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.
We've made available to you a FREE Business Review & Evaluation Coaching Call with one of our Professional Coaches. These are the same coaches that have helped our clients achieve an average $100,000 increase in income, and they're here to help you as well!
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