The Hive Method

Have you ever looked at a bee’s hive? I mean REALLY looked. 

No? As a an entrepreneur, maybe you should take the time to watch the bees. Watch how they all work together. Notice how they all have the same goal. Recognize how every single bee has a job. Every single bee is important. Every single bee makes a difference.

There are many things one can learn from a beehive. This article goes into more detail on the specifics, but there are basics too. There is a specific mentality in a beehive. It is the survival of the hive. Every bee works together toward one goal and puts that main goal above each individual task or idea. That is The Hive Method. 

If you were to look up the definition of a hive, you will find “a place swarming with activity.”  Is that what you think of when you think of your business? Maybe you see it swarming with activity but that activity is all over the place and not uniform, strong, and building toward a common goal. The Hive Method is a revolutionary approach to your business.   

The Hive Method

BizEBee created The Hive Method to bring together business consulting, business coaching, and virtual administration.  A business consultant will pick your business apart, identify weaknesses, and tell you what changes to make. A business coach will help you rely on your own knowledge and experience, and guide you into using that knowledge. A virtual assistant will do the things you don’t have time for. With these three things combined, your business can be like a bee hive. Imagine what it would be like to have all of these things working together like a well-oiled machine. 

The thing with The Hive Method is that nobody is alone in the hive. The leader is immersed in everything while the rest of the bees swarm around them working for the good of the whole hive. Nothing is put completely on one individual. Everything is a team effort.  As a hive, everybody works toward the common goal of making your business successful, and helping you maintain that success. 

Why would you want to have three different people working separately with you and your business when you can have The Hive Method, and those three people working for you with communication, common goals, and the hive mentality?

How to Balance Work and Home Life

Work and home life balance is always something that needs work. When you are a real estate agent, your schedule can be unpredictable, and balancing work and home life can be difficult. There are ways to make this balance a little easier. 

The first thing to do is to sit down at the beginning of each week and make a list of everything you have planned. This can be showings, appointments, and even fun activities you know you have planned. Take that list and put time frames next to each item. Add travel time and prep time to those times. 

Next, take that list and plug it into your calendar. If you use an electronic planner, put it there. If you write everything down, write it down there. Be sure to put the allotted times next to each item. Once you have everything in your calendar you can see where you are overbooked, or where you have more time than you thought. 

While it is summer, you may have your kids home. If they are still young, you will need to arrange for childcare on your very busy days. Having your days laid out in front of you can also help you determine when you don’t need childcare. It may help to have somebody who can help you out in a pinch. 

In your home you can create a home schedule. Losing track of laundry, chores, and even dinner can be very stressful. The home is a family responsibility. The whole family makes the mess, the whole family can help maintain the home. Create a board or planner with all of the household tasks. Assign tasks to each family member. It may be a good idea to have a chore day where everything gets accomplished in one day. Maybe it works better to have daily chores. Set it up for what works best for your home. If your family is reluctant, offer an incentive such as allowance or a movie night out. 

Once you have all of your responsibilities lined up, it will be easier to maintain. You can also see where you may need help in your work and home life. It is never a bad thing to ask for help! If you decide you need help balancing your work and home life, we can help! Call us at 202-469-6774. You can also schedule an appointment online to meet your schedule! 

How to do a Database Cleanup

Last time we discussed how to write a blog. This week I want to talk about your database. Thinking about a database cleanup may be overwhelming. Your database is the heart of your business, and it can be so much more if it were organized. Imagine a day where you can schedule an email blast to go out to only buyers who are looking within the next month. Or maybe you want to send out Happy Homeowner Anniversary cards to past clients who purchased a home. It can be as easy as running a report or separating your contacts using tags. It is time to do a database cleanup to make this a reality!

First Step to a Database Cleanup

The first step in doing a database cleanup is to decide what information you want in your database about a client. Are you looking to send out birthday cards to your past clients? Do you want to start a great drip campaign for your prospective sellers? Figure out your goals, and you can figure out your tags and other categories you want in your contact files. 

You want to have tags that will identify your contacts. It is a good idea to use Buyer A, B, and C; Seller A, B, and C; past clients, dead lead, SOI, and Vendor. Tags are used to categorize your contacts for when you want to follow up with them. You may have a monthly newsletter that you send out, but you only want to send it to your past clients. This is done by selecting the specific tag and sending it only to them. 

After you decide on your tags, it is time to add the other items to your contact list. If you want their birthdays on there, add a column for that. Want to add a closing date to all of your past clients, create a column for that. Most databases you will be able to pull a report of these specific items and reach out to them as you see fit. 

Second Step to a Database Cleanup

Now it is time to run a report to include your entire database. Once you have this report run, look at the column names and add any that you want to add. It is the time to divide your list into chunks of 200. This will keep you focused and organized. Trying to tag and find information for a large amount of contacts at one time can seem overwhelming and impossible. Breaking it into smaller sections makes it completely doable. With smaller sections you can add your tags and information, upload it into your database, and take a break if you need to. 

A database cleanup isn’t something that you can accomplish overnight. It will take time, effort, determination, and organization. It will be worth all of the hard work to have an organized, tagged, and informational database. Imagine the possibilities with a working database! Do you only want to deal with tagging your database, we can do the rest! Call us at 202-469-6774. You can also schedule an appointment online to meet your schedule! 

How to Blog For Real Estate Agents

Last time we talked about Facebook Marketing, this week we are going to discuss blogging. Focusing on branding and marketing yourself includes starting, and maintaining, a blog. Getting your name out there and in front of people is a great way to get more business. Blogging isn’t something that will get you new business right away, but it will help in creating and maintaining your internet presence. Here are some tips on how to blog.

Blog Topics

The first thing you need to focus on when learning how to blog is topics. When considering what to write your blog posts on, consider your audience. Who are you trying to reach? As a real estate agent, your target audience is essentially anybody in your local area. It doesn’t matter if they are buying or selling a home right now. You want to be in front of anybody around you.

Your topics should be inviting for everybody, not just people looking buying or selling right now. The goal is to get in front of people and provide them with relevant information. To do this, you will need a variety of topics to post. Some ideas can include local area events, home improvement tips, home decorating ideas, mortgage information, and buying and selling tips. When somebody reads your blog, they should walk away feeling informed about what they were looking for. 

How to Blog with SEO

Have you heard of SEO? Do you know what it means if you have? It means Search Engine Optimization. In blogging, this means to use relevant keywords so that your blog can be found when people use those search words. You will need to use these keywords throughout your blog and in your images to have an impact. In learning how to blog, you will need to learn to find which keywords will work for you by using a keyword search. There are multiple sites that offer that capability. 

If you have a Wordpress website, you can also add a plugin to help with your SEO. This will verify your keyword density, your blog length, and also rate the readability of your post. It also gives you tips on what you can do to improve your SEO and readability.

How to Write a Good Blog Post

Writing a good blog post is important When you are learning how to blog, you need to be able to make an impact on your reader. Focus on what the reader needs, not what you need. Bragging about yourself can be a bad idea because it can come off wrong to the reader. The way to talk yourself up, without actually saying it, is to prove your expertise through your posts. Using relevant, helpful, and updated information in your blog posts is the best way to show that you know what you are talking about. 

Your title should be catchy and include your keyword. Your first paragraph should get right to the point about the topic of the post. Rambling on and on to reach a higher word count won’t help you. Consider when you are reading something. Do you continue to read if it is repetitive or rambling? Give fresh information, and keep it to the point as much as possible. 

When your blog post is coming to an end, make a conclusion. Ask for feedback, opinions, or suggestions. Engaging with your readers is something to strive for. Building relationships is your business, and learning how to blog can help do that. 

Still aren’t sure if you are up for the task of learning how to blog? We can help! Call us at 202-469-6774. You can also schedule an appointment online to meet your schedule! 

Facebook Marketing - Boosted Post or Facebook Ad?

It is time to reach into the world of Facebook in hopes of making an impact. How do you approach Facebook marketing? Do you boost your post or create an ad? Making the right decision can save you time and money. Here is how to decide which Facebook marketing technique is best for you.

The first thing you need to decide is what is the purpose of your Facebook marketing. Are you trying to direct people to your website? Do you need more “likes” on your page? Or maybe you are offering classes and looking for sign-ups. Define your purpose and you can decide which Facebook marketing option is best for you.

Boosting a Facebook Post

When you boost a post, you have two options. If that post has a link you can boost it to get views on that link. If it does not have a link, you are only advertising that post. With boosting a post you have very limited options when it comes to Facebook marketing. You have the ability to choose a basic audience, set location, duration, and set a budget. Those are the only options you have.

Creating a Facebook Ad

If you are looking for more detailed Facebook marketing, a Facebook ad is the best option.  The options are endless, and you can be a lot more specific in your targeting. Here is a snapshot of how it will look when you go to create an ad. 

There are plenty of options to choose from when choosing why you are using Facebook marketing. You can choose for traffic, people to sign up for events, to get leads, and more! After you get through this section, you will set up your audience. For this section you also have more options. You can choose age range, location, interests, income levels, employment type, and more. Targeting specifically what you want is highly possible when doing an ad versus a boosted post. 

One thing that is different with an ad is that your image cannot contain many words. If your image has too many words, including words in your logo, it will get bounced back and you will have to recreate it until you get the right amount of words on it. Most times images can speak 1000 words, and you can use the space on the ad for your actual words without putting them on the image. 

Do you think you need to use a boosted post or a Facebook ad for your Facebook marketing needs? If you need help deciding, or completing the task, call us at 202-469-6774. You can also schedule an appointment online to meet your schedule! 

Do You Have a Real Estate Assistant?

Balance working with a virtual and an in-house assistant.

Having an in-house real estate assistant can be a great asset to your business. They should be able to help you with your everyday tasks, and assist you with other tasks as needed. But most likely they can’t do everything, all of the time. That is where a virtual team member comes in. 

What is the difference between an in-house assistant’s abilities, and a virtual team member’s abilities? It all depends on what you need. Your real estate assistant may be fantastic with marketing and assisting with transaction coordination, but isn’t great at calling your leads. It could be that your real estate assistant is only there to focus on answering calls, managing your day-to-day activities, and is hands-off with everything else. As with any team member, everybody has their own skill set. 

With a business services company, such as BizEBee Consulting, you can have the best of both worlds. You can have your in-house real estate assistant, plus an entire team of virtual team members to assist you with whatever you need. 

How do you work with both?

If you have both an in-house real estate assistant, and would like to add a virtual team member, it is important to decide who does what. Take time in advance to decide what your in-house’s skills and responsibilities are to include. Then you take everything else and that is what your virtual team can handle for you. It doesn’t need to be harder than that. 

If you have a project that requires the coordination of the in-house and the virtual team, that shouldn’t be a problem either. Most virtual team members are fully equipped and willing to work with in-house assistants on anything that is needed. 

Are you ready to take the next step and talk about adding a virtual team to your business? If you are interested in more information, or for a FREE Business Analysis, call us at 202-469-6774. You can also schedule an appointment online to meet your schedule! 

5 Steps to Get Organized at Work

Organization is key in any business. When you walk into your office, whether at home or an actual office, what do you see? Are there papers stacked everywhere? Are there things that don’t even belong near your desk on it? Do you feel overwhelmed? Here are 5 steps to get organized at work. 

Step1:

Get rid of ALL non-essential items. If you have binder clips but really never use them, get rid of them, or only keep a couple of them. If you can eliminate any extra items from your desk, do it! File papers and have a plan for any future paperwork that will show up in your space. The key is to make your space inviting. It is hard to accomplish anything when you can’t find what you need.

Step 2:

Get a planner and actually use it. Some people do great with having everything on their phone or iPad calendar. Some people are better with good old pencil and paper. Figure out what works best for you and start focusing on using your planner for everything! You can even do this the night before for the next day. It doesn’t have to be complex. Time blocking can also help with organization within your planner. Figure out how much time each item will take and block off that amount of time for that item. Do that for everything throughout the day. 

Step 3:
Do not multitask! Multitasking is actually LESS productive than doing one thing at a time. Take time and complete a task, then move onto the next one. 

Step 4: 

Get your emails in check. If your desk is a mess, your virtual space probably is too! It is easy to get overwhelmed with the insane amount of emails you get, but it can be done! Spend the first part of your day organizing any emails that came through during the night. Set up your email with folders or labels to get organized! Unsubscribe to spam emails. You can get your email under control!

Step 5: 

Take breaks and let your mind roam. Every once in awhile during your day make sure you take time to just zone out and let your mind roam. Put your phone down, close your computer, and just breath. It is too often that while on a break, time is spent on the phone talking to somebody or on social media. This will actually hinder the ability for your mind to roam. Turn it all off and just take a break. 

Do you think you can get organized 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. You can also schedule an appointment online to meet your schedule!