There are many aspects to being in business and with all of them comes expenses. Many firms are able to stay afloat because of their unique ability to cut down on costs that involve payroll, shrinkage, and equipment repair, but one area that should be left to the professionals is property maintenance and facility management.

In Jason Jennings and Lawrence Haughton's 2002 book "It's not the big That eat the Small...it's the Fast That eat the Slow" they specifically tell entrepreneurs that the worst thing a person in business can do is get into a business that he or she is not in. This includes facility management and property maintenance.

It does not matter whether the business is a storage company or a law firm. Cutting the grass and washing windows is out of the question. The money that can be made while not doing these things is too valuable, and the cost for having someone who can do so more competently is negligible compared to the value people can bring into the businesses when their faculties are not occupied with such labor.

When it comes to facility maintenance, some business owners should avoid buying a building they work in altogether. After all, unless they are in the field of facility maintenance, only landlords get into business to become property managers. Accountants, lawyers, doctors, and other professionals should not be concerned with collecting rent, busted pipes, and faulty wiring. They should have their focus on patient and client care, ensuring they know the most up to date methods of their trades so as to be of the highest caliber when performing their duties.

But for those who do want to own real estate, there is a simple solution in hiring a professional property manager, such as a facility maintenance company or a property maintenance company. For a small fee of 8-12% they will gladly absorb most of the headaches between late payments, maintenance issues, and who is at fault for something breaking in a tenant's office. And while some of the problems will become problems for the owner, they will only be the things that he or she must address like wiring that is out of code or installing a security system, and not small things like a tenant who perpetually pays two days late.

Overall, one of the smartest moves a business owner can make is to focus on his or her business and avoid activities that steal such focus away. When any of this comes into question it can be resolved quite simply by asking oneself, 'why did I get into this field?' Was it to cut grass and wash windows? Was that the true ascent following years of graduate and post-graduate study? No. That work was done to be in the field of one's greatest efforts and aspirations. Buying a building may be an added bonus to one's portfolio for the hard work that has already been done, but with it should not come the work of property maintenance or facility management. That should be left to the professionals.