Think Like a Business:
Part 3 of the series “Your First 30 Days in Real Estate”
In your first 30 days as a real estate agent, you need to begin every day and operate like a startup business. In other words, acquire the business mindset. Now that you believe in yourself (part 1) and now you’ve got a goal in how much money you want to make or how many houses you want to sell (part 2), the third step is to say “I’m a business.” Let’s say that again. “I’m a business.” Don’t most of you get into real estate for a lot of different reasons, but some of them are “I don’t want to work for anybody anymore. I don’t want to clock in and clock out. I want to have the freedom to operate the way I want.” Well, that sounds like a business owner or entrepreneur. Step number three is you need to begin to understand what it means to run a
Most of you get into real estate for a lot of different reasons, but some of them typically sound like this: “I don’t want to work for anybody anymore. I don’t want to clock in and clock out. I want to have the freedom to operate the way I want.” Well, that sounds an awful lot like a business owner or entrepreneur. Step number three is you need to begin to understand what it means to run a business because you’re a business. It’s time to think like a business and act like a business owner.
“I’m a business.”
The Awesome Thing About Real Estate
What’s awesome about real estate is there’s no ceiling to how much money you can make in any given year. There’s no cap. You can make as much money as you’ll go out there and earn, but technically there is a basement, isn’t there? If I don’t do anything, it’s going to be hard for me to make money. If you’ve ever run a business before, you already know the mindset. This is what it takes to think like a business.
As a business owner, I get paid last. All the bills get paid. All of our employees get paid. All of our vendors get paid. Every single bit of that gets paid before I do. If and only if there’s money left over, then I get paid. That’s the business mindset. I know I get paid last. I’ve got to produce, to make sure there’s money left over after paying expenses.
You’re a real estate agent. You need to establish the idea that every single day you have a routine, a schedule, and you need to get into the routine of what a business owner that owns a real estate business is going to do every single day. Now, don’t say, “Oh, good, I got into real estate, so I don’t have to work anymore.” No, work like crazy your first 30 days! Set up a schedule where you’re working five days a week. Then, the important thing is what is my routine going to look like?
as a business owner is that you need to learn the difference between being busy for the sake of being busy and being productive
So What Should You Be Doing?
You might say, “Work? What do I do?” What you want to understand as a business owner is that you need to learn the difference between being busy for the sake of being busy and being productive. Think like a business. At some point, you may reach the point in your career where you’re almost on autopilot to a degree, where you’re not going to have to work crazy hours because you’ve got a system in place and productivity at an all-time high to where you won’t have to work like that. But you’re a startup business. Your first 30 days, work as hard as you possibly can. Every waking hour that you have available for real estate, wo
You might say, “Work? What do I do?” What you want to understand as a business owner is that you need to learn the difference between being busy for the sake of being busy and being productive. Think like a business. At some point, you may reach the point in your career where you’re almost on autopilot to a degree, where you’re not going to have to work crazy hours because you’ve got a system in place and productivity at an all-time high to where you won’t have to work like that. But you’re a startup business. Your first 30 days, work as hard as you possibly can. Every waking hour that you have available for real estate, work on it. Then, when you’re working, do things that are productive, not things that are keeping you busy.
Do These Three Things in Real Estate – All The Time
If you want to understand the business of real estate, it’s three things. Real estate is all about prospecting, presenting, and closing. It’s really that simple. If you want to be productive, you better be prospecting, you better be presenting, or you better be closing, or else, you’re just being busy. Prospecting is the hard part. That’s the part you’ve got to really work on as a new agent, but if you’re not prospecting for new business, you’re presenting. You’re showing houses to somebody that may by or you’re sitting at a listing presentation with a seller that may hire you. Then, closing is getting transactions signed, getting your listing agreements signed, getting purchase agreements signed. Those are the three things you should be doing. If you’re not doing something related to prospecting, presenting, or closing, you’re just being busy. You’re not being productive.
Business owners understand the importance of making sure they’re productive. Do you have any idea how many emails and phone calls and messages we get in this office every day? What I want you guys to know is if I did just sit there, I could just answer emails all day long, but at some point, we’re going to have no more customers to answer, because I’m not doing the things that are productive to bring in new business. You’ve got to have the business owner’s mindset, to think like a business means to think about moving the company forward every day.
I would wake up in the morning and go, “Man, I just started a new business.” All the pressure and the fear that comes with that is good. It’s natural. Pretend you have investors. If you don’t get this business going, you’re going to have investors knocking on your door wondering when am I getting my money back. You’re a startup business. Operate that way every single day.
Hopefully, you like what we’ve got so far in this series. Look, I’ve been a full-time real estate agent. I’ve sold millions in real estate. I loved the business, and I still have clients that I work with, but what really gets me up in the morning, my why is helping share with you how you can build your real estate business.
If you saw something here you can use, please make sure to reach out and let me know. Hit me up on Twitter, I love seeing you there @christalksdaily. Hit us up on Facebook, @chrisdonaldsonHQ.
If you’ve got questions or curiosities, reach out. A specific question that you’d like to ask? – that’s the fun! Email your question, chris@christalks.com. I’d love to hear from you. There’s nothing like being able to give you the value you deserve by answering questions, burning questions that you have. Also, let me know you’re finding these articles helpful by liking them and sharing them on social media! Also, if you are looking to get started in the real estate business click here for information on Donaldson Real Estate School and all of our courses and exam prep programs.