There are very few blueprints available to real estate agents who want to expand their business through the building of a team.  The people who have built teams have done so predominantly through trial and error.  My desire is to give you the initial steps of that blueprint to success.

Start with the finish

Make sure you are clear on what you want your production to be like in units and sales volume in the future.  Go out at least five years (ten years would be even better).  You have to cross the finish line in your mind before you can begin the race.

To really be effective in designing the plan for your team, you must start with the plan for your life.  Far too many people who are trying to achieve success are focused only on business success, rather than life success.  Develop the skill or art to live an exceptional life, rather than just achieving monetary success.  To truly start with the finish, you must take a broader look at what you are trying to accomplish as a human being, business owner, parent, spouse, friend, etc.

Stephen Covey, in his book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, introduced the concept of the need to start with the end in mind to the masses.  Fundamentally, that is what we are doing as we set goals in writing.  We are establishing the end before we write the chapters or the forward of the book of our life.  Many of the goal programs I have ever studied or evaluated have you writing your obituary.  That is certainly starting with the end in mind.  There is nothing on this earth that is farther out than our death.  Picking a time line somewhere in the future and working backward is an effective technique to establish the road map to your success.

What are the things that you want to accomplish before you take the final dirt nap on this earth?  What’s on your life list?  What do you want to do and accomplish before you are all done?  I will share with you one of my life goals.

I wanted to have two children – a boy and a girl.  This was written before all the pregnancy problems, fertility treatments, a miscarriage, and the eventual realization that Joan and I would be unable to have children as most couples do.  Without actively seeking an adoption, our son, Wesley, dropped into our laps like manna from heaven.  Our daughter was not quite as abrupt but was an equally miraculous blessing.  Goals and divine intervention are a powerful combination.

Goals are not to be evaluated based on the odds of getting them.  Many of us are too conservative in our approach to goals.  It’s not about what you think you can have or what is reasonable.  It’s about what you want.  If you let your imagination go, what would you desire?  If you could have anything you wanted, what would it be?  What would create joy, enjoyment, and pleasure for you?  What do you want to be able to buy and own?  What do you want to be recognized for?  Where do you want to live?  Do you need multiple homes?  Where would they be?  How would they be furnished?  Where do you want to travel?  What experiences do you want to have in life?  What skills or abilities do you want to acquire?  What do you want your business to look like?  These are all the types of questions we need to determine the answers to in order to craft our path in life.

STOP reading this article right now!!  Take out a clean sheet of paper and write out your goals, based on the questions I just asked.  I want you to write at least 75 to 100 goals that you have for the rest of your life.  Write out your business goals, financial goals, family goals, relationship goals, and spiritual goals.  Create a list of what you want to do, see, and accomplish before you are done.

Clarity is explosive

Small entrepreneurial business owners struggle with clarity.  A real estate agent and even real estate team is a small entrepreneurial business.  Having clarity of purpose, goals, and team structure dramatically increases the likelihood that you will arrive at what you envision exactly as you imagined it and on the time line you established.  The sharper the clarity in who you are, what you desire, and what action must be taken to get it, the faster you will achieve it, the greater your accomplishment will be, the grander the life you will lead.

The truth in clarity is everything.  Clarity is the key reason that most real estate teams fail or at least fall short of their potential; the team leader didn’t invest the time to acquire the clarity needed for everyone to have success.  You either have clarity or you don’t; it can’t be faked.  The question is, do you have it?  If you don’t, what are you going to do about it?

You might consider hiring a coach.  It should be a company or individual that has designed a program specifically for teams or people who want to build teams.  An integral component of the coaching program must be helping you create the clarity of purpose in your business.  The coach must have been successful in creating and leading real estate teams in the past.  If the coach has never done it, they can’t coach it!  Don’t fall into the trap of hiring a generalist or one trick pony type of coach.  This is someone who coaches all different people in all different fields . . . the generalist.  The one trick pony coach or coaching company primarily has one area they coach in, such as relationships.  If all that was necessary to be successful were the skill to build relationships to generate referrals, wouldn’t every agent and every team sell hundreds of homes a year?  When it’s team coaching and team building, you need a lot more than that.

If you have not been able to establish clarity to this point, you might need some help.  If you think coaching is a possible option, go to our website at www.RealEstateChampions.com.  We are the only coaching company that has a specifically designed team coaching program.  You owe it to yourself to at least check it out.

In order to create clarity, you have to know what you want to accomplish first.  Then you have to identify the best route to achieve it.  Then you have to be open to new information, techniques, and strategies.  Once you find flaws, which you will, you need to elicit feedback and correct the course.  You will most likely have to self-correct, as well.  Sometimes, you may even have to abandon a majority of your plan and create and embrace another one.  Often times, this change is thrust upon you due to outside circumstances or outside forces that you don’t or won’t control.

For example, if interest rates went to 18%, outside circumstances would be created that a real estate agent or real estate team would not control.  I have clients in Michigan who have been affected by the challenges in the automobile industry.  Their markets have been adversely affected by the economic conditions in their local market area due to lost jobs.  Through clarity, coaching, and strategic adjustments, they have been able to grow their business even in the lean economic times.

Don’t wait for clarity to arrive because it never will.  You must seek it out and acquire it; the more of it you possess, the greater your odds of success in your business and also the other areas of your life.