The journey to a successful life should be
enjoyed. True success comes from accomplishing the activities daily that
will lead you to your ultimate goals in life. Failing or neglecting to
accomplish the daily disciplines will lead you down the path of lost
opportunities and lost income. If the penalty for not accomplishing your
daily activities or disciplines was implemented or assessed today, we
would look at neglecting them differently. The truth is that the penalty
for neglect is more visible in the future than it is today. The person
who eats fried foods does not pay the penalty at 35, he pays at 55. The
person who fails to save 10% of his income for retirement is not penalized
at 40, but at 60. The prospecting we fail to do today does not hurt our
income today, but 90 to 120 days from now.
If we were zapped today from neglecting the daily disciplines rather
than in the future, our daily disciplines would change. We need to associate
pain today with not doing our daily disciplines in the real estate business.
We have to make the neglect more painful than the activity pain. The
truth is we have a tendency to move away from pain and towards pleasure.
There are three disciplines that must be done daily in real estate for
success. They are working on growth, administration, and working ON your
business. Let’s look at each individual area comprehensively.
Growth:
Growth is the part of the business that brings in the revenue for your
business. The more time you spend of your day in growth, the more income
that you will make. Most agents focus little time on growth activities
daily. They work on growth activities at the last minute, when they are
running short on funds. The problem is that is too late. To have a steady
business income you need a steady approach to growth.
Growth is the prospecting that you do daily. It is the listing appointments
that you have for the day. It is the lead follow-up that you are doing
on the people who want to buy or sell. It is the meeting with your lender
to work on your competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Growth is the critical part to any business. Without growth a business
will fail. I know a lot of agents who are highly skilled in growth and
poorly skilled in administration and working on their business who earn
large amounts of money. I know of very few successful agents who are
not highly skilled at growth. You can have huge deficiencies in administration
and working on your business but still win the game. You can not be deficient
in growth and win. My focus is to help our clients achieve a high level
of skill in all three areas. Growth is the engine that powers the train;
you must first pay attention to growth.
Growth demands a minimum of three hours daily in the activities of growth:
prospecting, appointments, lead follow-up, and meeting with affiliates.
Prospecting should comprise 65% of the growth time daily. If the prospecting
does not happen, the other growth areas will wither. Remember the higher
the hours spent on growth, the higher the income and profit.
Administration:
These are the activities that complete the income stream:
Processing the listing so agents can find it in the MLS
Processing the sold property through escrow
Communicating with your clients on a regular basis
Directing your staff and monitoring their progress
These activities done well will enable you to turn clients into fans
who will look for new business for you. You will need one to two hours
daily for administration. If you create a good system and have a highly
trained and skilled staff, your time spent in this area will be reduced.
In the perfect system administration gets done well, but the agent spends
little of his personal time on it.
On your business:
This is the time that most people neglect. This working on your business
really separates long-term success and growth from just running faster
on the treadmill of life. Long-term financial success lies in this section
of your day. The ability to earn more profit is also located here.
We are all really employees of our own little real estate business.
We are the ones who bring in the business and make the system go. The
more time we plan, read, strategize, practice, role play, and implement
our ideas, the more ownership we gain. Becoming the owner of your real
estate business only happens through diligent work on your business.
Instead of being the employee who works to draw a salary and pay the
bills, why not become the one who orchestrates the company? Be the one
who has something to sell when he wants to try something else and/or
retire.
Working on your business is truly taking a step back from the daily
rat race and to look at your growth and administration areas for ways
to improve them. Look at your productivity and profitability then evaluate
your progress. You cannot make meaningful change without evaluation as
an owner, rather than as an employee on a tread mill.
Working on your business is critical to helping you move to the next
level of production, or to decrease time worked without reducing income,
or finding where to cut expenses by 10%. Working on your business will
help you create economies of scale in administration and new ways to
produce growth and income in your business. You need one hour per day
of working on time. For every minute you plan you will save ten minutes
in implementation.
What do you think your business would look like in 90 days or even six
months if you were to implement the below daily routine?
Growth: 3 hours
Administration: 1 to 2 hours
Business: 1 hour
Time block these activities into your daily routine. You will be amazed
at the results you will achieve, even in one week. Do not allow the distractions
to overtake you and your new daily focus. Do not neglect to do the things
that will lead you to success. Do them daily without fail.
::Top of Page
|
