Leverage Sounds Great, But How Do You Do It?

Leverage is a major buzz-word in business.

It usually means hiring more people so that you can serve more clients, get more done and make more money. On the one hand it’s a no brainer. On the other, it’s one of the biggest sources of stress and stagnation that businesses face.

Why is that?

Leveraging yourself with staff brings up a lot of issues such as:

• Shifting from “doing” to managing. Easier said than done.
• The stress of being financially responsible for others outside of your family.
• Not knowing what to delegate and how to ensure it’s done your way.
• Finding the time to train someone.
• Who wants to train someone, can’t they just show up and do it right on their own?

It’s easy to spin out of control on this one and decide the heck with it all, just stay where you are. It may not be great, but it’s what you know.

Today, I invite you to look at leverage from a different perspective.

Learn to leverage YOU.

We are all so quick to add new things to our plate. The latest and greatest solution guaranteed to catapult us into the stratosphere of success.

Before you add anything new to that fancy to do list of yours let’s first look at 3 ways to leverage what you are already doing.

1. Previewing: It’s essential to building market knowledge. But how do you leverage that time? While you are out, pick a house that you love and snap a picture. Then use that picture to start a conversation on Facebook. I did this recently with a gorgeous house that I previewed for $6.2M. I posted the picture, the price, what I was doing and then let people know the current lottery jackpot amount and asked who was feeling lucky. It was a fun and casual post. No selling involved. I turned that time into a way to start a conversation with my clients. 2 weeks later people are still asking me about it. I didn’t have to invent more time or another reason to connect with people. I leveraged what I was already doing.

2. Classes: You attend lots of classes and trainings. Going to learn is great, but LEVERAGE it and turn it into networking as well. Every time you go to a class, or event make it a point to reach out to someone new that you met there and schedule a lunch or coffee for another time. You never know where your next referral or business transaction will come from.

3. Daily appointments: Turn each appointment into a reason to call 3 other people. If you are out showing houses to a Buyer, call 3 clients that live closest to that neighborhood afterwards and say “I was just out showing a Buyer homes in your neighborhood and it made me think of you. I wanted to say hello.” If you are out to dinner and try an awesome new restaurant, call 3 clients the next day that you know love food and tell them you thought about them and have they tried the new restaurant.

In everything that you do, ask yourself, how can I get more out of this?

You might just find that you are doing enough to reach your goals, you just need to leverage it.