After a day of high winds, the next morning I looked out our front door and a tree had fallen alongside our driveway. We're surrounded by woods, so blocked driveways and crushed landscaping isn't a new thing for us. I have a small battery chain saw and the more powerful gas fueled chain saw depending on the size of the job. While this wasn't a huge tree, it was definitely time for the bigger saw. First things first, a sharp chain was needed as after a few too many dips into the dirt clearing a stump had dulled the blade. I had new chains, so it was a quick swap and not long after the tree was divided and the pieces back in the woods.
Why is such a routine event worth a blog post? Well it would be easy enough to take this set-up in entirely different directions.
1. The importance of the right tools and keeping them ready
2. Life is full of surprises, are you ready to handle them?
3. Put your experience to work
4. Do you know when to call in the pros?
And the one I'm choosing, what do you do when the support falls?
The tree that fell appeared healthy, but it was a smaller tree and leaned up against a much larger trunk for support for years, but that larger trunk was an ash tree that had died years back and eventually it fell (again, blocking the driveway!). Without that trunk's present to support the smaller tree, the small tree started to lean significantly. I'd eyeballed it and expected it to fall fairly soon, but not across the driveway and not far into our front yard (at least this part went as expected!).
The next windstorm that came through pushed the tree the rest of the way over. Without the other tree's support, it couldn't stand alone.
How does this apply to our real estate business?
We have pillars that we rely on to keep our business strong and stable. Our broker, our business model, our websites, our sphere, our IDX feed, ActiveRain, etc.
How well would our business stand if one of those supports fell?
If our website crashed and couldn't be quickly brought back to life?
If your broker sold to a completely different business model?
If your niche lost its uniqueness?
If your IDX provider closed its doors?
If Ben finally decided ActiveRain just wasn't worth keeping the lights on any longer? (no, I have no insight that he's even considering that...we're just What Iffing here!)
Do you have a Plan B, C and D to make sure you stay in business and your pipeline steady?
Just something to think about before the next tree falls.
Until next Tuesday, just Ask An Ambassador if you need help,
Bill & Liz aka BLiz
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