I’m so busy, do I need an assistant?
Several months ago, I was interviewing a young agent. She asked me how to know when an assistant was needed. My thinking at the time was “boy is that question so obvious, when I’m ready to pay someone…”. How uneducated I can be sometimes. The goal of any realtor that wants to have a saleable business should be to have a system driven practice that creates measurable results. Once you’ve achieved that, you have a saleable business (the exit strategy).
Who does what
Who to hire
When to expand
Walter Sanford wrote an execellent article in Broker Agent News this month. It outlines 10 things to consider. Great article, let’s add to it. Sanford’s 3rd point is, use your family. If you hire an assistant that ends up washing your car, getting your dry cleaning, and simple errands, you’ll pay too much for things that don’t grow your business. I suggest that oil changes, car wash, dry cleaning, and lots of other things can be done by companies that will pick up and deliver. Getting your yard mowed so you can be more productive, and lots of other things that you can pay hourly for, not have an employee, and make your time more productive when at the office, and more family when you’re at home. Consider this, if you make $50,000 a year, your time is worth $25/hour. How much per hour to mow the lawn?
David Neeleman owns Jet Blue, and suffers from ADD. He is so focused on work, he can’t remember to pay bills, while the money is sitting in the bank. One of the first people he hired was a Personal Assistant to pay his home bills and accounting. Each person should perform a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threat) analysis on your business quarterly, and decide how to best fill in your weaknesses. Are you good on the phone? Are you detailed oriented? Are you best in front of clients or the computer? This analysis will guide you to what will serve you and your business best.
Employees may not always be the best way for you to go. USA today did an article early this month about millions of companies in the US outsourcing everything. A company called “Billable Hour” produces specialty watches and greeting cards. The husband-wife company has an artist in Utah, a watch designer in NY, a cartoonist in San Diego, and a website tech from Buffalo. This is called the “Hollywood” model. Hire actors, camera operators, etc for a film. Saves them money, organization, and headaches. Companies with fewer than 20 employees spend an average of $2,224/employee/year on overhead for legal, bookkeeping and other expenses of employment regulation vs. $1,621 for companies having more than 500 workers.
Lots of outsourcing is available for Realtors. You probably already use some: web site, cards, showing desks to name a few. But get out of the box, if you write your own checks, maybe a bookkeeper. Maybe a postcard service, maybe part time data entry. For more full service assistants that don’t need training, look at REVA Network (Professional Real Estate Virtual Assistants) or International Virtual Assistants Association. Both offer the NAR’s “Real Estate Professional Assistant” designation. 2 such companies are Online Real Estate Assistant or Avetura Real Estate Services. All of these will hold down cost for employee’s, space, and headaches.
Some day, many of us would like to have a team. Longer subject, more planning, a great deal of systems, and a very defined future focus. The steps here can be an intermediate step to growing much larger.