Get a Business Strategy, Before you Hire
By Kathleen Black, KBCC
In the traditionally individualistic world of real estate, the dream of a perfect Real Estate team is becoming more difficult to realistically create.
The age-old question for someone looking to dip their toes into the Real Estate team world is “When is the right time to start a team?”.
The magic, beautiful answer to when you are in the right space to start your own team, would be:
● When you know yourself
● When you know your leadership type
● When you know how you assess risk
● When you know why you want to build a team
But the reality is that most teams are created in a rush, with little to no planning, which is why a lot of teams quickly decline.
They’ve gotten so caught up in their own world that their business and personal life have begun to spiral out of control.
Naturally, they begin to feel helpless and feel that the only way to correct this, is to hire help.
This can be, and typically is, a total disaster. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is trying to go too big, too fast.
If there’s an excess of business that is out of control, instead of hiring, create structure for the business.
To bring on help without any structure, is where you’ll find yourself suffering from the dreaded revolving door syndrome, and you’ll end up more burnt out than before.
Don’t let yourself fall into a situation where you repeat the same process, with the same unsuccessful results.
If you are not following a proven model, it will take more time and resources, which doesn’t make much sense when bringing on a new team member was supposed to give you less work, and free up more of your time.
Instead, without a proven model, you will find yourself more tired, and having less time than you did before.
We say what takes ten years to create and perfect, takes two years to duplicate, and it doesn’t end there. The more we duplicate, the quicker we can adapt to replicating.
The people with top teams in North America didn’t get there by recreating the wheel, they got there by plugging into proven systems.
We think we need time, relief, somebody who can oversee parts of our business. But what usually is the problem is that we need clarity and strategy.
Once we get those two components, we need to be able to take our existing business to create a proper business.
When you’re clear you’ll do what you need to do to build, when you’re not clear you want instant relief. This might result in hiring the person who shows up at the door who might not be equipped with the skillset to support you or clients.
You need to be clear on what you want. You need to start at point A, to figure out what you want and need and travel to point B from there.
Why are you starting a team? Is it to get freedom of time? Take over the number one spot in your industry? To build a successful brand and business?
The first hire you should make is an unlicensed assistant or administrator. It’s the least risky financially, the cost per hour and the salary is lower on an unlicensed person versus a licensed person.
But, if you’re a really high, top producing listing agent, and you want to double your business, or you don’t necessarily want a big team in the future, then you might want to go with a licensed assistant.
Somebody who’s really listing focused, this licensed assistant can double your business. But, it’s going to put you behind on expanding the rest of the team.
Do you want a team that is revolving around you, taking things off your plate, or do you want a team where people can work, not fully independently because it’s a team, but somewhat independently on their tasks, in their GENIUS?
If you know you want to build a team, you’re a clear, implementing driving force. When you know you’re going to expand your business, you’ll want to get your business strategy in place, and hire support as soon as possible.