Often people don’t like working on the weak areas as it can be confronting and this is why getting support

“You can have great ideas but if you don’t have the supporting team to then execute those ideas and bring them to fruition, then they’re not going to go anywhere” is so important.Then we spent a number of months supporting each other in all the different areas of our life. Thierry, for example, hadn’t done much exercise, so he started going to the gym, something he hadn’t done for years. That was quite challenging for him but he did it. And we’re all

still working on these today. We recognise that if we are going to build a powerful future then we need to make sure we’ve got a strong foundation ourselves . Tim: Some people are not open to going into that depth and can be quite defensive about personal things. From the very beginning the three of us, and now four when Harinder joined us, were all very passionate about personal development. Being open to growth of any kind, whether it’s fitness or family, helped us to create a much stronger foundation for our business.

Sailing one ship Tim: The biggest breakthrough for us was when Harinder came into the team. We were operating as a JV and doing JVs with other people too. He said, “Look, guys, why don’t you just sail one ship and just all throw all your eggs in this one basket?” He saw the benefits of our skill sets working together, and the introduction of the Foundation created a huge ‘Why?’ for all of us, and we set ourselves some very ambitious financial targets to help us to achieve this. Harinder initially took on the role

of Managing Director, as he realised that we required managing in a positive sense in order for us to grow more effectively, and it worked really well.

What was it about him that made you think ‘He’s the one for the team’?

To help us achieve our new financial goals, we ran a sourcer’s workshop (as seen in a recent copy of YPN). That was when we found our next team member, Alex, our in-house analyst. Alex came to our workshop to learn how to be a sourcer, and then ended up working with us full-time.

Tim: I’m slightly different in terms of when I look at someone and decide whether I can work with them. I don’t necessarily look at the labelling aspects that many others use. I always like to work on intuition and what my gut tells me. The first thing that popped out, was all the mantras he had above his desk: be positive and confident, never give up, don’t quit, recipe for life, all of these. That jumped out at me and I thought, ‘OK, this is interesting’. He had an undeniable, relentless need to make it work and never give up. And he had hunger. That is important to me.

Alex worked for a publishing company that sublet one of my desks in Putney High Street. He was used to overhearing a lot of calls I was making and his ears started to prick up when he heard about the money that could be made. He became fascinated, and I knew it, so I suggested he came to the workshop to see how it all works. He was very passionate and enthusiastic, and we ended up taking him on as a freelancer just to see how things would work out, and it worked out great!

“We currently have 7 projects in the pipeline, which is something we couldn’t have done with our previous set up, or on our own”

THE VINCIT GROUP TEAM

He had no experience in property prior to the workshop, and so it was really a matter of ‘There’s the ocean, Alex, I’m going to pick you up and chuck you in it. Rather than go to the baby pool and dip your toes in, I’m going to throw you in the ocean and let’s see if you can swim’. My gut instinct knew that he could do it. He’ll tell you, that’s how it was done. If anything, it actually made him grow much quicker than if it was done on a let’s dip your little toe in first and then your next toe, and then your ankle.

Dividing up responsibilities & becoming laser-focused on specific roles Prab: We identified the various aspects of our business and split them into acquisitions, financing, execution in terms of planning and build, and trading. Tim took on the role of the acquisitions for our

developments, which was an area he was especially skilled at and also had a passion for. Thierry had a history with the trading business which involved marketing to motivated sellers and selling on for a quick turnaround, so again that experience and that passion led him to be perfect for that role. I had experience previously in planning and building, so I took on that role working closely with Tim. Harinder progressed onto becoming our Investor Relations Director because we identified if we were going to spend the time and the effort on acquisitions then we needed to complement that with the funding requirement and his passion and integrity made him perfect for that role. We knew that we needed someone on board who was going to focus entirely on that. Before, we were probably doing a bit of everything, we recognised that, number one, each person needs to focus on a specific part of the business and, number two, they need to enjoy that part of the business, and that’s the only way that’s going to become successful. Effectively each person took on their own department, and this enabled us to progress more quickly, taking on more projects at once.

Prab Paul

Tim Hodges

Thierry Lemaire

Harinder Paul

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO

CO-FOUNDER & ACQUISITIONS DIRECTOR (Development)

CO-FOUNDER & ACQUISITIONS DIRECTOR (Trading)

INVESTOR RELATIONS DIRECTOR

Alex Vesco

Jessy Conflon

Pav Paul

Sabina Shanji

Edyta Stenner

ANALYST

DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER

OPERATIONS MANAGER

TIM HODGES’ PA

THIERRY LEMAIRE’S PA

Becoming laser-focused on our roles Tim: When you first set up in business you often end up being the administrator, the PA, the secretary, the operations manager, the investor relations director, etc and it’s only when you begin to grow that you then become laser-focused on specific roles. I went to the Tony Robbins event in 2016, and basically before that I was raising money from private investors, but was also doing the trading and developments. The Tony Robbins event made it crystal clear to me that I needed to focus on the acquisitions side and remove myself from the funding side, even though I very much enjoyed that role. It was clear when Harinder joined the team that with his phenomenal passion and drive he would actually take raising finance way above what I had been doing, which left room for me to concentrate on the development acquisitions. Thierry took over the lead generation for trading. He’d been doing that for years and already had a system that worked. I had done it as well, and it made sense to work together on that. From the Tony Robbins’ event things started to become a lot more laser-focused in terms of what our roles were and we haven’t looked back since.

How did you manage the crossover? Tim: After the event I was so clear and had such a powerful conviction that I knew this was the right way, which rubbed off on everyone else. Everyone took it on saying, ‘Actually this makes complete sense.’ We all have trust and faith in each other, so we trusted each other to make it work. With Harinder there was an element of handover, of course. I mean that would always happen. With Thierry there wasn’t the handover process because he already had all of that relevant experience. Prab: We also spent quite a bit of time together understanding the mechanics of the business. To break it down even further we created flow charts for the various parts of the business in terms of the acquisition, the planning, the sales, and funding. That helped define individual responsibility, which was a great help. Natural evolution also played a part. Even though this all happened in the space of a year, the seeds had been planted for a few years beforehand, both in terms of how we worked together, but also in our own businesses and how we had been progressing those businesses.

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Individually we’ve all been on a journey where we probably got to that point where we knew we wanted to do more, and we needed a team to be able to do it. A lot of the experiences that we had and the skills that we picked up over the years helped us to define those individual responsibilities and roles within the business. I think that made a big difference.

Like attracting like Prab: When things all come together it’s a little bit like energy, and if you are operating from the right heart space, if your direction is sincere, and you know what it is you want to achieve, then the universe has this uncanny ability to put things together for you. It doesn’t just happen. You go through whatever challenges you need to go through, but I think there’s a certain element of like attracting like.

“We also spent quite a bit of time together understanding the mechanics of the business” It’s no coincidence that people who’ve joined the team, like Alex, Harinder, Pav and Sabina have come together. Energy attracts energy, and a multitude of different things all happen at the same time, which ends up putting the right team together.

Key benefits of having individual roles Prab: Pav, my nephew, has joined us in operations, and he’s been shadowing me with the whole project planning and execution side of things. He deals with a lot more of the sales now, and he’s beginning to work with the solicitors a lot more. He’s such a good learner so I’ve been able to hand over a lot of the things that I wouldn’t have expected to. Because he’s able to do that, I’m now able to start focusing on my role as CEO, which means I can look at the bigger picture and how to build more relationships, and basically all the things that generally I want to be able to do but couldn’t do before because I was so involved in the day-to-day running of the business. Tim: Thierry, Prab, and myself each have our own portfolios, and so in some shape or form we had all been managing our portfolios ourselves. Sabina now manages mine, and Thierry’s PA, Edyta, manages his. This is a tremendous help because it means we’re not distracted by things that are outside our core business. We’ve also got Jessy now, who is our newest addition managing the social media and digital marketing side of the business, which prior to her coming along, we were very poor at, if I’m to be brutally honest. So, that’s a great help for the business too. Prab: One of the things about being in a family, which is the best analogy I can use, is when one member of your family isn’t feeling too great or is going through a challenge, you know that everyone else is going to step up. There’s almost no conversation that even needs to happen. One of the fundamental benefits of being in the team is that we’re able to support each other in a way that I

think would be quite challenging out there in the business world. Because those foundations are not created, if you went out there and you saw one person wasn’t pulling their weight, normally they’re fired or friction is created. I think here we’ve got something that we’re very proud of, and it really is like being in a family. That’s what makes a huge difference in terms of the importance of having a team.

As a result of the team that you’ve now got, what are you able to achieve now that you weren’t able to do before?

Don’t rush into it. When you start meeting people you will know the kind of people that you know you can get on with, and as Tim taught me very well, you don’t need to rush into it. Don’t jump into bed straight away. Take your time. Take it step-by-step and it will work out. Tim: The only thing I can really add to that is about letting go, not just from a mental point of view but also from a financial point of view. When I used to manage my own portfolio, I always knew that I would do a better job than the agents, but it was taking up too much of my time. Getting a PA was a big decision for me, as it came with a reasonably high cost. I know some people get hung up that they think they could do a better job than their PA, and the money they save, but actually there’s an opportunity cost there. But I found that my PA is worth every penny and taking Sabina on was the best decision I made. In fact, I wish I’d taken her on much earlier. Things happen for a reason, I’m a believer in that.

“We also spent quite a bit of time together understanding the mechanics of the business”

Tim: For my department, Sabina, my PA, is amazing, because she basically allows me to get on to do what I’m good at, which is finding development deals. She’s been a great help in the newsletters that we give out to sourcers and she also helps Harinder on the newsletters that we give out to our investors, as well as taking care of all the admin. She’s been a tremendous help, which allows me to be more focused on developing relationships with our various sourcers to acquire our deals. I mean even more so it’s allowed me to grow within my role and to learn. I’m always learning within my role, whether it’s new planning guidelines, or something else to do with development, I’m always learning. It’s enabled me to be a lot more efficient in what I’m doing, and hopefully get a lot better at what I’m doing.

Has it enabled you to find more deals, which I suppose is the ultimate. That’s the ultimate aim, isn’t it? Tim: Yes. From the time Harinder joined us in October 2015 and the workshop we organised in January 2016, we spent some time getting everything set up and we got going properly in May 2016. Since then we’ve done seven deals of various sizes, which we’re really happy with.

Give yourself some breathing space Prab: In my personal experience when it comes to achieving more and growing as a business it can be easy to give yourself a hard time. One of the things I’ve learned is that it’s really important to stand back. It doesn’t matter where you are in your property journey, it’s really important to stand back and just give yourself a pat on the back. Even if you’re at the beginning, it’s important to give yourself a little bit of a break and a little bit of breathing space, and celebrating the little wins. Otherwise you’re constantly looking at what didn’t work and that’s not powerful. As a starting point it’s really important to appreciate what you have and be thankful. I think gratitude is something that we all should practise more. I certainly know I need to practise, and I do.

What would you suggest to our readers who want to start building their own team? Prab: I recommend going to property networking events, start meeting people. But don’t rush into it. That’s really important.

The final thing to say is, open your eyes. When you’re going to these networking events, always be aware of the people around you and just pick up on them. Pick up on their skillset and personality and see how they fit with you. Sometimes people go in with tunnel vision and they may be missing some great JV partners or some potential co-founders of a new business.

CONTACT DETAILS Prab Paul 07973 267640 | [email protected]

Alex Vesco 07429 349303 | [email protected]

Thierry Lemaire 07903 017126 | [email protected]

Tim Hodges 07788 751845 | [email protected]

Harinder Paul 07973 641917 | [email protected]

Listen to more from Prab & Tim here http://bit.ly/2kyE27d