There may come a time in your business’s trajectory when volume increases but your two hands can’t keep up. Signs of growth are positive, but it may be wise to consider hiring an assistant or forming a team to meet demands.
But how do you go about implementing this business-boosting change, and when is the right time?
Think about the big picture
For starters, consider the overarching motivation behind your impulse to hire an assistant or start a team.
Do you have too much on your plate? Are you interested in earning more revenue by adding additional business? Perhaps you’d like to create a more ideal work-life balance.
Whatever the reason, be clear in the rationale behind your decision to expand. Doing so will help you navigate the hiring process with specific goals in mind, which will help you tailor your search for an assistant or team.
When is the right time to expand?
The first step in expanding your real estate business is hiring an assistant or an administrative professional to handle the busywork that eats up your time. You might consider hiring an assistant when you’re consistently closing over 25 deals a year. If you pass the busywork along to a trusted assistant, you’ll have valuable time to dedicate to new clients and building your volume.
After you’ve acquired an assistant, what’s next? Begin by adding a like-minded buyer’s agent to your team to cover the time-intensive work required for house-hunting. By doing so, you’ll still be building your brand at large, but you can focus on driving additional business and moving listings with efficiency.
A buyer’s agent can also help you develop homebuyer leads that you may not have as much time for.
Once you have an assistant and a buyer’s agent in place, you can consider adding more roles to flesh out your thriving enterprise. Consider a salaried listing specialist, a marketing coordinator, or a lead generator.
Frame your team expansion as a step-by-step process that first covers the basic day-to-day and becomes progressively specialized as you continue to add to your ranks.
How do I hire an assistant and/or team?
As an experiment, keep track of your day-to-day tasks over the course of a month. While it might seem tedious, you’ll start to accumulate a record of how your time is spent, where things could be streamlined and what requires your personal attention versus what could be delegated to someone else.
Once you have this list, you’ll be able to figure out what tasks you’d like an assistant to be responsible for on a daily basis, and you’ll know the sort of skills and experience they should have.
Above all, don’t rush the hiring process or compromise. Both mistakes will cost you time and resources, which is the opposite of your goal when you set out to grow.
If you’re intrigued by the idea of expanding beyond a one-person show, keep some of these tips in mind as you navigate the next chapter of your evolving business.
There’s nowhere to go but up.
Brandon Doyle is a Realtor at Doyle Real Estate Team — Re/Max Results in Minneapolis and co-author of Mindset, Methods & Metrics – Winning as a Modern Real Estate Agent. You can follow him on Twitter.