By Bob Corcoran
The Chinese philosopher Laozi once said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
If making positive changes in your business looks like a thousand-mile journey, the good news is this: you can make your real estate business better. And even better news: making it better is not as difficult as you might think.
Just by taking small steps, you can make a major difference.
A good friend and great Realtor, Russell Rhodes in Flower Mound, Tex., shares some perfect examples of what I’m talking about.
He reduced the amount of verbiage in magazine property ads to just a few bullet points. He also added property ads to his newsletter, and made a slight verbiage change on his flyers adding a clear call to action:
ATTENTION HOMEBUYERS
For 24-Hour Recorded Information & Price
Simply Dial 1-800-644-3351
ENTER CODE 1003
He tells me these minor changes have increased his business by 25 percent in just a few months.
Take a minute right now to just make sure all your ads and promotional pieces have a call to action.
That’s just one example of what small steps can mean for your journey in real estate. My clients average a 47 percent increase in their businesses (and a 23 percent decrease in costs) in the first 12 months of making small, incremental changes. I have one client who started with me in December of 2010. In 2011, his sales volume increased $17 million. He’s done more in eight months 2011 than what he did in all of the 12 months of 2010 – all because of small changes.
With that kind of growth, you’d think it would amaze me that there are so many agents struggling these days. But I know there are at least two reasons why this is so: myths. More specifically, two myths many agents believe when it comes to improving their businesses. One is that they think it’s going to cost too much money, and the second is it’s simply going to be too hard to do.
Let me share with you what much of this boils down to: return on investment (ROI). Agents and brokers who run their businesses like a CEO are the ones who are winning in today’s real estate market. They always have and they always will. Why? Because CEOs are always on the lookout for ROI – not only in the money they spend toward their business, but also in how they spend their time.
One the money side, I always ask the agents I coach to review their profit and loss statements monthly to keep an eye on expenses. I like them to identify every expenditure over $250 to determine the return on investment for those expenditures and see if there’s a better way to spend that money – or to not spend it at all.
On the time side, I always work with them to develop what I call an “ideal weekly schedule.” I’m happy to share a free copy of this schedule with you – just shoot an email to Article@CorcoranCoaching.com.
Let me hear from you. Do you feel the need to make changes to your business? If so, what are the specifics you’re considering? Have you committed to the changes in writing? Please send any comments or questions you have to Article@CorcoranCoaching.com or Facebook.com/CorcoranCoaching.
Bob Corcoran is a nationally recognized speaker and author who is founder and president of Corcoran Consulting Inc. (CorcoranCoaching.com, 800-957-8353), an international consulting and coaching company that specializes in performance coaching and the implementation of sound business systems into the residential or commercial broker or agent’s existing practice.
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