Diet Time! Let's Trim The Fat!

Does the owner of a Fortune 500 company spend hours a day putting stamps on envelopes or take all of the company's mail to the post office at the end of each day?  Is a grocery store owner the person responsible for stocking the shelves, unloading the trucks and ringing up customers' orders?  When you go to a restaurant, is the owner the maitre d', waiter, chef and busboy?

The answer to all three of these questions is obviously "no."

But hold on a second.  How would you feel if I told you that there were actual stories of owners who did those things?  You'd probably think, "Why don't they just hire someone to handle those tasks?" and you'd be right.  From a business perspective, it makes no sense why the owner of a company should be doing work that can be handled by someone making $8 an hour.

Now here's the rub:  It happens every day and I see it in the form of real estate agents who do everything themselves.

You are a business owner.  If you are serious about your real estate career, you need to view yourself as a business owner.  Then, you need to act like one.

This means trimming the fat from your schedule and focusing on dollar-productive work.  I'd like you to take a few minutes to think of your average day and all the various things you do throughout the day.  For even greater effectiveness, you may want to keep a journal of what you do for an entire week before analyzing your list.  Then, go through that list and determine if each task is something that you absolutely need to do, or if someone else could handle it for you.

The goal in this exercise is to get you focused on the truly important aspects of your career.  As we've discussed before, too often agents focus on the 'urgent' issues - the day-to-day 'To-Do' lists that fill their schedules - and end up with no time for the truly 'important' issues that will help grow your business and generate immediate income.  This is what is commonly know as working "in" your business instead of working "on" your business.

When analyzing your schedule, a good rule of thumb is to think in terms of "dollar productive work."  If a specific task isn't directly connected to creating growth or income in your business, odds are someone else should be handling it.  The most obvious example of dollar productive work in real estate is the listing presentation.  I can hear some of you now, chuckling and saying, "Well, Stupid, of course I'd love to spend my whole week giving listing presentations, but if that was the case, I'd be rich."

Yes!  That's exactly my point. Look at the Walter Sanfords of the world.  Walter is a walking sales machine, tops in every market he has entered.  What's more, he has even stopped going out on listing presentations - homeowners actually come to his office to list their homes.  Walter spends the majority of his time in these face-to-face meetings, and much of the remainder on his personal marketing systems that generate all that business in the first place.  His team handles everything else.

Not Quite "Walter Sanford" Level Yet

What's that?  Oh.  You're not closing hundreds of transactions like Walter is?  Okay.  But does that change the fact that his approach should be the model for your future success?  Not to me it doesn't. (And for those who might question the quality of Walter's service, don't bother.  His clients rave about his service.)

Obviously, though, you aren't going to start by hiring an entire staff, but that should still be your ultimate goal.  A good place to start is by hiring an assistant who can implement your systems and provide free time on your schedule to allow you to focus on the "important" instead of the urgent.  The key is to recognize and accept the fact that you will work more efficiently with help, and then take the first step toward that transition.  You cannot be afraid of growth and you cannot be afraid of giving up control over part of your business operations.

To achieve that growth, you must be willing to step outside your comfort zone.  It's okay.  You're not supposed to have all the answers and do it all yourself.

Also, keep in mind that there will never be a perfect time to hire someone.  I often see agents make the mistake of waiting until they have the "extra money" necessary to make the plunge.  Stop thinking this way.  No matter how much money you make, you will never have 'extra' money (especially if you have kids!).  Just do it.  What you'll find is that once you've made that investment and committed to a salary, what you spend will be amplified in return.  Suddenly with another salary, more time on your hands and no more excuses, your productivity will increase.

Being a control freak will get you nowhere .  How many transactions do you think the top agents could conduct in a year if they were afraid to relinquish control over part of how their business operates?  That's the excuse I hear from many agents with whom I have this conversation.  They say, "But Steven, no one I hire will do the work as well as I can do it."

First of all, don't flatter yourself.  The job of leadership is to find people who are better than you.  Second, that's not true if you find the right type of people for your team, and third, you can't spend all your time worrying about those things if you want to take your business to the next level.  At some point, you have to trade the control for a higher ceiling for your productivity.  You need to realize that you can only do so much, and the fewer things you have on your plate, the more efficient you will become.  In fact, agents who were once reluctant to accept help often report back to me later telling me how much more efficiently their whole operation is running.  When you're doing everything yourself, you sometimes fail to see the forest for the trees.  Once you leverage yourself and delegate tasks, it's easier to identify how to best handle those tasks.

Things are not always as they seem, however.  I want to leave you today with this thought - being busy does not necessarily mean you are being productive.  It's time to get selective with where you are focusing your time, energy and effort.  Don't fool yourself into thinking you're doing well just because you stay busy all day.  I know I've said it before, but in real estate, you are not trading dollars for hours.  How much or how little you work has no direct bearing on your income potential.  Also, don't take pride in the fact that you are a "do it all."

In fact, if you are busy all day every day, you are not doing well.  The whole point of everything I teach is geared around becoming more efficient at what you do.  The goal is to make more money while working less time.  That's what trimming the fat is all about.

But it's your decision. You can continue to do business as usual, or you can truly start acting like the CEO of your organization and treat your real estate career like the self-owned business it really is.  What will you do?

Just thought you should know.

Have a profitable day,

Steven