It’s already been a month since we’ve made our New Year’s resolutions – making them is easy but keeping them can prove a little harder. The early gym rush is slowing, diets are being forgotten and foiled by Superbowl junk food, and it can feel easy to lose a little steam in your goals as a real estate agent.
But you’re an entrepreneur! Your goals now determine your success later. You’ve worked hard to get into the industry and get to where you are now. Build on that success, stay strong when the going gets tough, and remember why you set those new years resolutions in the first place.
In 2014, NAR reported that 87% of all real estate agents fail after five years in the industry. How is this possible? Many real estate agents meet their demise when they forget to set concrete, realistic goals initially. It’s easy to get carried away dreaming of your lofty earning potential – keep your 2019 strong by setting realistic financial goals (especially in your first year).
Determine how much you will need to support yourself/your family, what the median income is for your area – do your research! Talking to other agents locally to get an idea of what they made in their first year can be helpful too. We love the optimistic entrepreneur, but realism sets you up for long-term success.
If you owned a local brick and mortar shop, would you run that any differently than you run your real estate business? You would have to take time and care to set up your shop, long hours to think of what your target audience wants, and ways to provide that. The time, care, and hard work it would take to run an in-person shop is exactly what your real estate business needs. It may feel different due to the remote/freelance feel and nature of your work, but the idea is the same. Thinking of your real estate career as owning your own small business may be the paradigm shift you need to keep that new year momentum going.
It’s nice to set income goals, but how are you going to meet those goals if you don’t have a plan for every step along the way? Turn your goals into action items – it’s a science! Start with your yearly goal of sales and break that down into how many sales you'll need to make monthly to hit that. From there, you can estimate how many leads you'll need to hit those sales and get granular with your exact goals. Breaking it down piece by piece takes a lofty financial goal and gives it real, actionable items to get started on.
All real estate agents want to be successful – you can show you have what it takes to make it to the top by sticking to your new years’ resolutions, having a realistic plan, working like a small business owner, and calculating exactly which metrics you need to hit to meet your goals.
Need help reverse engineering how many leads you'll need to hit your 2019 goals?
Check out Zurple's Seller Lead program.