These phrases are often bandied about, especially amongst those relatively new in the property sector. Throw in social media, with its negative impact on mental health and you have the ingredients for the perfect storm.

Many of us, myself included, are enticed, cajoled or perhaps duped(?) into thinking that scaling a business is the only way to operate, yet In some sectors it is certainly beneficial. The effect of economies of scale is well known. However, against the backdrop of a pressing and increasingly vocal environmental protection and sustainability lobby, does the economies of scale strategy run contrary to sustainability and prudence?

I certainly have been enticed by the ‘you need to scale your business’ mantra. When I ran my own law firm, I pivoted from a personalised service to a high volume residential conveyancing offering. We were completing 40-50 transactions a month at times. That level of volume requires scaling lots of things within the business - personnel for one but also systems, processes and other resources. Most importantly, I had to scale my mindset - you can’t run a large, complicated organisation with a small mindset. Not least because a larger organisation inherently means larger, more risky problems need to be solved. That mindset shift can be the biggest issue when scaling. In other words, you, the entrepreneur can be the problem! Part of that mindset shift involves improvements in communication - when you run a large organisation, with multiple stakeholders, communication is key. Whilst I didn’t have external shareholders in my business, I did have lenders and indemnity insurers, who become very interested in how the business is performing and how you are running it. Add external shareholders, as you frequently see in property joint ventures and development projects, and communication becomes crucial.

There are presently numerous stories percolating online amongst property groups and at networking events about various property development projects that are floundering. A number of property investors I know are very concerned about their investment in these projects. Some of the property entrepreneurs who spearhead these projects had a meteoric rise to what can only be described as superstar status within the property sector - as a result of social media marketing, hosting podcasts and various speaking gigs at numerous property networking events and as guests on other podcasts. That superstar status fuelled the very rapid ‘fully funded’ status when these projects were ‘offered’ on crowdfunding platforms. It was not uncommon for high profile property entrepreneurs to raise in excess of £1.5M in under 20 minutes of the ‘deal’ going live on a crowdfunding platform. I was asked once to carry out due diligence, at least on the legal side, on one of these projects but I could not find the actual asset! It was a glorified turnkey construction contract but it had been presented on the crowdfunding platform as an investment into a property development project.