Now that you have decided, let’s take the first step.
Published by Scott Gill under General.Part 2 of a three part series titled “Are You In Or Out Of The Real Estate Business?”
Since my last article, I’m betting you may have labored over your decision and it probably wasn’t easy, but important that you made it nonetheless. This means that you’re fully committed to move yourself and your business forward. It’s prudent to be cautiously optimistic and hopeful for 2009 and the healthy attitude you possess from here going forward will have much value. Until the market conditions fully stabilize, which will be sooner than you just might think, you will still need to put in the hard work to achieve positive results. But understand that you will survive and, most importantly, you will position yourself to reap substantial rewards when the next real estate upswing occurs.
Now… on to the first step! Take an objective look at your present business operations from top to bottom. This may mean rewriting your business plan and thoroughly assess your professional and personal expenses to determine if they are serving your best interests. If they aren’t, plan to eliminate them or change them as soon as possible. While you’re cutting expenses, be careful not to reduce them too much and potentially make the mistake of eliminating essential tools you need to compete in the real estate industry.
A common example of an expense you may seriously want to evaluate is commercial office space that you can either downsize or co-op with someone else. If that space is not producing income which exceeds the expense of having it, you should probably deem it unnecessary and consider getting rid of it. If you own the building, it might be better to lease it out, take the income, and operate your business from your home. After all, today’s consumer really doesn’t care where you are physically located; they only care that they can connect with you when they need you.
Next, analyze the marketing and technology expenses you’re paying for that Realty World already provides. We offer a tremendous variety of tools to our brokers and associates that many people aren’t even aware of. Over the past few months, I’ve been able to assist many brokers and associates cut thousands of dollars from their expenses by simply using tools and resources they already had available to them.
Next week, I’ll discuss the details of making strides forward. Please come back next week for Part 3 of my blog series titled: “Now that you have trimmed those unnecessary expenses, let’s take the second step!”
Scott Gill
Senior Vice President
Scott.Gill@rwnc.net
