Good morning! I was just reading Jason Sardi's blog "Price Warfare in a Service Industry" and it made me think about the importance of defining our business.

A little background. I've been in the mortgage business for a little over 3 years now. It's been uphill all the way although it's smoothing out lately. When I started, things were white hot. The office I worked for was full of young people making several thousand dollars a month. Myself, I didn't know what I was doing and had little help as is often the case in the mortgage business.

What I did know how to do was build a business. While most of the other loan officers waited for their phone to ring or worked leads, I spent a lot of time out building relationships and adding to my database. Needless to say, almost all of the loan people I started with are gone from the business. I think it's because they didn't define their business.

What do I mean about the term above? Decide how you want to run your business. For me, that took almost a year. Personally, I decided I was the 1% guy (loan origination fee) and I would explain up front to all my clients how I was paid, etc. Let's face it. What we do is all about trust. In most cases, we're being chosen based on our client's trust.

The other part of the equation in defining your business is deciding how to consistently market yourself. For me, it's a couple emails/month on helpful information, making calls to my database every day, writing thank you notes, meeting for coffee, lunch, etc. with clients, reciprocal partners, and mailing to a targeted group who knows me quarterly. I know it sounds like a lot to do but think about it for a moment. What is our goal? It should be to become known as the mortgage person, realtor of choice.

Again, it's not been a fast climb for me but the future looks bright. Perhaps someone who is a quicker starter would be further along. I'm blessed to work for a fantastic company which I think is paramount. How about you? What's working for you? Have you defined your business lately?