Thursday, July 30, 2009

Make Life Balance a Priority


In order to succeed in business you have to be able to be happy with what you are doing. If you have problems in other areas of your life you may be distracted and unable to focus on your business. In order to be a complete success in business you have to make it a priority to achieve balance in your life.

Sometimes achieving balance in your life can seem difficult. You may need to work very hard to figure out how to balance all the different aspects of your life. Many people find balancing a family and a business is very hard and if you are one of these people, then you must learn how to achieve balance. Too often business failure comes form being unable to focus on the business as needed due to distractions from other priorities in your life.

Balance is where everything works together. That is easy to forget. You cannot emphasize work too much, nor can you emphasize family too much. It is all about finding that happy medium where everything works together. It takes time, but once you achieve balance you will find yourself being happier and much more successful.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Learn How to Handle More Problems


One of the secrets of a Billion Dollar Agent is that they are capable of handling multiple problems without losing control and without falling apart. Knowing how to deal with multiple problems and being able to take on more problems is one characteristic you must have to be a top agent.

You cannot succeed in business without being able to take control over a bad situation, handle the issues at hand and get things back to normal. You must be able to take problems and either fix them or find a way to minimize them.

If your problem solving skills are not in good shape then you must work on them. You have to do what it takes to become a master problem solver. You cannot back down in the face of a problem. Learn to deal with problems of any size and you will succeed.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Cut Out the Waste


In every business there will be people who slack at their duties and who waste time. You will always come across an employee that is basically sabotaging your business and wasting your time. You also will find that there are some tasks that are time wasters. They may be essential tasks, but they are a waste of your time.

When you want an efficient business, you need to cut out the people who are not getting things done and delegate those time wasting tasks. The simple thing to do with a person who is not doing a good job is to fire them. It may be difficult, but if you want to be a Billion Dollar Agent ten it must be done.

As for the time wasting tasks, the worse thing you can do is handle them yourself or give to the higher paid employees. Tasks that are low priority need to be handled by whoever gets paid the least. If you give a low priority task to a minimum wage employee and it used to be done by someone who made twice as much an hour, then you can see how you have saved money.

Learn to cut the waste out of your business. It will make things more efficient and help you to save money.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Always Know Where You’ve Been so You Know Where You’re Going


Tracking your activities is an essential task. If you ever want to grow your business and become a top agent, then you need to have a good system for tracking your activities. You need to find a way to check everything that you do.

By tracking your activities you can track your results. You can see what you have done that has lead you to where you are. This allows you to see what works and what does not work. You have the opportunity to be sure that you are working towards your goals and not hurting yourself.

There are many ways to track activity. You can watch the results form your marketing efforts. You can also watch how targeting certain markets affects your bottom line.

Keeping track of things is something you have to do or you will never know if you are on the right track or not.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Measure Your Goals


You know that having goals are important to your business success. Having goals is not enough, though. You have to actually do something with those goals to ever make them useful. Every goal you set should be something that is measurable.

A measurable goal allows you to ensure that you are working towards reaching the goal. You should have milestones that you need to reach by a certain time in order to stay on track to reaching your goals.

When you just set a goal without making sure that there are ways to ensure you are headed towards the goal then it is too easy to let that goal slip out of view. You may never reach the goal if you do not set up the steps to reach it.

A goal is merely an idea until you start putting steps in order to reach it. As you progress towards reaching that goal you should be able to check your progress. This will allow you to see if you are on track or if you need to work harder.

Goals are wonderful and critical to your success as a top agent, but if you do not hold yourself accountable for reaching them then they are useless. Top agents know that managing goals is just as important as setting them.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

What’s your Purpose?


Every top agent has a purpose. Do you know yours? What are you working towards? Why are you doing what you are doing? Your purpose can be the driving force behind everything you do, but if you do not know what your purpose is then it will be hard to use it to get anywhere in business.

Think back to when you first decided to be a real estate agent. What was it that drew you to this profession? There had to be something that made you want to be an agent. Maybe it was the idea of controlling your own income potential. Maybe you like working with people. Maybe you just have a passion for real estate. Whatever first drew you to real estate can help you to find your purpose.

Once you decide what your purpose is, you can begin to use it to help you in everything you do. Every goal you set should be related to your purpose. You can use your purpose to drive your efforts to reach your goals.

Every billion dollar agent has a well defined purpose. They know why they do what they do. They are successful because they have a purpose. Don’t let your business lag behind just because you haven’t yet defined your purpose.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Bring Your Skills Up to the Level


If you want to be a Billion Dollar Agent then you need to take a hard look at your skill set. Do you even have the skills to sell at that level? If you don’t then it is time to get working on improving and building your skills to bring you to that top level.

You will have to really be honest and look at your past work. See where you are lacking and see where you are strong. Identify areas where your business seems to have trouble. This will lead you to the skills that you need to work on.

For some agents, selling skills need a touch up and for others it may be management skills. You need to look at your business as a whole and find out what is holding you back.

Develop your skills. Top agents continue working on their skills forever. It is a process that never stops. You can never be too good. Nobody is perfect and that means there is always a skill or two that you can improve upon.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

How Many Hours a Day Do Your Work?


Can you even answer that question? Many agents cannot because they are constantly working. Overextending yourself is no way to get to the top. Many agents think that the more they work, the better their business will be. In many cases, an overworked agent is doing nothing but stressing themselves out.

If you seriously want to grow your business then you have to understand that there are only so many hours in a day. You have to find a schedule for your work day that allows you to focus on tasks that are important. You need to identify what you need to do and then identify what others in your office can handle.

If you can not let go of the reins then you may want to schedule a time each day where you review what everyone else has done. You can then be assured that they are doing a good job and you can rest easy knowing that your office is being well run.

A stressed out, overworked agent is not a good agent. That is the bottom line. You need a break, too. So, ask yourself how many hours you are working each day and if you cannot answer it then look at your daily schedule and see how you can fix it.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Way to Get to the Next Level


As a top agent you are probably often wondering what you need to do to get to the next level. If you are really serious about growing your business and becoming a Billion Dollar Agent, then you have to get moving. You have to start thinking like a Billion Dollar Agent.


You need to set your mind to your goals. You must start to think of yourself as being capable of moving tot he next level. Picture yourself at that next level. Everything that you need to do needs to be done as if you have already reached your goals. Picture yourself as a Billion Dollar Agent and soon that is exactly what you will become.


However, you also need to be smart. You can not let yourself get burnt out on work. You have to learn balance and you have to stay positive. You have to make sure every aspect of your business is on the same track that you are. Problems must be fixed and you have to ensure that everyone in your business is on the same page as you.


Hard work, dedication and a lot of positive thinking will get you to that Billion Dollar Agent level.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

A Billion Dollar Agent Never...


There are many things that a Billion Dollar Agent must do in order to stay a Billion Dollar Agent. There are many things an agent does to get to the level of a Billion Dollar Agent. There are also things that a Billion Dollar Agent never does.

A Billion Dollar Agent will never fail to do seller lead generation. Focusing on only the buyer side is a major limitation to your business and top agents know that. You need to be working both the buyer and seller side of your business at all times.

A Billion Dollar Agent will never fail to maintain contact with the leads in their database. A good agent knows that there is always an opportunity, but that it is about catching a person at the right time. You can not simply throw away leads that do not pan out the first time. Stay in contact and eventually you may catch them at the time they are ready to buy or sell.

A Billion Dollar Agent never fails to make good use of their website. A website is there for the world to see. People who live across the country may just be looking for a home in your area. Do not alienate them by focusing only on people in your area. Make your website welcoming to everyone, no matter where they may come from.

As mentioned, Billion Dollar Agents do a lot of things. They are busy and they know how to succeed. A Billion Dollar Agent also knows just what not to do and that is what sets them apart from all the other agents out there.

Marketing at the Top Level


When you start to reach higher levels in your business you have to step everything up. It is not possible to simply keep on doing business as you were when you were a start up. Now that you have secured long-term clients and you are bringing in top dollar, you have to start running your business like you are a Billion Dollar Agent.

Marketing is and always will be one of the most important aspects of your business. Proper marketing is key to building and growing a business. So, it is now time to learn how to market at the top level.

Top level marketing requires multi-tasking. You have to get in touch and remain in touch with your clients. You need to make an effort to reach out to them and make personal contact at least twice a year at minimum. You need to test market and reach out beyond your current market. You need to start bringing in more clients, while still focusing on those you already have.

Marketing at the top level will require more focus an determination. In addition, you have to be willing to take risks to bring in new clients. Avoid getting stuck in a rut or ever settling on just sticking with your current clients. Taking your business to that top level means growing it. You can not reach a stand still. Keep marketing and keep moving up.

Keep Sales Activity Up to Stay on Top


Being average is not what you want, so why are you struggling to reach your goals? Everyone struggles. Everyone has challenges, but it is the way you handle them that will determine what the outcome is.

To stay on top you have to be focused. You have to work hard on building your client list. Everyday you should be consulting your list, making calls and contacting clients in one way or another.

You should delegate tasks as needed. You need to schedule your day so you are doing important work, work that leads to sales. You need to do sales activity every week. A real top agent never goes a week without any sales activity.

Overall, you have to get time management down to a science. You must know what you can do and what you can not do. You have to know when to give others work and when to keep it for yourself.

Being a top agent is not easy. Nobody ever said that it was. If you are willing to stick with and stay at it, though, being a top agent is something that you can do without struggling.