Delegation.
Have you stayed far away from the word because you just don’t have the time or money to hire help and provide training? Fret not—you can take it one day at a time, and you might already have the help you need in your existing personal and professional sphere.
So, starting tomorrow, take the next five days to put a strong delegation strategy in place, or refresh the one you already have.
Monday – Start With Your Goals
Write them out. Start with big, long-term goals and work your way down to smaller goals that you can work toward right now. This will help you see exactly what type of delegation strategy you need to make your business succeed.
Tuesday – Question Everything
Survey your fellow team members (if you’re on a team) and call your clients to get some feedback. Where have you been succeeding, in which areas have you just been getting by and what needs some serious work? Getting feedback about your business from those around you will help with your delegation strategy. You might find that something you used to categorize as a small, insignificant detail might actually be a top priority for your clients or colleagues, so responsibilities will need to be shuffled around.
Wednesday – Get Everything Together
What do you need done on a day-to-day basis, what type of essential communications does your business require and what other business-related tasks have you not had the time to complete? As time passes, you start to forget who is in charge of what, and what exactly needs to be done, especially if you’re taking on a lot of new responsibilities yourself. Remember, taking on too much and overworking yourself is how things fall through the cracks.
Thursday – Start Delegating
Got that giant list of daily to-dos on hand? Good. Here’s where you might need someone who is extremely detail-oriented to help you out if you’re not up to the task yourself.
Sit down and go through every single task, separating each one by priority and urgency. Any smaller tasks, such as paperwork management and updating your CRM, should be assigned to someone else, if possible. Take your goals into account; focus on the profit-building duties yourself, and let someone else take care of the day-to-day business management tasks.
Friday – Keep a Record Going
Keep track of what works and what doesn’t with your new or refreshed delegation strategy. It’s rare that you’ll get everything perfect on the first try. Most likely, you’ll have to do some tweaking, and you might find that hiring a virtual assistant or a runner to place lockboxes or take photos might really benefit your business and free up some of your time.
Liz Dominguez is RISMedia’s associate content editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at ldominguez@rismedia.com. For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com.