Your business is growing and it’s time to hire your first employee. It can be a bit daunting to hand over some control over some aspects of your business. You’ll see it’s worth it in the end.
In The Beginning
When I started Just Sell Homes in 2015, it was a one-man show, as it is for many entrepreneurs in any industry. Originally, my services were much cheaper. I would take care of all of a client’s ads for only $425 per month. Within about 6 months I reached $17,000 in revenue per month. I often gave discounts to friends and family, sometimes as low as $250/month. I had well over 40 clients and was working 12 to 15 hours everyday.
Entrepreneurs run into this issue all the time. We start out undervaluing our product or service, take on every client, and do everything ourselves. This leaves us exhausted, overwhelmed, and overworked.
Once I realized I was undervaluing my services and raised my prices, most of my clients left, with only a couple remaining. My business has grown since and not only did my pricing change, but so did my ideal client profile. Today, we sometimes talk people out of hiring us just as much as take clients on.
Time To Hire
So, the business is growing, it’s a one-man show, and you’re working during every waking hour. Maybe you have a significant other. Maybe you have a child on the way. Either way, chance are you’re having difficulty creating a healthy work/life balance.
It’s time to hire someone you can trust to help your business reach new heights while allowing more time for other important things in your life. (I.e. sleep…)
Now that you’ve decided to hire, you need to make a list of the main criteria you’re looking for in an employee. Read this blog post to learn more on what to look for in an employee. Next, write up the ad for your job listing.
Time To Type Up Your Ad
My top 2 tips for writing up a job listing are:
Write it in your own voice
Add a hidden question/request at the bottom of the ad
Writing it in your own voice is an easy way to display your company’s culture. It will attract those who can connect with it. Adding a hidden question or request is a great way to narrow down your applicants, especially if you receive a large number of them.
For example, a year ago I put out a job listing for a social media marketer. When it comes to hiring, a good work ethic and fitting in well with the Just Sell Homes culture are the most important criteria. When people apply I focus on the cover letter and don’t spend as much time looking at their credentials.
In the job listing, down at the bottom, I asked the applicants to include the name of our private Facebook group. You’d be surprised how quickly we were able to narrow down the applicants. We started with over 100 applicants and narrowed it down to around 15 people in one shot.
Most people mentioned our Facebook page, some said it was a trick question, others simply didn’t mention it. Either people didn’t take the time to really read the ad, or they clearly did not understand the basics of social media.
Extra tip : If you already have employees and are looking for a new hire, pass on your shortlist of applicants to the person they will be working closest with for the initial vetting.
The person we hired not only had experience with social media and presented a detailed pdf with details on how they would improve our platforms, but their cover letter indicated they’d clearly done their homework and connected with the culture of our company.
Just like anything else, it’s a learning process and you’ll find the best and most effective system that works for you and your company. In the end, you want to build a team that will keep things running smoothly even when you have to step away from the office for a longer period of time.
We Can Help You
“Andrew, you’re right, it’s time to hire my first employee!”
We can help create the ad for your job listing and target it to your ideal employee. You can book your free consultationhere. We’ll discuss your goals and figure out the best way we can grow your successful team!
Got any topics you’d like us to cover in a future episode or a guest you’d like us to sit down with? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach us onFacebook andInstagram.
We’ve noticed, through many of our Over A Pint episodes, that one of the most common issues that REALTORS® face is the overflow of work and their need for an assistant. Many REALTORS® are unsure of how to hire an assistant or train them. “What kind of criteria should I be looking for?”“How do I know they’re the right person for the job?”“What if I don’t have enough work for them?”
Start With The Application Process
Once you’ve selected which websites you want to use to find your new assistant (click here for Canada’s 10 Best Job Search Websites), it’s time to type up your job listing. The trick is to include something in your listing that will think out the herd.For example, when I was looking to hire a social media marketer, I included a hidden question at the bottom asking applicants to mention our Facebook group. We had about 130 people apply for the position, around 80% did not answer the question, and only 7 people answered correctly. From the 7, I hired the person that best fit the job requirements and the personality of our company.
Capacity Talent vs. Cul-De-Sac Talent
Next, you need to figure out exactly what time of assistant you need to hire. Rick Sergison, one of our special guests in the above Over A Pint video, mentioned 2 different types of talent that we’ve described for you below.Cul-De-Sac Talent : a person with cul-de-sac talent “is someone who can do the current job really well, but who does not have the desire or ability (thus the capacity) to learn and take on new tasks and responsibilities.” Capacity Talent : this person is someone who can do not only the current job really well, but who also has the desire and ability to learn and take on new tasks and responsibilities.”Rick gave an example where an assistant, who previously worked with him, had come into his office with a question. Because Rick was on the phone with a client, the assistant chose to sit down and wait another 20 minutes before Rick ended his call. This is a perfect example of someone who doesn’t have the motivation to use every minute productively.He then decided to put a job listing up at their local school. He hired a mother who wanted to get back into the workforce while having flexible hours to take care of the kids. Though she didn’t necessarily work a 40 hour week, worked part-time in the summer, and took days off when the kids weren’t in school, she was a fantastic worker! This assistant not only did the work assigned to her, but went out of her way to research and provide extra services that helped Rick grow his business and giving clients that extra personal touch. She didn’t need her hand held every step of the way and was proactive.
Ask The Right Questions
Here are some examples of questions you can ask during an interview that will help you find an assistant with capacity talent!
Tell me about a time when you were asked to do something you had never done before. How did you react? What did you learn?
Recall a time when your manager was unavailable when a problem arose. How did you handle the situation? With whom did you consult?
Describe a time when you volunteered to expand your knowledge at work, as opposed to being directed to do so.
Now that you’re ready to hire an assistant, we want to help you with online marketing! You can book your free consultationhere. We’ll discuss your goals and figure out the best way we can help you succeed online.Got any topics you’d like us to cover in a future episode or a guest you’d like us to sit down with? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach us onFacebook andInstagram.Source : Ward Real Estate
What do you look for in a brokerage? What do you expect from them?
Brokerage Standards
Whether you’ve decided to move on from your current brokerage or are doing it for the first time, interviewing a brokerage can be a tricky process. Here is a list of standards REALTORS® Kristina Wilton, Rick Sergison, and Steven Sarasin, featured in the video above, look for in a brokerage:
Attention
“When I’m calling you, you’re not rushing to get me off the phone.” – Steven Sarasin
Support
Invests in you and your career
Proper training
Positive energy
Respect what you have to say
When Kristina met with her broker, she mentioned she felt unsafe working in the current location. She also didn’t like bringing her clients to the office as she felt it didn’t represent her business. Her broker listened and moved to a different office that resolved both issues.
This made Kristina feel respected, valued, and confirmed that she and the brokerage she works with have similar standards.
Get A Prenup
As far as Rick’s concerned, the brokerage works for you. You as a realtor are the broker’s client. If the managing broker doesn’t do their job, the agents leave. He says that one of the most important questions to ask is, “How will you treat me when I leave?”
Brokers can offer you the world when you join them, but what will they do if/when you decide to move on? When your clients call, will they forward your new number or will they tell them that you’ve left the business? Legally, they can take your business after you’re gone. So you need to figure out if their ethical standards align with yours. Think of what you would put in a prenup before shaking hands and working towards growing your business with that brokerage.
Give Us A Call
Book your free consultationhere. We’ll discuss your goals and figure out the best way we can help you succeed online. Got any topics you’d like us to cover in a future episode or a guest you’d like us to sit down with? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach us onFacebook andInstagram.
Setting your standards for you and your business will set you apart from other REALTORS®, attract your ideal client, and help you create a healthy work/life balance.
Your Time Is Precious
People often have this perception of REALTORS® making stacks of cash, not knowing how much money actually ends up in your pockets at the end of a deal. Or the hours of hard and dedicated work put into every listing.
You become completely invested in your client’s lives. So much so that you end up missing special moments in yours. You might miss time with your new born child, a family member or friend’s birthday celebration, or, in Steven’s case, you end up cancelling a non-refundable trip or two.
Whether you’re married, in a relationship, single, a parent, in your 20’s, 30’s, 60’s 70’s, your time is precious. You need time for yourself. You need time with your loved ones. Your loved ones need time with you. Not setting standards for yourself or your business can become a slippery slope. You end up stressed, burnt out, and miss out on important moments.
Set Your Standards
“If you have your standards set – you’ll only get clients that fit those standards.” – Steven Sarasin
Every REALTOR® has experienced working with a difficult client that was time consuming where the end result was not a fruitful one.
Steven shared an experience with a difficult client he had when he first started out. The client wanted to list their home for 25%-30% above the listing price and Steven kindly refused. The client decided they were going to wait.
When he followed up with them, they were listed with a different agent. Later he found out their experience with that REALTOR® ended poorly. They moved onto another agent, then another with no success. 13 months later they came back. The bulk of the work had already been done and Steven listed their home at the price he originally had given them. In the end, he sold their home for a couple hundred over the asked price.
Our advice : set standards for your business for the kind of client you want to work with. Be okay letting go of clients that do not fit those standards.
Set Your Baseline
Setting standards for your business, from the beginning, will allow you to accomplish the following:
Work with your ideal client
Separate you from other REALTORS®
Allow you to spend time with family and friends
Take well-deserved time off
Will help keep you safe
“Be as authentic as you can be. Show clients who you are because you really will attract very similar people.” – Kristina Wilton
A standard that Kristina sticks to in her business – remaining as transparent as possible with her clients during the entire process is. Even when they aren’t together, she keeps them in on the process. It builds trust while setting down guidelines that she will not go beyond.
Rick Sergison says, “a standard is your baseline that you do not deviate from.” You have to look at yourself and decide what your standards are. The day you take less or answer that call later than you normally allow, your standards have dropped. If that’s not a fit for your client, that’s okay. Let go of that client and move onto the next.
Give Us A Call
Online marketing is a stress that we can help you with! You can book your free consultationhere. We’ll discuss your goals and figure out the best way we can help you succeed online.
Got any topics you’d like us to cover in a future episode or a guest you’d like us to sit down with? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach us onFacebook andInstagram.
Setting and keeping a positive mindset everyday and knowing when to take a moment to recharge can change your business and your life.
Perspective
Most people don’t see the stress, struggles, and sacrifices that happen behind-the-scenes in real estate. The long hours, day after day. The interrupted family events, holidays, and vacations. The ones that are missed entirely.
It can be tiresome to smile all day for clients while working your butt off to sell/buy their home. It can be tough to stay positive at the end of a 12 hour day and know you have to get up and do it all over again tomorrow.
Kristina Wilton, one of the special guests featured in this month’s Over A Pint, brought up the struggle of keeping a positive mindset.
“How do you get yourself out of a negative mindset?”
It’s all about perspective. If the way you are tackling challenges and everyday stress leaves you in a negative space, you need to change your outlook. It can be easy to enter a negative space and stay in it. Rick Sergison shared an example, in the video above. One of his coaching clients continued to self-sabotage everything they were doing. They’d put themselves in a “victim” mindset. One day, he decided to give his client a Superman t-shirt and asked them to go into the washroom and change. When his client came back, Rick said “Let’s start all over again and talk about this situation as if you were a superhero.” The conversation became something completely different.
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.” – Henry Ford
Steven Sarasin, also in the video above, mentioned that wearing a suit and going into the office leaves him far more productive than working at home in sweatpants. Wearing a nice suit is his own version of wearing a Superman suit.
Change the way you think about the upcoming day and its challenges. Focus on the things you’re grateful for, make a list if it helps, and start your day ready to conquer!
If you’re feeling a little run down, as all people do sometimes, give yourself an extra boost. Put the Superman t-shirt under your button-up and wear your Clark Kent glasses. Don’t have a prescription? No problem, get yourself a pair of blue light glasses. They’ll protect your eyes from harmful blue light coming from your device’s screen. Hey, who doesn’t feel smarter with a good pair of glasses on?
Train Your Mindset
Creating a positive mindset doesn’t happen overnight. You need to consistently train your mind and be aware of when you’re entering a negative space.
Rick’s first piece of advice, and Steven agreed, is to read as many books as you can. Read any book that will inspire you. If you’re not someone who likes to read, listen to them. Realtors spend countless hours driving. What better time to put on an audio book and take a moment to put yourself in an inspired space?
I’ve always kept a pretty even, solution-based mindset. If something happened in my business, I’d think to myself “this is my fault, what do I need to do to fix it?” Rick brought up something interesting. He said not to confuse “fault” with “being responsible”. Most of us don’t like to hear this, but we cannot control everything that happens in life. Sometimes it’s just not your fault, but you are responsible for how you react to the issue and what the outcome is.
Your clients get the best of you. You take on their issues, their challenges, and then at the end of the day you have to go home and deal with your own. It can be a lot and leave you with a bad mood and short temper for your family and friends.
Find little tricks that can help you hit the reset button when you find yourself in a negative space. For example, when Rick’s in a bad mood and heading into the office, he’ll park further away from the front door. This gives him time to take a moment by himself, take a short walk to the front door in the fresh air, and reset his mind.
If you love music, create a playlist of songs you love to listen to on your way to an appointment or on your way home at the end of the day. Take a minute to take a few full breaths and list things you’re grateful for. Steven said that working out on a regular basis affected his general mood in a positive way.
Remember, You’re Human
Emotions, negative or positive, are completely natural and only make you human. It’s important to allow yourself to feel whatever emotion presents itself when working towards setting and keeping a positive mindset. Kristina says “if you’re having a shitty day – you can have a shitty day. If you’re feeling angry, if you want to cry, whatever it is you need to do, do it, but then end it.”
Take the hour, the day to feel whatever it is you’re feeling, but then let it go. “Allow yourself to feel it because they’re real and it’s healthy but then release it.”
Give Us A Call
Online marketing is a stress that we can help you with! You can book your free consultation here. We’ll discuss your goals and figure out the best way we can help you succeed online.
Got any topics you’d like us to cover in a future episode or a guest you’d like us to sit down with? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach us on Facebook and Instagram.
Have you ever thought about using targeted Facebook ads as a networking tactic when attending an event?
I had the chance to sit down with Jason Stephen, CREA’s 2019 President. We discussed everything CREA, online marketing, social media, and Facebook tactics for REALTORS®.
“Funny, I Just Saw Your Ad On Facebook!”
Jason and I were both basketball coaches before becoming parents. Jason said he got a client out of that here and there though it wasn’t why he coached. I didn’t want to be “that guy” who walked around handing out business cards at games and practices either.
People don’t want to be sold a service while they’re trying to support their children at a game or practice. At the same time, you want people to know what it is that you do and how you can help them.
So, how can I get them to come to me?
I noticed that parents would pull out their phones during time outs. I decided to run a Facebook ad with a picture that included my face and logo. I then targeted it to the specific building we were playing in and the people attending it. After the games parents would walk up to me saying “Hey! Funny, I just saw your ad on Facebook!” I would smile and say “Wow! What a coincidence!”
It’s an easy way of advertising your services and keeping yourself at the forefront of people’s minds. This applies to any event you’re attending as well. For example, I’ll create an ad when I speak at a conference. I take a picture of myself in front of the building and create an ad inviting attendees to my session.
You don’t have to speak at an event to let people know you’re there. If you’re attending a community event and have a table set up, create an ad and let people know where you’ll be!
Getting Your Facebook Ads Approved
You’ve created your ad and yet, no matter how many times you try, Facebook refuses to approve your ad. There are 2 main things to watch out for:
It could be that you never certified your compliance with local regulations.
You could be using the wrong type of language/words in your ad.
One of our clients runs 2 crossfit gyms. When we run an ad for them, the ad cannot contain a before-and-after picture as it may cause the viewer to feel bad about themselves. Facebook also disapproves ads that use the word ‘you’ too often. Generally those ads make the viewers feel that they aren’t enough and need to be doing more.
We Can Help You!
Need help targeting your Facebook ad to the event you’re attending? Just Sell Homes can help you with that. Click here to book a free consultation.
Got any topics you’d like us to cover in a future episode or a guest you’d like us to sit down with? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach us on Facebook and Instagram.
