The Eason Stays Way: How We Scaled From 5 to 32 Managed Units in 18 Months with Ethics at Our Core
Looking at where we are now, it hasn’t been an easy road. People often talk about the benefits of being young in business the “I wish I was doing what you’re doing at your age” comments. And while there’s truth to that, there are also days when you wonder if you’re wasting your early years not enjoying yourself. Times when you're overlooked in a room, even though you're there to genuinely help people.
But despite the challenges that have come, not just with age but with growing a business and facing parts of our past, we’ve built something we’re genuinely proud of. A company that covers sourcing, serviced accommodation (SA), staging, and Rent-to-Rents (R2R), with 32 units under management and a fully systemised setup.
In this article, we’ll walk you through how we built Eason Stays in just a year and a half, our views on integrity in the sourcing space, and the lessons we’ve learned along the way that would have saved us a lot of money, stress, and sleepless nights if we’d known them from the start.
I grew up in Norfolk with a nice upbringing and a loving family. My parents were together until I was 10 years old, and Christmas was a time when we all came together.The problem was that, from a young age, I hung out with the wrong people. I aspired to be the wrong person and thought that just because someone made a lot of money, it made them an ideal person to look up to.
This resulted in me being kicked out of school right before my GCSEs, and job-hopping from the age of 14 until I finally secured an apprenticeship in engineering. But even then, I was still spending time on the streets.
My life changed when I met a friend who invested in R2R. For the first time, I found something that genuinely interested me, and seeing the money he was making, I realised I could build a future for myself. That’s when I started investing in Rent-to-Serviced Accommodation (R2SA) and got my first two units.
I wish I could say I spent my childhood selling sweets or washing cars. You know, the classic entrepreneur story. But that wasn’t me. I floated through life not really knowing what I wanted, and it wasn’t until lockdown hit that I started thinking about giving my life a bit of direction.
I joined university to study counselling, but I was more interested in partying than the degree. A year in, I was bored of both.
My dad had opened a café when I was 14, which he was still running, and my sister was dabbling in a few business ideas of her own. Watching them build something from scratch got me thinking. I started Googling things like "businesses for 21-year-olds with no money" and came across some of the big property trainers online. I signed up for one of their courses and, just over a year later, had built up a portfolio of one R2SA unit and two management clients.
Finding deals in Norfolk was hard. Gumtree might show three opportunities, while Manchester had hundreds.
I met Tom at a networking event, and he was doing what I was doing, but in Manchester. We joined forces, and the agreement was that I’d do all the online stuff, like finding deals and calling agents, and Tom would go on viewings and focus on building relationships.
After six months of working together, we combined our R2R portfolio and created Eason Stays.
I realised that environment was everything. Still being around the same people pulled me backwards. So, I used what money I had to move to Manchester for a fresh start and to scale the business side by side with Tom.
Leaving friends and family wasn’t easy, and the business could barely support me. But I knew it was the right move, and it turned out to be the best decision I ever made.
In the next 1.5 years, we went from five units under management to 32. Here’s our advice on how to scale quickly.
Key separation of roles and responsibilitiesBefore me and Fred defined our roles, we both did the same thing. We’d deal with the same customers, which meant conversations were getting lost, and communication was breaking down.
The moment we split roles (Fred now focuses on sourcing and sales while I now focus on the management business and operations) is the moment we noticed everything change.
Hire fastWe now have a team of eight, including our virtual assistants who also work within our business. If we could go back in time, we’d have hired much faster, even before we felt we were ready.
So long as you hire the right person, you will boost your revenue. Why? Because it frees your time to focus on important tasks, like finding deals and building relationships with agents/investors, rather than building databases and scouring Rightmove.
Network with integrityWe are always networking and meeting new people. Whenever we meet someone, the question we ask ourselves is, ‘Can we help this person?’.
Sometimes that help is as simple as a piece of advice, rather than us finding them a deal. But if we can’t help them, we will ask ourselves ‘Who do we know who could help’, and that’s what makes the difference.
Act with integrityOur motto is “Would we sell this deal to our grandma?” If the answer is no, we won’t sell it.
It’s a bit of a joke, but it highlights our standard. We only package deals we fully believe in, and we are honest about whether we are the right agent to manage a property.
This approach is why most of our landlords come through word of mouth. We rarely rely on cold outreach anymore.
There are times when we find a client after they have been stung by another operator. That could be a sourcer who’s sold them a dud deal, or an SA management agent who has promised the earth, and underdelivered.
Why is sourcing and management known for unethical practices? In our experience, it’s poor education. Most don’t mean to sell a bad deal, they just can’t spot one.
We only source deals we understand. We invest in R2SA ourselves, so we know what makes a deal work. We’re not trying to sell a new build development.
People say that an investor should do their own due diligence, and therefore, the responsibility of buying a bad deal falls on them.
While investors shouldn’t rely solely on a sourcer’s figures, most R2R investors are new and don’t know how to do due diligence.
They rely on us to supply that information accurately. This is why we have a strict criteria on the deals we sell, and why we’re always open with investors from the start.
Along the way, we have made our fair share of mistakes. Hopefully, by sharing them, it helps you to avoid making the same ones.
Not firing quick enoughI mentioned not hiring quick enough above. The other end of that is to not fire quick enough. Whether it’s a VA or employee, set your standards early. If they slip, remind them, then act before they drag you down.
Don’t spread yourself too thinAt the start, we had units everywhere Norfolk, Stockport, Sheffield. We were too spread out, relying on people hours away, unable to respond fast if something went wrong.
We have since built better teams, but centralising & ensuring we had solid teams in place before venturing into new areas from the start would’ve made things so much smoother, and made our lives much easier.
Don’t chase the shiny pennyWhenever you open Facebook, you’re bombarded with adverts on the latest strategy that’ll make you a millionaire by Friday.
It’s easy to lose focus and start chasing the shiny penny. When we locked in on growing our management and sourcing businesses and ignored every other strategy (no matter how lucrative it promised to be), we saw things move much quicker.
Focus on sales, not just marketingLots of people are great at putting themselves out there. But when a lead comes in, they don’t know what to do with it. We learned this mistake early on.
Focus on growing your sales skills as well as your marketing skills so you know how to build relationships, warm cold leads, and convert them into customers (whether that’s a property you want to manage or an investor for your deals).
Being known, liked, and trusted is the key to success in any business. By operating with integrity, we have found that trust comes quickly, and we have strong relationships with people who never hesitate to recommend us.Our goal is to continue to grow Eason Stays and to help as many people as we can along the way.
If there is anything we can do for you, get in touch. Otherwise, feel free to connect with us on social media so you can follow our journey.
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