Building a real estate team is a lot like building an actual house.
You have a wishlist of the things you want in your house. You draw up plans, set a budget. and get to work.
But are you the architect? Or the construction worker? Or maybe, you’re both?
If you answered anything but “architect”, you’re doing it all wrong.
Why?
We always say that the first thing you need to realize is that you’re not working as an employee but as a BUSINESSMAN.
Yes congratulations, you are an entrepreneur!
And this is the two types of businessman:
- Working in your business
- Working on your business.
If you are the one working in your business! Guess what? You’re not alone.
About 90% of real estate team leaders and business owners spend most of their time working in their businesses instead of on them. And probably you are no different.
Do you know what the effect of being the construction worker is?
Your revenue flat lines. You spend so much time hammering nails and painting walls, you lose sight of the big plan – the blueprint. The vision of what your ‘’real estate house’’ will look like.
Can you sort and shift the types of tasks you do every day? Do you even know when you’re working on your business or in it?
If you don’t, don’t feel bad. Plenty of us are unsure of what role we play and you can change all that.
Here’s a nutshell view of the difference:
Working In:
Working in the business is task-oriented. Real estate team leaders who work in their businesses spend their days doing tasks that employees would typically do, such as marketing and sales, customer service, accounting, etc.
Working On:
Working on your business is strategic. It’s drawing up plans for the future, networking, doing market research, designing sales strategies, and creating marketing materials – things that drive growth and revenue.
Of course, most business owners do a little bit of both, especially in the beginning.
But once you’ve got your business up and running, it’s time to sketch out a plan to leave the task work to team members so you can focus on strategy.
Here’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do…
Get used to the idea that other people are going to take over the day-to-day work and you have to recognize that they probably won’t do things the way you do. They might not even do things as well.
After all, this isn’t their house and they don’t know as much about its nuts and bolts as you do but you have to let them do it if you’re going to grow.
Once you’ve gotten used to the idea of letting go of some things, you can start to make your plan.
Learn to work with the right people. Be part of a team of like-minded real estate agents and work together. And if you’re ready for it, hire someone that can help you IN the business.
Someone that can take over simple tasks like finance, daily social media, and follow-ups.
However, there’s one thing…
You’ll have to figure out how you’re going to train people to do things the way you want them done. Otherwise, you’ll end up stepping in over and over again – either to take over or to give negative feedback. Neither is good for your real estate business.
Your real estate team members need procedures. They need tools. Make sure you have systems in place with clear instructions and the tools they’ll need.
What kind of team members do you want? Someone with tons of experience? Or are you willing to train? Set your compensation budget. Stick to it.
It’s not easy for hands-on real estate business owners to delegate tasks. It’s easy to get sucked into micromanaging and worrying every detail. But that defeats the purpose of becoming the architect of your business.
How to delegate well?
There are three important words to remember when you’re delegating: responsibility, accountability, and authority. The three go hand-in-hand.
When you delegate a task to a team member, you give them responsibility. And make sure you follow up with some form of accountability. But no team member will be able to live up to their responsibilities if they’re not empowered to do the work.
You have to give your team members leeway to make decisions and act on their own authority or you’ll be micromanaging every detail of their work. And that won’t work.
If you don’t learn to delegate responsibility, accountability, and authority, you’ll be back working in the business instead of on it.
Only now you’ll be paying a staff that can’t do the work they’re hired for.
Stop hammering nails.
Become the architect – work on your business instead of in it.
Partner with great people, train them well, give them the tools and systems they need to be successful and learn to delegate.
Then just get out of their way and watch your dream real estate “house”(soon Empire) become reality.
