Too many agents start out without a plan and end up watching their business morph into something they never wanted it to become. In this Growth, Leadership and Management Tip I’m talking about business models to help you visualize your growth, decide on a model that works for you, and make that happen.
As your business evolves you must start thinking about areas other than listings and sales. You have a finance department, a property management department, a productive lead agent, and you see growth happening more rapidly. But when should you decide what you want to be doing by then?
You think about that now, before you get there, or you will lose momentum while you’re trying to decide what to do next. Do you want to keep doing sales, or do you want to do management? Do you want to expand into other offices? Do you want franchises or branchises? How many offices do you want to manage? You need to know your options and choose a business model that is scalable. Otherwise you will find yourself on a path you don’t want to follow, and your growth will stall as you flail to gain control.
Here are some guidelines to consider: Up to around six offices can be company owned. Beyond that you need to start partnering with directors to run branchises that you own. At 10 to 11 offices you will need to decide whether to become a franchise. At 20 offices you are looking at becoming a licensed business office because you have expenses and salespeople to pay, so even at $20 to $40 million in revenue you may only realize 10% profit. You need to plan ahead for the costs of expansion or you may not be able to survive your growth.
Having a career path for your salespeople is also necessary so you can place some of your existing people in your new offices, or make some of them owners inside of your business, and know when to make these moves well in advance. If you love sales then you can decide to hire other people to run things while you stay on the tours. But you have to make a decision now.
You should begin to see why you need to plan ahead and not be taken by surprise when your business really takes off. If you are serious about achieving rapid growth then you have to be clear now on how you want to model your business to take shape the way you want.
As you progress in your business, make sure you look into our Josh Phegan Company membership as well as our Master Class Program, Prospecting School, and our incredible Blueprint Event, all coming up soon.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s Growth, Leadership and Management Tip, and I look forward to seeing you here again next month.