Want To Do Whatever You Want, Whenever? Learn How From A Millennial Who Broke $1 Million

Ask Jan Jens, 27, how he would describe what he has built in his profitable, multi-million-dollar luxury-villa-rental business in Miami and he sums it up in two words: “Whatever. Whenever.”

By making sure his high-end clients can do whatever they want, whenever they want on their luxurious stays in the city, the conscientious entrepreneur behind the company Jatina Group has built the same financial freedom for himself along the way.

“It gives me a good feeling to be independent and know I can do whatever I want, how I want to do it,” says Jens. “I’m not responsible for a goal I have to meet every month. I don’t have a boss after me.”

It wasn’t always this way. Jens wasn’t sure how he was going to support himself when he arrived from Germany five years ago. He just knew that he wanted to live in Miami, where his family had vacationed while he was growing up. Jens had been working in his family’s construction business, which builds supermarkets and malls, but was eager to do his own thing. The 6 a.m to 5 p.m. lifestyle in construction companies didn’t suit him. “That was not how I wanted to live my life,” he recalls.

Still, he needed to be self-supporting. “I had to make money to survive here somehow,” he recalls.

So Jens got creative. After doing a lot of online research about which properties were in hot demand in his target market, he persuaded his dad to loan him $39,000 so he could rent a high-end, five-bedroom villa in Miami and started his business. Although some entrepreneurs view friends-and-family financing as a gift, he did not, and fully intended to pay back every penny, ASAP. “I was scared, to be honest,” he recalls. “That was a lot of money for me at that point.”

When he found an appropriate property, he negotiated permission to sublet it. Eager to rent it right away, he quickly advertised the villa on sites such as Airbnb and HomeAway. Within six days he had booked his first guest. As a rookie property manager, he now realizes he underpriced the rental, but that didn’t matter: He was off and running. With the property filling up and guests staying an average of 4 to 5 days, Jens recalls, “I saw this was going to work within the first month.” He was able to repay his father within three months.

That was in 2015. As a solopreneur, he broke $1 million in revenue within ayear-and-a-halff after starting Jatina Group, he says. He has since built it to $7.5 million in revenue for 2018. After hitting $2.5 million a year as a sole proprietor in 2017, he has hired six people. He projects $10.5 million in revenue for 2019.

Continually reinvesting in the business, Jens now rents out 12 properties with between four and 10 bedrooms in Miami. He subleases eight of them, which he rents from the owners, and handles rentals for the owners of the other four, charging them a management fee. Currently, his villas rent from $1,250 a night, for a five-bedroom villa in Brickell, to $7,500 a night and up, for very high-end properties in Miami Beach.

In the world of million-dollar, one-person businesses, real estate rental and leasing companies interest many readers who reach out to me. In 2016, there were 997 solo rental and leasing services in the U.S. that got to $1-to$2.49 million in revenue with no employees except the owners. That figure was up from 953 the year before. Jens is one of the elite few.

They are part of a small but growing cohort of hyper-efficient million-dollar, one-person businesses. The number of nonemployer firms—meaning those staffed only by the owners—that earn $1 million to $2.49 million in revenue rose to 36,161 in 2016, up 1.6 percent from 35,584 in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That number is up 35.2% from 26,744 in 2011.

The U.S. Census Bureau expects to release its statistics on nonemployer businesses by the end of this month, so there will soon be more news on this fast-growing trend.

Here is how Jens joined this very successful group of entrepreneurs running ultra-lean businesses.

Think beyond fluffy towels. In Miami’s laid-back business culture, Jens made sure he stood out by delivering a concierge level of customer service that went beyond the highest levels he was observing in the market—even if that meant working 15 hours, seven days a week at first to meet customers’ requests and answer their questions. “I’m always on top of everything,” says the self-described “control freak.” “I want to make sure everything is 110%.”

His energetic approach helped him build word of mouth quickly, and he soon found himself serving a client roster that expanded from wealthy vacationers to professional athletes and celebrities.

Although he now has a team, he handles high-priority clients personally. “My name is more important to me than money,” says Jens. “If it’s super-important, I take it on myself.”

React to market forces quickly. With his first property booking very quickly, Jens realized he had priced it too low. “After I saw the houses are booked within a heartbeat, I said, ‘Okay there is a way to add a little bit more step by step to make more money,’” he recalls. If rentals were slow during the week, he adjusted prices in the opposite direction, to make sure they were rented, as well.

“My goal is to reach 90% occupancy,” says Jens. “On average if a house cost you $10,000 a month, you need to be sure you reach break-even within 12 days, with all of your costs—like electric and gas—factored in. Then, after that, you start making money.”

Keep reinvesting. Instead of spending all of the money he was making from his rental, which could be tempting for a successful entrepreneur living in a sunny, beachfront city full of exciting diversions, Jens began saving money to lease a second property.

In the meantime, he built up his own website to showcase the property with dramatic photos and learned how to use Google advertising to spread the word. “I invested the money back into the business to get more guests and build a brand,” he says. He started out investing $1,000 a month in his advertising and, finding it paid off, now spends $3,500 a month for advertising and search engine optimization. He also asked his many happy customers to review his company on the sites they used to book the properties. That was essential to building trust among affluent clients, as well as property owners, who valued a high level of service and privacy.

Rinse and repeat. With cash flowing steadily into the business, Jen rented another villa and repeated what he had done to the market the first one. Gradually, he built a portfolio of eight homes, all of which he rented from the owners. He leaned toward larger properties, which he found very marketable.

“I always recommend taking five-bedroom properties and up,” he says. “You have groups spreading the costs, and it’s cheaper than a hotel.”

There is financial risk involved in leasing any home. Through sites such as Airbnb, Jens has insurance, but so far, he’s been lucky. His guests have been considerate, and there have been only minor accidents, like stains on the wall from a suitcase or broken drinking glasses. “Most of the time, if the client breaks something, they pay for it directly,” he says.

Make the most of word of mouth. As neighbors in Miami got to know him and learned about his business, some started coming to him to rent out their properties. When a neighbor first asked Jens to rent out his personal residence, Jens offered to do so for 25% of the rental fees. It worked out so well that the neighbor moved out of the house and now rents it year-round, while living in another similar-style house in town. “He still makes more money,” says Jens.

Know when to hire a team. As a perfectionist, Jens tried to do all of the work himself in the beginning, working seven days a week, but as his business grew, he realized the DIY approach had its limits and that he needed a team. By 2017, when he had built the business to $2.5 million a year in revenue as a solopreneur, he hired his first employee, who handles responsibilities like checking clients in and out.

Since then, he’s continued adding employees. With his six team members on board, he is now focused on turning his business into a “secure, self-running machine.” He’s a good example of how today’s, million-dollar, one-person business can become tomorrow’s job-creating company.

Jens enjoys his business so much that he doesn’t take long vacations, through he will go away for two or three days at a time. For now, he’d rather focus on taking his vision as far as he can. “I know I can do much more, “ he says. “Right now, I’m focused on building, building, building.”