A Blueprint to Growing Your Real Estate Agency
What’s your plan for your business in the next few years? Is it to grow and scale?
Our business development managers ask Real Estate business owners this question all the time.
Their answers are not always what you think.
About 50% of people respond as if we’ve just asked the most obvious and stupid question ever.
Like…of course! Who wouldn’t want to grow their business?
The other 50% say something along the lines of… I wish I could, but….and then we hear their reasons:
- My team is working well at the moment. I don’t want to change anything.
- My team is not working well at the moment. I need to deal with that first.
- We’ve just had someone important leave. We need to replace them first.
- We’ve just got a new staff member. We need to train them first.
Some businesses think that if they bury their head in a mountain of work and keep pushing through, growth will follow.
But scaling your business is not about working harder; it’s about working smarter.
But you don’t have to reinvent the wheel – remember, you’re not the first, and you won’t be the last business to face these challenges.
We have seen over 250+ agencies grow and scale by following this blueprint.
A Blueprint to Growing Your Real Estate Agency
Staff: The right people in the right seats
If you have staff who aren’t quite right for their role, aren’t aligned with your business, or simply aren’t in it for the long term, you may not have the right people in the right seats.
The first step for getting the right people in the right seats is to define what roles and responsibilities are needed to grow.
Evaluate your current team’s strengths and weaknesses, is there someone in your business who would be an ideal candidate for this role?
Do you have to hire externally or can you fill the role internally?
Remember, putting someone in the right seat may involve investing time and training to get them there.
Are you setting them up for success by giving them a comprehensive onboarding program? Are they getting the training and development opportunities they need?
Tech: Work smarter, not harder
You have the team to drive your business forward; the next question is; do you have the right tech?
A poorly chosen tech stack can result in inefficiency and difficulties.
You don’t need to build your own Real Estate app, in fact there’s lots of good reasons why you shouldn’t.
But when choosing your tech, you should consider some of the following questions:
- Does it allow for a live handover of portfolios so that your team can cover for each other?
- Can it integrate with your existing software such as PropertyMe or FLK it over?
- Does it allow you to have a simple overview of every task that needs to be done in the business this month, this week, by the end of the day?
The right tech does all of this, so your team can work smarter, not harder.
Process Mapping: Unlock productivity, visibility, and workflow
Does your team have set processes that are easy to locate and simple to follow?
Mapping out every process in your business is not a simple task, but it is ABSOLUTELY necessary if you want to increase productivity and visibility and improve your workflow.
Because you can’t improve what you can’t see. Many businesses are amazed that once they start mapping out every process in their business, ways to improve it start becoming self-evident.
Another result of mapping out every process is that it gets everyone on your team on the same page.
You can’t scale an inconsistent process. If you want to grow your business you need everyone doing everything exactly the same way.
Once you’ve achieved this, you’ll find a number of benefits including:
- your team leaders will have visibility over who in their team is kicking goals and who needs help/further training
- your new onboarding staff will have a clear defined process to follow
- your team will be able to cover for each other much more easily
- if someone leaves your business, you don’t lose half the portfolio information with them
Outsourcing: Using offshore staff correctly
It is estimated that up to 40% of Australian Real Estate agencies are currently engaging offshore team staff.
Regardless of the exact figure, the (slightly unpopular) truth is that engaging offshore team members can be one of the best ways to support your Australian staff.
Done correctly, it can allow businesses to employ more Australians, reduce burnout, and help your staff see a career.
But offshoring has not always been done brilliantly in this country.
Lee Woodward spoke about the Australian Real Estate industry’s failure at outsourcing at the STAFFLINK Conference in 2022.
“It was interesting because they (the agencies) thought you just put your problems overseas, and it’s fixed.”
This attitude would often lead to many errors, primarily due to a lack of training and visibility over what is being done.
The agencies that manage to get their outsourcing set up and managed correctly have a different experience.
Want to avoid the 4 most common outsourcing mistakes we see? Read out blog here
What’s next?
Eventually, with the right people, tech, and efficient workflow & processes, your team will be prepared (and confident) to take on more extensive property portfolios.
Acquisitions can be tricky. And just like any investment there is an unavoidable element of risk involved.
By following this blueprint, you will be minimising the risk that your business won’t have the capacity for growth.
Like this and want more of this type on content? Read our guide to getting to know STAFFLINK here.
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