Take one meeting with an experienced REALTOR® as a buyer or a seller and you’re likely to hear about the many resources they have for you—from a lender to get you pre-qualified to a painter and a handyman who can help you get ready for market.
As an agent, having these connections and resources is key to ensuring a great customer experience from end to end. It’s important, however, not to become so comfortable with what’s working for you that you forget to optimize your business for future growth.
If you feel like a hamster on a wheel going nowhere fast, take this as a sign to slow down, zoom out, and think bigger. Thinking bigger doesn’t mean thinking about how you can add a few listings and a few dollars, but rather how you can build repeatable, scalable processes that enable you to help more home buyers and sellers.
It’s important to assess what’s working (and what’s not) then eliminate, automate and delegate tasks to set your business up for faster growth and give yourself the time to grow it.
Eliminate
Eliminate anything that’s not working or not important—as well as any distractions that keep you from optimizing your work time. It’s impossible to remove all distractions from your day-to-day. After all, who can ignore a sweet nudge from your pup or the sunny weather beckoning you outside for a quick walk? Don’t beat yourself up for being human but do try to find ways to focus more on what matters. From closing extra tabs on your computer to the Pomodoro Technique, find something that works for you to strengthen your focus time.
Automate
Have you ever gone through a process manually because it was faster than setting up an automation—then realized after 20 times that you should have just taken the time to automate it at the start? Don’t worry—you’re not alone, and the good news is that a bit of forethought can save you a ton of time. Your specific automations will depend on your workflow, but here are two that can help pretty much any agent:
- Create task list templates: You don’t have time to start from scratch each time you get a new client—or worse, forget an important step, like explaining the benefits of pre-listing updates to your sellers.
- Create email templates: This easy hack saves time writing the same email over and over. If you’re currently digging through your sent emails to copy and paste from an old client email or drafting from scratch each time, this tip could save you hours! Don’t forget to add in your personal touches, of course.
Delegate
Delegation is the easiest way to handle important and urgent tasks that don’t require your specific expertise. Not every agent has a full-time assistant, but there are other ways to delegate! Here are two:
- Hire part-time help to support your day-to-day: Is creating posts for social media taking up too much of your time? Consider hiring a contractor to draft posts so you can focus on the parts of your business that call for your experience, specifically. You can also hire a part-time assistant to help with various repetitive tasks.
- Delegate work that isn’t within your specific area of expertise: Whether it’s asking your best lender to educate your clients on the ins and outs of a mortgage so you don’t have to or working with Curbio on pre-listing home improvements – free up your time by delegating parts of the process that an experienced, subject matter expert can handle.
Once you’ve eliminated, automated, and delegated, you’ll have the time back to focus on high-priority activities like generating leads, building relationships, and putting out fires.
Curbio enables every agent to provide a pay-at-closing home improvement solution to their clients without lifting a finger. Your Home Improvement Consultant will work with you and your seller to determine the best updates to sell faster and for more.
From there, we’ll:
- Manage the project for you, including vetting contractors and ordering materials
- Keep you updated with constant communication via the Curbio project portal
- Wait until closing to be paid, enabling you to maximize your profit without upfront cash (with no interest or fees)
