Make a Work Plan, and Stick to it!

Running a business is hard. There is a lot that goes into it. If you drop the ball in one area, other areas will suffer. It is important to sit down, make a work plan, and then stick to it! Where do you start?

First it is important to understand what a work plan is. A work plan is a detailed plan of activities and events to get from point A to point B. This helps you get and stay organized, and also determine where you may need help. Start at six-month to a year in your plan. 

What kind of work activities should you have in your business? For a real estate agent, some tasks can include sales calling, database updates and follow up, marketing items, transaction coordination, meet and greets, customer appreciate activities, and more. Now take these items one by one and decide what your ideal activity would look like. Do you want to have a customer appreciation event every month? How about sending out a monthly e-newsletter? Write it all down with each item having its own section and prioritize the items.

Now it is time to make a plan. Take your highest priority level item and outline it. For example, let’s say you want to send out a monthly newsletter to all of your database. Step one would be to get your database in order if it isn’t already. Next step is to decide the platform from where you will send the newsletter. The next step would be to set a deadline to have your newsletter created by and decide if you will be creating it or if you need help. Once the newsletter is setup, it can be scheduled to send. After it is sent, the analytics will need to be reviewed to see if anything needs changed. Do this with every item on your list. Each thing will eventually have its own work plan. 

This may seem very overwhelming, but take it as the beginning of getting organized! Once you have everything laid out in front of you, you can really sit back and decide what you need help with, what you can manage on your own, and what you don’t really want to do with your business. 

Once you have all of your ducks in a row, start putting them into action. Whatever you can do on your own, face it head on and start making moves. If you can’t do it on your own, find help! You are running a business. What business do you know of that is a single owner without any sort of help? If you need it, get it so you can focus on what you do best, SELLING!

Do you think you can get started today? If you need help, let us be your real estate consultant and help you organize your business-services. If you are interested in more information, or for a FREE Business Analysis, call us at 202-469-6774.

Problems with Realtors® and Virtual Delegation

Looking around your desk, and your emails, you are probably wondering how you can get through everything. Another question that might come to mind is, who can help you without having to go through a long and stressful interviewing process? One thing you may or may not have considered is virtual delegation. 

What exactly is virtual delegation? This is when you hire somebody to help you with your work, but they work from home. This has become very common in the world of business, and can be considered a business saver for some. 

Now if you are getting curious you can start brainstorming about what you can comfortably delegate. Start by considering what things are falling behind. As a Realtor®, you have many balls to juggle. Some of these to consider are database cleanup and follow up, marketing on social media, blogging, transactions coordination, website creation, and other marketing services. 

Sit down and make a list of everything that you handle on your own. Not a list of things you would LIKE to handle on your own, but what is actually getting done without assistance. Then write down everything that you don’t know how to do yourself. This can be your marketing items, blogging, website work, etc. Next focus on the things you just don’t have time to do, or don’t want to do, such as database work. 

Since your list will most likely be varied, you want to hire a company to handle your tasks. The reason is that if you hire a Virtual Assistant, they may or may not have the experience and ability to handle all of your tasks. They will most likely be proficient in one thing and you will have to hire multiple assistants to get your work done, which will then cause you more stress in the end. The best option is to hire a company who has multiple assistants who specialize in different things. Then you can keep everything under one roof, and eliminate the stress of finding multiple assistants or finding that their work is sub-par. 

Now to the problems with Realtors® and virtual delegation! Miscommunication can be the biggest problem. Because it is virtual, good communication is a must! If the Realtor® gets busy and cannot answer calls or emails from the virtual assistant, the work cannot get completed as expected. Communicating what exactly is expected or desired to the assistant is also vital. Without this, there will be confusion and work will need to be redone. Another problem that Realtors® tend to have is actually letting go. It is hard to trust your business to somebody else, but without actually releasing responsibility to the assistant, work will be spotty and unorganized. 

Are you ready to talk about your options for virtual delegation? Let us be your real estate consultant and help you organize your business-services. If you are interested in more information, or for a FREE Business Analysis, call us at 202-469-6774.