With a vision to support the UK’s land and commercial property community, Ramsey Assal chats to us about his journey …
Ramsey Assal founded The Landsite after finding it difficult to locate suitable land for his own property projects. Spotting a gap in the commercial marketplace Landsite is now in its fourth year of business and is excelling at making information universally available in one place.
What products or services do you provide?
The Landsite is a unique digital network and marketplace designed to connect anyone with an interest in the real estate market. The company’s proprietary platform allows members to create and share their business identity online and access a focused customer base by sharing products, knowledge and news. Members use the marketplace to sell their services and products and utilise the network to find new business relationships.
What type of businesses do you work with?
We work with a wide range of businesses throughout the property and real estate industries. Including estate agents, property investment businesses, mortgage lenders through to architects and designers to building contractors looking to network and generate sales enquiries. The shortened version – anyone involved in services for the property market.
What problem does your company solve?
We have created a platform whereby anyone searching for a property can find the services which are part of the property journey. As a property developer looking for land, for example, our services provide the user with the land and in addition all the services surrounding land. It is the only fully comprehensive one-stop online property marketplace.
What is your USP?
There is simply nobody doing what we are doing on the same level with the amount of property service sectors. With an expansive range of businesses already taking up membership subscription. We are fully comprehensive. From offering investment services to property listings to our property channels dedicated to sustainable building – we see ourselves as a ground-breaking network of professionals.
What are your company values? Have you ever had them challenged and if so, how have you dealt with it?
To provide our users with trusted and reputable businesses offering their services. To create a digital destination which allows our users a quick and efficient way to find whatever property service they are searching for. Innovation, commitment to our members interests and constant development and improvement are central to our core beliefs. It’s relatively early days for our business journey, and as yet our values have not been challenged to date. We accept that they may be in the future and this is something we will need to prepare for.
How do you ensure that you recruit a team that reflects your company values?
Our company values are the core principles that direct culture and priorities, and we hire based on this, meaning we have more productive employees who integrate efficiently and are more likely to stay with us. Matching these values allows us to find employees who mirror how we perceive our brand.
Are you happy to offer a hybrid working model of home/office post-covid?
Yes, as an online digital platform our business model encourages all our employees to work from home wherever they are located. We believe that the wellbeing of our team is paramount to the success of the business. Should our requirements change in the future a hybrid model would be an option we would consider and welcome.
Do you have any tips for managing suppliers and customers effectively?
As with all businesses, our customers are our number one priority. Our business development team keep in close contact with our members. We have a professional client services team who guide our members when needed and follow up with all enquiries made through the platform. The key priorities for us are to ensure communication between our platform visitors and our business members is optimised, and as comprehensive as possible. Above all, we listen to our users and members needs and build these into our development plans.
Any finance or cash-flow tips for new businesses starting out?
As is the case with any start-up be extremely careful with budget and spending. To avoid potential closure, budget for double what you expect to spend to protect your business against unforeseen expenses which are inevitable no matter how carefully the business plan is. Expect the unexpected!
If you could ask one thing of the government to change for businesses what would it be?
I feel the government could do a great deal more to support new digital and technology businesses with funding, through easier loan facilities for new and start-up businesses and encouraging venture capital companies to take a closer look at the wider potential of the technology sector.
What is your attitude towards your competitors?
We see our competitors as a great way to assess our offering, analyse our own platform and how we can improve ourselves. As an innovative platform most of our competitors offer far fewer USP’s compared to The Landsite. We learn and grow from any competition.
Any thoughts on the future of your company and your dreams?
The future is exciting for The Landsite. As we continue to gain momentum and grow, we have a massive potential to service the UK’s real estate industry, both on a B2B and B2C basis. We are on track to be the UK’s only fully comprehensive real estate platform – the ‘Go-To’ online destination for the entire digital property industry.
