Kyle Krch was born and raised in Ely, Nevada a small rural Eastern Nevada town. He now operates his businesses out of Reno, Nevada. After graduating high school with honors in 1997 he enlisted in the United States Army. Kyle spent four years as a Military Intelligence Analysist with the special operations 75th Ranger Regiment. Kyle fast tracked his military career and achieved the rank of E5, Sergeant in just over 3 years. After being honorably discharged from the military in 2001 he attended Columbus Technical collage and earned his Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer designation. He was hired by QualxServ an East coast technology company. Kyle managed teams of 20 – 125 computer technicians and oversaw the installation of computer networks all over the world during the military’s NMCI project.
After the completion of the project and a suggestion from business associate to read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, Kyle opted for a career change. He earned his real estate licenses in 2003 and opened the first Krch Realty location in Reno, Nevada in 2005. Krch Realty was sold to Hughes Private Capital in 2019, paving the way for Kyle to become an owner in Hughes Private Capital and putting the investment firm in a unique position to expand and provide stable returns to their investors. Today the Krch and Hughes family of companies operate in four states with multiple investment offerings, 100’s of employees and is planning a national rollout by EOY 2023.
Where did the idea for Krch Realty come from?
The idea to merge Krch Realty and Hughes Private Capital was a joint brainstorming session between myself and my future business partners. We were looking for a way to achieve vertical integration allowing us to take control over the entire business process. We can now acquire, rehab, and manage our investments with the Krch and Hughes family of companies.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
Monday through Friday are jam packed, however there is a common theme that allows me to utilize my time effectively. Consistency is the key. I can control my morning and evening, but life and business are not predictable, so I don’t over complicate my mid-day. I have the same work themes in the AM and PM. I reserve the beginning of my day for responding to emails and messages and getting the teams working on high priority projects. Then mid-day I transition into my own personal projects and schedule all meetings in the later part of the day. Before heading home, I always hit the gym, for me it’s a great way to decompress and help prepare for the next day. You must approach your day proactively, if you simply react to presented situations you will find yourself running in a never-ending hamster wheel.
How do you bring ideas to life?
When I have a new business idea, I head directly to power point to help me build the framework. My business ideas typically revolve around a service that involve multiple team members and divisions at my company. I find creating team member swim lane charts are the most effective and time efficient way to lay out new business process. This way I can visualize each task that needs to be completed, who completes the task, the timing the task needs to be completed by and what is the next step. I keep following this task by task-based process until I end up with a complete system. This also becomes the basis for my SOP document I use to train each team member as well.
What’s one trend that excites you?
The introduction of technology into the real estate industry has made a tremendous impact in our ability to scale. For example, we turn each of our homes into smart homes. These homes give an operational advantage to our teams while providing additional value and peace of mind for our tenants. In the past we would have to meet a prospective tenant at the home they were interested in or require the tenant to come to the office to pick up a key. However now with remote verification and entry systems tenants can simply and securely gain access to the home for a self-showing completely on their own. Once our tenants rent the home, they are given access to the technology. They can remotely turn on and off lights and even lock and unlock doors.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I am extremely consistent with how I approach work. One of my favorite quotes is “failure does not favor persistence” If you can approach each day with a proactive mindset while still allowing yourself to roll with the punches you can do amazing things. Consistency over time, focused on productive activities is the quickest way to achieve lasting success.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Look inward! Understand your strengths, passion, weakness. Really understand what you like to do and be able articulate the things you do not. Once you understand yourself you can quickly find and attract others that have strength and can get enjoyment out of the things you don’t. When trying to build a business one of the worst things you can do is hire people who are like you. It would be like trying to build a football team with only quarterbacks, that would be disastrous.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
Aliens built the pyramids, its true I saw it on the internet! Seriously, this is a great question, but my own communication style has really prevented me from ever coming across this in my life. I believe effective communication is 70% listening and only 30% speaking. I don’t personally find a lot of joy in talking about myself, I prefer asking questions to really understand who I am talking to. I also make a very conscious effort not to judge, I find simply shutting down once I hear something, I don’t agree with is a quick way to ensure you never grow as a person. I learn more from people who have dissenting view then likeminded.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
If I had to sum it up in one word it would be “Consistency”, however the next question I always get is be consistent at what? This can take on a myriad of different answers, but it always boils down to be consistent on productive activities. Its starts with annual goal setting and quarterly review of those goals. You then break down your goals into key objectives and those objectives into key tasks. When I wake up in the morning, I always find the post it note I wrote the night before laying on my keyboard with my key task that must be accomplished. This simple trick helps me keep laser focused on my “productive activities”.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
This one took me a while to figure out, but once I did our business exploded. You must always be looking to replace yourself with others who can accomplish the primary job duties as 80% well as yourself. You will find very often if you are attracting the correct people, they can do the specific job duties even better then you could. As you build your business always try to get new people on the bus, then ensure they are sitting in the right seat on the bus. Your team members are key to your success! I would highly recommend looking into Culture Index to help you build a world class team.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
In my early years I would get distracted by seemingly shiny objects. I would hear there is an easier way to make money doing this or that. Speaking from experience make sure you trust your gut, its almost always right. If the opportunity seems too good to be true it probably is. Laser focus on your set goals and don’t drift from one presented opportunity to the other you will get much further much faster. Now when I consider opening a new company or venture my first question is always will this help me improve my core business. If the answer is no, I simply pass. I find myself passing on a lot of opportunities, but in the long run have been extremely thankful in doing so.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Cornhole! Really, cornhole. Nationally retail big box companies are going out of business at an alarming rate due to the success of online ecommerce. However, this leaves unique opportunity to gain access to large amounts of retail space to be repurposed into experience-based companies. The backyard game cornhole is at its infancy but is quickly growing. There are organizations forming now to get cornhole into the Olympics. Big name sponsors are entering the fray and courting the best players in the world. ESPN is starting to routinely broadcast the national cornhole events. However, the venues to hold cornhole tournaments and local league nights are lacking. Now imaging a restaurant that was built around this incredible sport. They would have amazing food, drinks, atmosphere and anywhere between 10-20 cornhole lanes, with accompanying technology to make the games interactive even when not actively throwing. Think TopGolf for Cornhole. Cornhole may one day replace or compete with our beloved bowling alleys.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
Audio Books! This will always be my go-to for fast and super effective education for any creative thinker. Some of my favorite audio books over the last 6 months have been. Hook Point, Relentless, The Compound Effect, Influence, Start with Why and Never Split the Difference. The number of groundbreaking nuggets of information you can get from audio books will surprise you. The rate of which you can consume an audio book is also lightning fast. My preferred method is to listen to an audio book and then if I deem it worthwhile, I purchase the hard cover and then highlight and dog ear the top nuggets of information. I then reread my top nuggets of information in just a few hours every year.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?
Salesforce. Salesforce has allowed our family of companies to exist in one eco system. If the data is not entered into salesforce it does not exist in our company. This has allowed us to have real time actionable information at our fingertips at any moment. Gone are the days are waiting for the department meeting to get the information I need to make decisions or spot trends. When I have the urge to do a deep dive into one of my companies, I don’t have to request reports and wait for them to be built and then consume one of my executives days trying to explain the report to me. Salesforce has unlocked the power of data and is integral in our national rollout aspirations.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
It really depends on what the community is looking for and who they are. If it’s someone just starting out, I would recommend “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. Without this book I would not have even considered become an entrepreneur. None of the information in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, is being taught in schools or even in most families. This is a MUST read.
What is your favorite quote?
“Failure does not favor persistence”, this is my spinoff of a famous Napoleon Hill quote.
Key Learnings:
• Consistency over time, focused on productive activities is the quickest way to achieve lasting success.
• Be a great student
• Active listening is key in communication effectively
• Constantly replace yourself to grow
Carlyn runs the day-to-day publishing operation here at ideamensch and interacts with our awesome customers and entrepreneurs. She is likely editing this with a cat on her lap.