Tip Tuesday: 5 Ways to Jump-Start Your Business
I just finished reading a great aricle on Inc.com about how to jump-start your business. They list 25 ways to jump-start your business. After reading it, there are 5 that jumped out to me that really apply to real estate agents and brokers.
1. To Focus on Truly Urgent Matters, First, Clear Your Schedule
As an agent or broker, you don’t work 9-5 Monday-Friday. Sometimes you need to put down your cell phone and as Brad Inman says, “look up!” Feeling overwelmed? Clear your schedule - to really refocus on what you should be paying attention to. It may be time to say ‘no’ to some things, and even to some clients. See point #2 below.
2. Shed Your Problem Clients
I have witnessed first-hand agents who are so desperate for a paycheck that they hang onto the wrong type of client until they are completely drained and end up comprising way too much. The sign of a successful agent is the ability to walk away if needed. Ask the tough questions: ”Are they worth it? Are they being realistic? Are they keeping me away from other opportunities?”
3. Turn Freebies into a Search Engine Optimization Play
Search engine optimization can bring more traffic to your site and in the end, hopefully more leads! The most effective way to optimize your site is to encourage other sites to link to yours. How? Offer something free! What is your specialty? What are you REALLY good at as an agent? Marketing? Staging? Getting a home ready? Negotiating? Whatever you are really good at – write a “white paper” on that topic and give it away free. People love free and it will help optimize your site.
4. Turn Tweets into Cash
According to the Inc article: “Rose Associates, an 80-year-old real estate agency in New York City, searches key terms such as “moving to New York” on search.twitter.com. Whenever another Twitter user types one of these top phrases, a member of Rose’s marketing staff sends them a message offering real-estate listings or related service. The result? A hundred qualified leads a month.” Why couldn’t you do something like that for your local area? Simple!
5. Find Some Amazing Interns
More often than not, agents don’t need a full time assistant. They need help when they have specific lisitings - help with marketing, or they need an extra body to be at their listing to meet to photographer or inspector. Maybe they need help for 2 months to get their “digital life” organized – their database, their computer, their files. Why not search for an intern? Check with your local colleges first and then use your social networks to see who may have a someone interested. It’s a great way for them to get experience (sometimes even college credits!) Last but not least search on Craigslist or LinkedIn.
Do you have some great tips to share that helped jump-start your business? I’d love to hear about them! Please let me feedback or comments below.
Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News
Mark Loeffler | Mar 15, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for posting that article and your top five – great tips!
Heather | Mar 16, 2010 | Reply
Thank you for all the helpful tips.
Fort Collins Realtors | Mar 16, 2010 | Reply
I like #2 the best. Shedding your top 5% most troublesome clients can save you a huge amount of time!
david doucette | Mar 16, 2010 | Reply
great advice, especially the shedding of problem clients. it’s hard to turn down work, but when it starts to consume a lot of your time and suck your energy out, you know it’s time to go.
Katie Lance | Mar 16, 2010 | Reply
Thanks everyone – I really appreciate your feedback!
Bill Hernandez | Mar 18, 2010 | Reply
Great article! I found your tips to be extremely interesting and just a fresh new way to look at some business models. Troublesome clients are the main factor that detracts from my actual work and I am going to have to analyze if they are truly worth my time anymore. Thanks for the ideas.
Larissa Rubijevsky | Mar 18, 2010 | Reply
Extremely interesting and well written article. I feel it is extremely important every few months to sit and brain storm possible ways that you can enhance your business and eliminate problems that are currently on your plate. Troublesome clients always see to be everyone’s major problem and I have found that just not dealing with them not only provides me more time for beneficial business ventures but it also eliminates a lot of stress.
Mike Woods - Indianapolis Homes For Sale | Mar 19, 2010 | Reply
Point #3 talks about working to get links back to our websites. This post created a link back to my website. Unfortunately, you have the dreaded rel=”nofollow” tag on all of the links in your comments which renders these links useless to optimize our websites for the search engines. That being said, we can still benefit if someone clicks on our name and follows the link.
Katie Lance | Mar 26, 2010 | Reply
Thanks Bill – I really appreciate the nice comments!
Larissa – great comments – I completely agree about troublesome clients! Thank you!
Thanks for the tip Mike – I will check that out
Katie
Conner Goodman | Mar 29, 2010 | Reply
Realtime Referral’s Exchange Market, sign up and get referrals instantly sent to you via email or SMS text. Send them out and receive them just as easily.
I just signed up about a month ago and it has been a very successful way to bring in more business. Comes with a profile the general public can view as well as adds you to their Real Estate Agent Directory for even greater marketing opportunities.
http://www.RealtimeReferral.com
Anthony's Indianapolis Homes for Sale | Apr 22, 2010 | Reply
Point #2 talks about shedding problem clients. This relates to something called the Pareto principle, more often called the “80/20 rule”. The Pareto principle posits that 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. From this we could say that 80 percent of our revenue comes from 20 percent of our clients. Or that 80 percent of our client-related headaches comes from 20 percent of our clients. To be as efficient as possible the objective is to identify these causes, whether good or bad, and act appropriately, according to the Pareto principle.
Ilya Reznik | Jul 15, 2010 | Reply
Excellent tips, I am recently started to build links for my site and just getting into the details what to do
Christine Johansson | Jan 6, 2011 | Reply
I will be trying doe of these great suggestions!I will check back with you with the results. Here’s to a great productive 2011!
Christine Johansson | Jan 6, 2011 | Reply
I will be trying some of these great suggestions!I will check back with you with the results. Here’s to a great productive 2011!