the business ladder

24 August 2010

John Stone and Jill Smith are the dynamic partnership behind Stone & Co. Property Lettings and Management in Stourbridge, West Midlands.

TBL: Let’s start with a bit about yourselves and your backgrounds.

Jill: I studied French and Spanish for my degree and worked in company admin, then spent time mainly in the charity sector as a regional representative and fundraiser. Now I run our lettings business full-time along with John.

John: I’ve had quite a varied life for a letting agent… I was in the armed forces, then left to work within the Milk Marketing Board and did a second degree in Psychology. I raced motorbikes professionally for 17 years and became the highest-qualified motorbike instructor in the UK before moving to Spain in 1999. During the nearly ten years I was there I set up and ran two businesses, a bar and an estate/letting agency.

TBL: You’ve certainly kept busy! Tell us about Stone & Co. and the business values that you represent.

Jill: Stone & Co. is a local independent agency offering Lettings and Property Management services. Run by partners John Stone and Jill Smith, we are based in Stourbridge and cover the surrounding area. We find tenants for properties quickly and efficiently, and manage the ongoing tenancy on behalf of the landlord if they want greater freedom and peace of mind. In every transaction we see ourselves as the link between landlord and tenant and aim to provide a highly professional yet personal service at all times. We believe that our in-depth knowledge of the local property market, positive and friendly attitude, and flexible 7-days-a-week availability gives landlords and tenants the best letting agency experience in our area. Give us a call and you won’t be disappointed!

TBL: When did you first decide to start your own agency? What was your motivation to do so?

John: We probably started giving it serious thought in autumn 2009, partly because of my prior experience in property agency in Spain. There was also the fact that I had only recently returned to the UK and found the quality of jobs available was poor, with an uncertain future and no job security. I knew something positive had to be done, and starting up our own business was the solution.

We felt the moment was ripe to ‘seize the day’ and looked into opening a letting agency where our good people skills would come to the fore. In fact I had rented a house in Warwickshire when I first got back to the UK, and the letting agents dealing with it were appalling! That just made me more determined to ensure that Stone & Co. would provide a truly polished service.

TBL: What attracted you to the lettings industry in particular?

Jill: The economic climate for starting a new business was still challenging, so we didn’t want to start one where obtaining clients and making sales would be a constant struggle. Since John had first-hand experience of running a sales and letting agency, and I had previously rented out a property of my own through an agency whose service had left me disappointed, we put our heads together and decided we could do it better ourselves.

We both knew that we could do a very good job with the skills we possessed, and give an excellent service in an industry that is increasing rather than decreasing as a result of the recession. People always need rented accommodation – especially since buying a property has become so hard – and also renting is becoming more and more popular as a lifestyle choice, either temporarily or longer-term.

TBL: How are you enjoying lettings so far?

John: Very much! We’re proud to be a dedicated letting agency that doesn’t do sales. This means we can give our landlords our full time and attention, and the full benefit of our property knowledge and local knowledge as applied to the lettings market. Our service to landlords isn’t compromised by diverting attention to sales, and I think our landlords appreciate our focus and commitment to them.

TBL: Tell us about your start-up process. Did it go smoothly?

Jill: Our office is located bang in the middle of ‘estate agents row’, with maybe 6 or 7 near each other. We saw the office that we wanted to take on and found out who the owner was quite quickly. However, it took a couple of months to get the paperwork sorted through solicitors before we could finally take possession. John then worked on refurbishing the property himself and getting everything ready, which took about 6 weeks. By a lucky coincidence, it was the landlord of our office itself who recommended us to our first new landlord. He turned out to be a developer with a portfolio of rental properties that we now manage for him. We gave our landlord a nice bottle of whisky as a thank you for this great start!

John: It wasn’t all easy though. After Jill tracked down the owner of the offices we wanted, there were various frustrating delays before we actually got our hands on the keys. We had our budget laid out and I had already decided from the beginning that I would do the office re-fit myself. The last occupiers had been operating a tattoo studio there, so quite a transformation was needed to make it into a professional-looking letting agency! It saved us thousands of pounds doing the re-fit ourselves – plus being so hands-on we’re both very proud of the results, we get lovely comments from people about how nice the office looks. It can be hard work but if you have the D.I.Y. abilities I highly recommend doing the tasks you can do yourself, both for the saving and the personal satisfaction. We were also really pleased to bring in the finished job under budget compared to our original forecast.

TBL: Have you come to know your neighbours on ‘estate agents row’?

Jill: Yes, actually. Once we finished the office re-fit and as our launch progressed, all the estate agents around started stopping by, introducing themselves to us and inviting us for coffee… It was nice, but I found it amusing as I knew they were checking out the new competition to see what we were all about. But no harm done, it’s business!

TBL: Property agency is a very people-oriented business on a day-to-day basis. Do you enjoy working with people in general?

Jill: Definitely, I really enjoy working with people in everything I do. John and I are both good communicators and come across as friendly and approachable, which is always a great asset in any business. We get an interesting cross-section of people coming into our office enquiring about available properties, and we’ve begun to recognise those who may be a waste of time and those who are serious as potential tenants.

John: I think your attitude toward people is the key to success in any business. You have to gain the trust and indeed friendship of your landlords and potential landlords, and also your potential tenants. After all, you’re looking for long-term business relationships with your landlords in particular. The more you enjoy talking to them, assisting them and providing good service, the better your results will be.

One particular case springs to mind here. As Jill said earlier, we gained our first landlord client on a recommendation from our own office landlord. At first the new client was just testing the waters, he was quite aloof and a little bit stand-offish, but we knew he was a successful property developer. He gave us two properties to start with as a kind of experiment... and we rented them both out within 2 days! This really impressed him and all of a sudden he was giving us one property after another, all of which we’ve found good tenants for. A big factor is how we always keep him up-to-speed on any developments: he told us that he has used other agents in the past and none of them have come close to our commitment to our landlords. Now he simply asks us to go to a property he has, let him know what we think it’s worth on the rental market and then gives us the instruction to market it immediately there and then because he trusts us.

I see this as a great example of building a positive business relationship through service and communication. Never forget that landlords often tend to know lots of other landlords – get a positive recommendation and your display window will be ever changing!

TBL: Can you share your thoughts on starting a new business in the recent challenging economic climate?

John: Although economically it has been a challenging time for lots of existing businesses and for starting new businesses, we felt the lettings industry is one of the exceptions. More and more people are now wanting or needing to rent because they can’t get on the property ladder, and owners of properties struggling to sell want to move and therefore decide to rent them out. While we may not see too many new buy-to-let investors again for a little while, there is a certain established market out there that’s not going to diminish; on the contrary I would say demand is increasing.

The other really positive thing about the industry is that you don’t have to put a lot of financial investment into it. You don’t have to buy stock, and your fees come directly out of the rents before the landlord is paid the rest. Start-up costs can be low since you don’t need to get an office like we did – we did this as we wanted a good ‘high street’ presence, plus we were fortunate enough to have the funds available. But we know of a few similar businesses that are run quite successfully from managed offices or even from home, so it’s up to your personal preference.

Jill: Obviously, whatever the economic climate, in order to make a commitment to starting your own business you must believe in yourself 100%. You need to see the goals you’re setting for your success, and believe that you can reach them. There will always be indecisive or anxious people out there saying things like “It’s a bad time to set up, I wouldn’t risk it” and so on, but don’t let yourself get discouraged! If you have the belief and the desire, you should go for it and put your energy into achieving what you want.

TBL: We can see that you’ve put that principle into practice. How do you see the concept of risk-taking in business?

John: As I mentioned, being entrepreneurial by nature I opened up two new businesses soon after moving to Spain, a bar and a property agency. In addition to the challenge of doing business in a foreign language, both of these businesses were completely alien to me at the time. But I have a very strong belief in my own capabilities along with patience and a real eagerness to learn, so I mastered each one as I went along.

I’ve always been a risk-taker, but risk in business isn’t like placing a thousand pounds on red in a casino and desperately hoping! In reality it’s a matter of taking calculated risks, working hard to avoid the pitfalls and minimise the dangers, and developing a solid strategy that ensures you have the best chance of succeeding. That’s how to make business risks pay off.

TBL: Thank you for talking to us, John and Jill. We wish you and Stone & Co. all the best success.

To find out more about Stone & Co. Property Lettings and Management, please call them on 01384 372868 or visit www.stoneandco.co.uk.

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