If You’re Not Moving Forward Towards Your Goals, You Are…

“If you’re not moving forward towards your goals, you are moving backwards.  There is no standing still.”

Lloyd Irvin

World Class Martial Artist, Coach, Marketer and Businessman

Great quote, isn’t it?  Master Lloyd was talking about martial arts training when he said that but it most certainly applies to business…and probably everything else in life.

But this is, of course, a real estate blog so let’s dive in to how this idea applies to us as real estate investors, hard money lenders, realtors, mortgage brokers, etc.

Your Database of Clients and Prospects

Your client list is your business no matter what area of real estate you are in.  Your #1 job is to communicate with your clients, take care of their needs, add value to the relationship and continuously put new prospects on this list.  If you don’t, your competition will.  It’s that simple.  And if you don’t have systems in place to make that happen, I’d make that the first thing on your to-do list.

Your Marketing Engine

These days the marketing world is so dynamic it makes your head spin.  There are new ways to get your company out into the world coming out every day and guess what…we have found many of them to be very effective.  And just like your client list, if you aren’t on top of it, the other guy will be.  But keep in mind the marketing strategies that have been around forever are still great, such as a monthly newsletter being sent by snail mail.  The idea is not to substitute old strategies for new ones.  It is to constantly add weapons to your marketing arsenal.

­Your Business Systems

Same as with marketing, there is always new technology coming out to improve our business systems, making us more efficient, effective and thus able make bring in more revenue with the same manpower.  A lean business process is a critical factor in running a low-overhead, highly profitable business.  They say overhead kills.  Totally true.   And overhead comes from having an inefficient system.  We all have the same number of hours in the day and we all have personal lives outside of the office.  How much can you get done in one day?  That’s the name of the game.

Your Service Providers

As we know, in real estate, there are many different parties involved all trying to get one deal to the closing table- buyers, sellers, real estate agents, attorneys, lenders, appraisers, title companies, insurance agents, sometimes even contractors.  Wow.  No wonder some deals turn into a complete mess.  Having a success team of kick-ass service providers is crucial.  A real estate entrepreneur must constantly be on the lookout for new companies to partner with.  Not that we should leave relationships with our good people—quite the opposite.  Good partners are hard to find.  But, let’s be honest, people drop out of this game all the time so we need to keep an eye out for new service providers to team up with.

So I guess the moral of the story is that business is a never-ending struggle to get to the top…and to stay there.

Are you game?

-Chris

I’ll end with another quote:

“In case I don’t see you, keep on…uh…keep truckin’.”

-Will Ferrell

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