You’ve worked hard to build your real estate team and business, but now you are starting so feel some stress.
When you received just one listing at a time, it was easy to send out instant replies to emails, and you could do a great job taking photos and getting your newly listed homes on MLS very quickly.
Now you have a good amount of business — maybe a couple contract for deed deals have gone through — and even though your spouse helps out, you are finding that you just can’t respond as quickly as you would like to, and you’re worried that your great reputation will suffer if you start missing emails. It may be time to hire a team to assist you, but there are pluses and minuses to consider.
Real Estate Team Plus: You’ll Get Some Help
Most small business owners started out with very small or non-existent staff, and you fit right into that category. You respond to every call, you send out every email and you go to every meeting. At a certain point, you just may not be able to handle the work load, and you decide to hire an assistant. If you get lucky and your hire is successful, you can off-load a lot of the mundane tasks that are beginning to slow you down. Just make sure your hire isn’t looking for a way to make 10 dollars fast. You want someone committed. And this much needed relief can make you more relaxed, and you can focus on more upper level tasks. If you don’t have to personally answer every phone call, you’ll have a lot more time to do what you do best.
Real Estate Team Minus: It Won’t Be You
Even if the person you hire has worked with you for many years, you can’t expect a clone of yourself. And if you hire an experienced person, he or she may still do things differently than you would. A warm body may provide some relief in the work-load department, but there is no guarantee that you will be completely satisfied.
In the beginning, most small business owners do everything themselves, and if that describes your style, you may not be happy with the emails your new assistant writes, or the way he or she answers the phone. Yes, you can adjust and do more training, but there will always be a difference between your employees and you.
Plus: You Can Handle More Business
If you’re on the edge of disaster because of an extreme workload, you’re not going to be very efficient, and you may spend all of your time trying to catch up rather than prospecting for new clients. Again, by taking some of the load off, your new employee(s) will allow you go to get back into the tasks that made you initially successful.
Minus: You Have to Manage
When you were a true sole proprietor, all you had to do was motivate yourself, and you knew that if didn’t work hard you couldn’t feed your family; that was probably enough to get you out of bed in the morning. When you hire employees, you have to be the motivator, and you may find that it takes a while to find out exactly what you need to do to gain excellence from your staff.
It’s great to be busy, and even more exciting to be at the point where you need to hire a team. Just be ready for the road to be a little bumpy at times.