Property mogul who makes sure family is near top of agenda

Jul 25 2007 by Tony McDonough, Liverpool Daily Post

KEN METCALF is chairman and chief executive of Tailormade Overseas Property Solutions, a national network of overseas property investment experts, searching the market place on behalf of clients interested in buying abroad.

Here is an account of one of his recent working days.

6.30 am: It’s not the alarm clock that wakes me up in the morning but the boundless enthusiasm of my two-year old, and that’s fine by me. I can’t think of a better way to start the day.

7.30am: I try to spend an hour at the gym every morning.

8.30am: Back home for a quick shower and a bit more family time with my wife and daughter before I head off to the office. On days when I have to travel abroad I usually catch the earliest possible morning flight, which often means I’m in the air by 7.30am. But when I’m at home, I can miss the rush hour if I head in to the office that bit later and be fresh enough to hit the ground running when I get there.

10am: I’m fortunate to have a really talented and motivated team around me and when I arrive at the office, I like to focus on planning with the team before I tackle anything else. We call our daily team catch up meeting “morning prayers” and we do stick to it religiously.

10.15am: I have 50 to 60 emails waiting in my in box every morning, more if I’ve been away on business for a couple of days. But emails can easily take over your life if you let them, so I mark everything “urgent”, “action within 48 hours” or “spam” and deal with it accordingly. A lot of the emails I get are from developers who want me to take a look at their latest scheme. Because we block-buy developments, they know they can sell all their units to us off-plan if we think the quality, location and price are good enough, so they’re keen to catch my eye.

12.30pm: I always insist that everyone takes a lunch break away from the office. When you’re busy it’s easy to think you haven’t got time and just grab a sandwich at your desk. But taking time out helps you stay focused in the afternoon and gives you some thinking time away from the phone and email.

1.30pm: Back from lunch I have a meeting with the team. We get offered about 40 to 50 property investment deals a month but we’re only interested if it’s a really high quality scheme. Today we discuss progress at our investment in Lake Como.

3pm: Back to my desk to spend some time providing support to some of Tailormade’s 52 franchised offices. Today I have an email from a franchisee who has brought on board an estate agent with a national network of 230 offices. It’s a great way to get referred business and an important relationship for the franchisee.

4.30pm: I’ve got an early start tomorrow so I run through any last minute queries from the team before heading off home for a couple of hours daddy time before my trip.

6.30pm: I’m never away for more than one night when I go overseas for work, so at least I can pack light and I try not to check any luggage in to help me make the most of my time while I’m away.

8.30pm: I’ll be on site in Italy by 10.30 tomorrow morning reviewing progress on the Lake Como scheme, and making sure everything is up to standard before wall-to-wall meetings. So with my daughter all tucked up in bed, it’s time to relax with a glass of wine while I look over the paper work we’ll be discussing tomorrow.