Between running a business, maintaining your personal obligations and staying mentally prepared for the unexpected, finding time for everything else can be difficult.
Given this, going at it alone is not always the best way to optimize your time. Not having the help you need can sometimes leave you feeling burned out, overwhelmed and unable to make progress.
Whether you’re having a hard time juggling tasks or anticipating a new chapter of growth, hiring a personal assistant is a smart way to help scale your real estate business and free up some much-needed time.
Here are five things to consider if you’re thinking about hiring a personal assistant to help you and your business.
Lighten the load
This one’s the most obvious. Delegating smaller tasks to your personal assistant helps you be more productive, without feeling like the back-burner stuff gets neglected altogether. Between managing calendars and making sure your appointments are in check, to posting on social media and monitoring your KPIs—a support-person is there to ensure you are not wasting time on secondary or even tertiary tasks. Vet the right person with a similar work ethic as you, or someone you feel confident entrusting with your day-to-day. If your work-life balance has been struggling, a personal assistant can help you manage a better schedule that’s ideal for you. Assign them with short-term tasks and busy work so you have more time and brainpower to focus on growing your business.
Abundance mindset
If you’re a go-getter trying to make headway in your financial life, you might view the added cost of a personal assistant as an expense you cannot afford. However, adopting an abundance mindset is extremely advantageous in this situation. In practical terms, this mindset encourages you to perform a cost-benefit analysis and consider the return on investment from hiring a personal assistant. Typically, the financial gains you will reap from allowing yourself to focus on big picture aspects of your business will likely be quickly realized, and the added expense will pay for itself.
Change of perspective
Once you start building your relationship with your personal assistant, he or she will be able to anticipate your next moves, understand the language of your business and start growing professionally. It’s like adding another you into the fold, but with a different background and skill set. After some time, he or she may add further value to your operation by providing unique insights, help gut check some of the business decisions and be somebody you can bounce ideas off of.
Become a better boss
Whether you’re an independent agent that needs a leg up on the competition or a broker with a lot of moving parts to monitor, managing a more junior employee can help you become a better leader. Patience is a virtue learned from this kind of experience, and can carry over into your other professional and personal relationships. Also, don’t be afraid to ask your assistant for feedback in order to gauge whether your communication and management skills are effective.
Pay it forward
Remember: you may have been in a junior role like your assistant’s at one point in your career. Like you, everyone has to start somewhere. So treat your assistant with the kindness and respect that you sought early on in your career. You are in a position of authority and opportunity—you might be jumpstarting someone’s career and serving as a mentor. So, lead by example, set clear expectations and help your assistant flourish so you and your business can as well.
Joey Macari is RISMedia’s associate editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at jmacari@rismedia.com.
