Is your business a well-oiled machine where everyone knows their role and how to do it, new people fit in easily, your staff work like a team and clients seek you out?
Or are you a group of people working in the same building, each doing their own thing and only interested in their own success? If you weren’t there to keep an eye on things they would fall apart.
If you answered yes to the first question, then well done, you and your business must be very successful.
If you didn’t, and if your situation is more like the second scenario, then you need to get systematic.
I’m a huge fan of systems – they save you time, energy, money and stress – and I usually speak to agents about how systems can help them work fewer hours, get more listings, close more sales and make more money. Systems aren’t just for individuals; they are essential when running a business too.
After starting my career as an agent, I spent 10 years as a business owner and I quickly learned there were too many variables to manage. I couldn’t do it all and be everywhere at once. I, and my team, needed structure and order, guidelines and plans to follow in order to be successful without working 80-hour weeks and burning out. We couldn’t just wing it and hope for the best.
So, I put systems in place, including:
- Job descriptions for every team member, from the receptionist to PAs to the agents themselves. Everybody knew who was responsible for what.
- Agendas for running team meetings so that they were effective and efficient.
- How to deal with incoming calls and a tracking system so we knew what came in and what business was secured.
- How to standardize home opens, recording buyers, follow up and attaching a trail to each and every one.
- Marketing material for every occasion to ensure we were perceived as a cohesive and consistent brand
- Scripts and dialogues for appraisals, handling objections, negotiating and more.
When I went on holiday the business ran like clockwork, THE SYSTEMS KEPT EVERYONE ACCOUNTABLE, working as a team and heading in the same direction without always needing my hand at the wheel.
As a business owner you need to work ON the business rather than IN it, but it’s hard to know where to start.
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel, we have already done the hard work for you. If you want to know more about systems and how they could benefit you and your team book in for my upcoming FREE half-day Real Estate Brilliance webinar and turn your business into Greased Lightnin’.
