Ever wondered how to prepare for the seasonal shifts in the business? Real estate coach and trainer Travis Robertson explains how you can prepare for winter while also taking steps to setup a great start to next year.
HOW TO PREPARE YOUR REAL ESTATE BUSINESS FOR WINTER
Winter happens every single year and yet so many agents seem caught off guard by it. It sneaks up on agents and they don’t do anything to prepare their business in advance. As you’re heading into the winter months, use these three tips to winter proof, or winterize, your business.
1. DON’T SLOW DOWN
There’s a tendency around the holidays as the fall weather kind of sets in to want to relax and slow down. Nothing sounds more appealing than resting by the fireplace with a blanket, book, and nice glass of wine. However, as nice as that sounds, don’t let off the gas pedal just yet. There’s a time and there’s a place for slowing down but don’t slow down too soon. In fact, you need to speed it up a little bit. Make the calls. Send the emails. Get in touch with some of those old leads or past clients. Whatever you can do to start generating more business right now towards the end of the season is important not just for this year but it’s also important for the beginning part of next year. What you do today sets up the beginning of the first quarter.
2. PREPARE FINANCIALLY
It happens every single year. Winter and Christmas go hand in hand. What ends up happening is all the money’s being spent as you’re moving throughout the year. Then you get to the end of the year when all the gifts are supposed to be purchased and you don’t have business coming in. So what do you start doing? You start racking up the credit card debt. You start putting yourself in a financial hole heading into the beginning of the next year. Don’t do that. Instead, set aside a little bit of money, starts saving, and start planning for Christmas gifts. Remember this: little Johnny doesn’t need 75 gifts. Don’t feel like you have to give little Johnny everything he wants for Christmas. Start planning your business. Start planning your budget a little bit more effectively as you head into these months.
3. START PLANNING NEXT YEAR’S BUSINESS TODAY
As the industry is slowing down, you still need to ramp up the lead generation. You still need to be doing as much as you can to get deals to close this year, but here’s the reality: some of them are just not going to be ready until after the holidays or until the beginning part of first-quarter. Start lining up those prospects. Mark them in your CRM platform. Make notes. Do whatever you need to do to remove any obstacles or roadblocks to them listing or purchasing after the holidays. Get all that done now so that as you get into the first quarter you’ve got business lined up so you can hit the ground running and you can move forward and start off 2015 solid and strong.
