Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with John and Wynde Williams, Founders and Owners of Short Term Rental Authority, located in Charlotte, NC, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Here at the Short Term Rental Authority, our mission is to help make YOU the best short-term rental operator ever. There are lots of people out there telling you how to get your first "Airbnb" and how you can make millions doing "Airbnb," but what happens next? You've got your first "Airbnb"! Now what? How do you talk to your guests? What should your house rules be? How should you price your unit? What kind of insurance should you get? How do you scale this business from 1 to 100? This is what we do, all day, every day, is help people like you who are asking themselves all these questions about how to run their short-term rental and how to run it professionally, effectively, and profitably.

Tell us about yourself

We are John and Wynde Williams, owners/operators of Short Term Rental Authority and our own short-term rental business, Queen City Suites. We live just outside of Charlotte, NC. Some of our units are in the city of Charlotte, and we have expanded into Greensboro, NC, with plans to expand to other markets in North Carolina within the next few years.

In 2016, Wynde started watching too much HGTV and thought of herself as the next Joanna Gaines. It looked like so much fun, and they always made money! So, we flipped houses for a few years and got into a lot of other creative real estate deals like wholesaling and owner financing. The last deal we did was a flip that went totally wrong, and we had to turn it into a long-term rental.

In the summer of 2017, we went on vacation to Florida with some friends who rented a house on Airbnb. We had never heard of it before, but we had such a good time that when we got home, Wynde got the idea to turn the basement of our own home into an "Airbnb." It was fully finished with a full bath and nearly a thousand square feet but no kitchen. It was already decorated in a movie theater theme with a huge 80-inch screen tv and surround sound (we're big movie buffs!). John was totally against the idea, but he was finally convinced! We put in a king bed that we found on craigslist, a dining table from John's mom, and a dorm-sized fridge and put it up on Airbnb with no clue about who would come or if anyone would come! But they did! People came from all over the country. Some were visiting family in the area. Some came for events in the area.

A year later, we were sitting around wondering what to do next since all our money was tied up in that flipping house. John looked at his Airbnb app and noticed that we were making more money in the basement with a $1,200 investment than we were with our long-term rental with a $120,000 investment! Then we started asking ourselves how we could get more basements. That's when we discovered the rental arbitrage method. We started treating it like a real business and less like a hobby. We started scaling and realized that we needed systems and processes and team members like a real business. And now we can scale quickly and efficiently without a lot of extra work just by putting new units into the system we've created. We went from amateur operators to true professional operators!

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Being able to provide a salary for everyone who helps us in our business, from our Customer Experience Team members to our cleaners to our maintenance contractors. One of our Customer Experience Specialists just bought a house! We are so grateful to be able to contribute to their financial success.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Having to let people go who either don't share your vision or can't keep up in their role in the company. We've had to let a few people go, and it weighs on your soul as a business owner.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

After reading the book The E Myth by Michael Gerber, we whole-heartedly agree that if you are looking to start, run, and grow a business, you first need to come up with a vision of what you want that company to be like when it's "finished," and how will you know that it's "finished"? We believe that a business is complete when you, as the business owner, are no longer needed in ANY aspect of running the business. The business runs without you. But having that vision from the very beginning will be extremely helpful.

Learning how to put the right people in the right role was a struggle at first, but having been through the process of hiring, training, and firing people, we have learned that it is so crucial to the success of the business. A business doesn't run without people. It's your job as the business owner to find the right people with the right personality who share your vision and who are coachable and eager to learn. And then train them slowly. Our training model is: (1) Watch me do it, (2) Let's do it together, (3) Do it by yourself, (4) Train someone else.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.shorttermrentalauthority.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thecashflowcouplecommunity
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shorttermrentalauthority/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shorttermrentalauthority/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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