I remember vaguely the first time I heard about “team expansion.” Believe it or not, even while our team was doing anywhere from $55 million to $75 million in volume in production each year, we didn’t feel ready to expand to other cities outside of our local area—and we certainly didn’t feel ready to go into other states and duplicate our efforts into an “expansion” team.
Well, it turns out that many others were thinking the same thing. In fact, they were saying that they needed to “get their own home in order” before they went out and started new businesses elsewhere. Again, continuing with leverage—our theme for 2018—expansion of your business is another step in the direction of leverage.
For some of you, expansion may mean that you’re starting up another business far from your current center of influence, while others are looking to expand by going just a few miles outside of your normal area. I know of two teams on opposite ends of the U.S., working in different markets with different average sale prices, who decided to expand just three or four miles outside their current area. Both of these agents have proven that you can do just that and increase your GCI significantly while still fine-tuning and perfecting your systems.
This requires determination and hard work, but in the end, the yield will be worth it. This part of leverage, as in last month’s article, requires the use of well thought-out and well-established systems and models to perfect your outcome for you.
Of course, the farther you go from where you’ve built the original team, the more challenges you’ll face in the quest to expand your business into different markets.
Either way, leverage takes work. Accountability and coaching continue to be the key points you can turn to as tools to get you where you’re going.
In closing, I’ve had very successful agents tell me that instead of expanding elsewhere, they continue to expand where they’re currently working by taking more and more marketshare and developing their existing team with systems and structure, steadily increasing units, GCI and even average sale price.
My point is that there are many different ways to pull off leverage through expansion. Start today.
Rick Geha of The Rick Geha Real Estate Team began his real estate career at age 22. Over the past 15 years, he’s led more than 1,000 classes and workshops throughout the U.S. and Canada and has presented keynote addresses to thousands of professionals from all industries and walks of life. Rick is currently a coach with Workman Success Systems. Contact him at Rick@RickGeha.com. For more information, please visit www.workmansuccesssystems.com.
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