Copley Broer is co-founder and CEO of LandlordStation, which provides online tools for landlords, property managers and real estate brokers nationwide, including tenant screening, online rent payments, and tenant management. Copley has degrees in Finance and English Literature from SMU and splits his time between Dallas, Texas and Bend, Oregon. Follow him at @copley_broer.
What is the first thing you did to turn your current business from an idea into a reality?
We started with the goal of building a large platform business. But we knew we needed to test the market and our ability to get to it without building the whole thing. So we broke the platform apart into bite-sized pieces and found the one piece that could stand on its own as a profitable business. We started with that. It gave us a way to self-finance the startup and prove that the market was there and that we could get our arms around it. We moved onto the platform armed with more knowledge and money than if we had jumped right in.
What is the scariest part of being a young entrepreneur and how can others overcome this fear?
I’m not sure any of it is particularly scary, but there is definitely a level stress in the unknowns. When starting a technology platform, you have to face the fact that you are going straight into a long series of unknowns (Am I doing this right? Will people like the product? Will they pay anything for it? Is someone in some other city building the same thing but doing it better?) The only way to get over this is to work hard, build something good, and charge people money for it.
Were you ever told not to pursue your entrepreneurial dreams? Who told you that, what did they say and why did you ignore them?
Never. I am from a family of entrepreneurs and small business owners. They were always supportive of my goal to not go work for a big bank or some huge corporate conglomerate, even though that certainly would have been the safer way to go.
What is the No. 1 thing you wish you’d known starting out and how did you learn it?
That we would move so quickly into a content/audience-based world. When we started out, we used the standard tools (Adwords, SEO etc.) to drive traffic. But we wasted a lot of time letting our audience buy and vanish rather than keeping them engaged with content, emails, social, communities etc. No matter what you are selling on the Internet today, your biggest goal is to build an interested audience. Then you can sell them anything.
What do you recommend all new founders do for their business — or their personal lives — that will help them the most?
Find a good partner. Very rarely do you see individual successes (even though some are portrayed that way, they generally aren’t behind the scenes). Most of the people I know who have successful personal lives have great significant others and most people I see who are successful in business have a great partner who fills their talent gaps. Usually, this person is good at what you are not.
How do you end each day and why?
I go to sleep early. We have three young kids so I’m generally exhausted by the end of the day, and I’m an early riser. It’s hard to go to bed at midnight and be an early riser. I have never been the person who is tired, gets in bed, and watches three hours of “Game of Thrones.” That makes no sense to me. If I’m tired, I go to sleep knowing I will perform better the next day for it.
What is your best PR/marketing tip for business just starting up?
Build a quality product. You can spend all sorts of money and do all sorts of tricks to get your name out there, but at some point, people are going to actually use whatever you have built. If it’s bad, they aren’t going to like it. Good products have a way of getting their own press. There are certainly things you can do to stoke the fire, but a quality product/market fit is the place to start.
What is your ultimate goal? What will you do if/when you get there?
For LandlordStation, it’s to continue to build out a holistic platform for small landlords and property managers. They deserve to have great tools and services, which are generally not being provided to them. Personally, it’s to keep investing time, money and effort in building great small businesses and a great family.
