The Successful Realtor Part 2

How much is your time worth?

To be truly successful, realtors need to work hard, long hours. Let’s face it – you’re not working a 9 to 5 Monday to Friday job, but have you ever stopped to consider if you’re spending those hours wisely? To know for sure, you need to first figure out how much you earn per hour.

Start by determining how many hours you work each week, on average. Multiply that figure by the number of weeks you work in a year. Then divide last year’s income by that amount. For example:Last year you earned $60,000. You work 65 hours per week and 50 weeks a year.Therefore: $60,000 ÷ (65 x 50) = $18.18 per hour. Now ask yourself this: How many hours doyou spend each week on tasks you could pay someone less than $18 per hour to do for you? Do you prepare your own mailings? Send out follow-up postcards and emails? Post yard signs? Actas a courier to deliver contracts and paperwork? If you do these things yourself, you’re losing money. Consider outsourcing them for less money and spending your time on productive tasks that will build your business.

Craig Proctor, one of the top Remax agents in the world, concentrates his efforts on “rainmaker activities”. This man sold over $100 million in real estate last year, but you can be sure he didn’t do it all himself. He put systems in place. He automated tasks where possible. He focused hisattention on things that would make his business better. And he let his assistants take care of the rest.

Craig credits Michael Gerber’s book The E-Myth for providing the inspiration. In his book, Gerber explains that most small business owners fail because they spend too much time in the business instead of on the business. They spend each day putting out small fires instead of charting their future plans.

So what should you, as a small business owner, be focusing on? That’s easy … lead generation. Your number one priority as a realtor is to be constantly generating leads and that means that you need to dedicate a large portion of your time to marketing your business.

Other rainmaker activities include:
- Listing appointments
- Buyer appointments
- Accounting

Everything else can be delegated. As Craig became more successful, he even began to delegate listing and buyer appointments. Now, all he does is marketing. Even if you don’t have the money to hire an army of assistants right away, you can still apply these principles to make your business more successful.

Start today - list all the things you do that can be delegated or automated and work on letting them go. Then commit to doing one task each day to build your business. Do one lead generationactivity everyday, such as calling previous customers, placing ads in the newspaper, etc. These simple steps will not only make you more productive, they’ll automatically increase your business.