Today...

Lauren,

I have been in sales & management  all my life and in Real Estate (Agent 14 years), May I suggest because fo your words above: Due to trying to do it all (selling real estate, operate a company, coach/mentor the agents, & grow the company), RENEWED STRENGTH!

It sounds to me you are buring candles at all ends. It is hard to do well at everything. You sound tired and this will tranfer to your agents. I suggest that you quit selling and refer it to your agents. It takes up so much time and energy. Take this energy and focus on your agents, mentoring & growing your business. A referral of 30-40% will allow you to motivate and promote your company as a Broker.

Food for thought ~ I had a call a couple month ago from the Broker of a company of 7-10 offices (130-150 agents) who wanted showing my listing: Price: $170K. Lower end in our area. It was a day of torrential rain and the Broker said she was showing 15 houses. Anyway, I hung up the phone and my thought was. Hummm that Broker must be going out of business. I pondered this all day.. I received a call about a month ago from one of the manager's wanting me to meet with the Broker about switching companies and the benefits they could offer. What do you think I was thinking??

Lauren,

We should really have lunch. I own a company and I am the broker of 15 agents. I list, sell, manage the company and mentor the agents. I've had all the same thoughts and concerns as is in your post above.

I cannot just refer everything. I'm not to the point where the company could survive that way. Plus, quite frankly, everyone doesn't do the same job that I do. My daughter is the closest, but she has two children. She cannot be the workaholic that I am. I LOVE what I do. And yes sometimes I am completely exhausted.

I go back and forth about hiring new agents. We have a really good group now. The fun part of the job for me is working with buyers, so I don't want to give that up. My clients want me, not someone I refer the property to, to list their homes. Sometimes I do co-list, but for the most part I have to deal with the clients, because they are hiring me. So I can't walk away from that.

My agents want me to be available for them. I think as long as they know I am there, and someone can answer their questions they are easier to deal with than the clients are. I talked to someone last week about coming to work my as a sales manager. She would be able to sell if she wanted, but would make a good split on any new agents she could recruit. That way I could get more agents without it meaning more work for me.

I wish I had all the answers. I'd love to have as many tips from you as possible. We are in the same boat. I am going to add you to my associates. If you ever want to talk online or off line let me know. I think we are a couple of southern girls doing to same thing miles apart. We should definitely stay in touch. 

BTW. I don't have any retreat ideas near you, but if you want to come to the Gulf Coast I can help you out!