Many professionals struggle with the balance between work and life, but
for real estate broker/owners this can be particularly challenging. Not only do
they work a lot during regular business hours, but they also get called upon
evenings and weekends and are expected to always be on call to help their team
should questions or urgent issues arise. Often, even the most
organized efficient brokers find themselves overwhelmed by the demands of
having to recruit, manage their team, provide training, generate leads, put out
fires, and be present in their personal life. As time goes on, it is only
natural to lose the balance between life and work; however, it is important to
restrike that balance to protect your productivity, keep a positive mindset, and
to find the time to do the things that are meaningful to you outside of work.
Here are some practical solutions to help you do just that.
Where are You Spending your Time?
The first thing you can do to regain control over your schedule is to
take a cold hard look at how you are currently spending your time. Often, busy
brokers are stunned at just how much of their time is not being used properly
or meaningfully. One way to analyze how your time is being spent is to take a
look back over your to-do lists and calendar from the last month or two. As you
look over your lists and calendar ask yourself if each task is something
worthwhile, if it could be delegated, or if it could be skipped altogether.
Another option is to install apps or plugins like Forest that will track how
you are spending your time on your computer or phone. Many people are shocked
to learn how easily distracted they are while working and can find extra hours
in the day that could be spent far more effectively. In other cases, you
many identify many tasks that you really could give up if you invest the time
to train someone in your office. In the long run, checking in on the work of
others, is more time effective than doing it yourself from scratch.
Take a Hard Look at Your Priorities
One of the biggest things that brokers struggle with is getting their
priorities in order. This is because there isn’t a good balance between tasks
that are urgent, vs. tasks that are important. It’s urgent and important that
you help your team get contracts filled out and reviewed. If, however, you are
still showing homes to clients or putting together CMA’s yourself, instead of
focusing on your business plan, company lead generation and recruiting
activities, you might want to consider how that time is spent.
If you are anything like most real estate brokers, there are at least a
few items on your list of responsibilities that don’t need to be one of your
priorities. To identify these, make a list of all of the big and small picture
responsibilities currently on your plate. Next, go through the list item by
item and decide which tasks are creating value, what tasks are just busy-work
or can be outsourced, and how to schedule or time block those that must be
done.
Leveraging the Skills and Systems of Others
As it stands, you likely already have at least one or two agents on your
team that have implemented strategic systems within their business which allow
them to operate more successfully and efficiently without much guidance from
you. There is nothing wrong with leveraging those already established and
proven systems throughout the rest of your brokerage to alleviate some of the
stress on your shoulders. The more that you invest in helping your agents to
streamline their workflow and maintain a certain consistency of operations
across your brokerage, the more time you will have to allocate to your personal
life. That not only applies to your agents and their activities, but to yours
as well.
This idea of “repeatable systems” is of course, one of the central ideas
of a national real estate franchise like Weichert. Not all franchising real
estate brands offer well developed and proven systems for everything from lead
generation to recruiting, but Weichert offers this and more. Many of our
systems are “plug and play” and can relieve some of your most time consuming
activities on day one. Others give you a roadmap for success in every aspect of
managing your business. These comprehensive operational blueprints for
everything from marketing, to sales training, to technology are supplemented by
ongoing coaching and training from real estate experts and peers across the
Weichert organization who support each other 24/7.
Brokers who have embraced a brand like Weichert often express relief
when they realize that they can still be in business for themselves, but not
by themselves.
Final Thoughts
Being a real estate broker will never be a 9-5 job, but with a solid
plan for the operation and management of your brokerage, a work-life balance
can be achieved. The more you invest in developing or adopting proven systems
like the ones used by Weichert brokers, the sooner you will be able to
rebalance your schedule, alleviate your stress, and get more enjoyment in both
your career and your life.
Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/balancing-work-life-and-your-brokerage/
