How To Get It All Done In The Real World

This has come up a lot lately, and I just got suckered into it myself.

As an agent, you are a small business owner. You might work for a brokerage, but you are your own business entity with in that brokerage. You are responsible for your own marketing, financial planning, technology, etc.

I still remember the feeling of overwhelm when I started in real estate. Learning the contracts and how to tell the difference between LP vs Hardi Plank siding was just the tip of the ice berg.

There was so much more to do and to learn.

As a business owner it’s always good to keep an eye on expenses and have a working knowledge in the various parts of your business. But it can take a lot of time, and it might not be your skill set – which means it will take you much longer – to get what will probably be an average result.

I caught myself doing this exact thing this week with incorporating my coaching business. In theory it’s easy and can all be done online. But after 3 days of staring at the screen trying to figure out if I need another EIN number and getting no where, I decided to call my accountant. Who had it handled that day. Oh, what I could have done with those 3 days that either would have been a lot more fun, or made me more money than staring at my computer with no idea what to do next!

Here are some of my favorite things to get help with:

• All of my website stuff. Years ago I needed to switch from one blog platform to another. Everyone said it was super easy so I decided to try and do it myself. After 6 weeks of frustration and stalled marketing I finally hired someone. It took them 45 minutes and cost $50.
• Book keeping: I still go over it with my book keeper, but I was doing our books late at night, and then paying the book keeper to fix the things that I had entered incorrectly. Now she does it all, it doesn’t cost that much more, and filing taxes is the easiest thing ever because all the reports are set up correctly.
• Property management: This came up in an investment class I took this week. As an agent, I could easily do this myself. But the reality is that it’s a completely different area of real estate from what I specialize in. I don’t have a clue about how to properly screen a tenant, or what needs to go into a lease. So I gladly pay my property manager to help with those.

The beauty of all of these is that none of them require I hire a full time employee. So it’s minimal overhead, but has a huge impact on how I run my business.

What are you wasting time and energy on to get an average result?

How can you lighten your load so that you can focus on what you do best?

To your success!
Nicole