I don't know about everyone else but when I started investing in real estate I went through a few different cycles. First I got stars in my eyes about the millions I was going to make in real estate. I learned the different ways to invest and got a basic understanding of what I wanted to do. Then I started implementing some of the techniques I read about. Here is the bad news, these ideas worked. We started getting phone calls from people selling homes and left and right. While this was great we hadn't really planned for what to do next.

When we got started we didn't really treat this like a business but more of an investment activity. Maybe for some people it is but for those of us that wanted to go full time buying, selling and renting properties it IS a business. Phase 2. Now we went the opposite way. We started planning and strategizing all over the place. We had meetings on meetings developed mission statements and business plans but we weren't buying houses. It turns out that is important also.

The whole thing is a balancing act not just getting an idea of what you want to do and taking action but also setting up all of the pieces when they need to be created. Many of the real estate home study courses are great at teaching us about the specifics of real estate activities but they don't help us treat this like a business. What is even tougher is the fact that it is hard to network with other investors and learn how they set up their businesses because the sad fact is even many of the successful ones don't treat it like a business.

Here is some great news for the most part setting up your real estate business is like setting up any other small business. You can network with other small business owners who are going through the same growing pains as you are. Places like Get Real (www.getrealrei.com) are great for finding fellow investors. You can also check out Startup Nation (www.startupnation.com) It is the go to source for starting and running a small business. Jeff and Rich Sloan are successful entrepreneurs and have a weekly show about starting a business. Their partner in crime, Joel Welsh has a fun and informative podcast where he interviews Startup Nation members so we can all learn from their efforts.