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If you’re like most agents you value the freedom and flexibility of being in the real estate industry as well as the money you can make.

After working directly with 1000′s of agents across the country here are the two most important equations I’ve noticed when it comes to getting what you value out of your job…

1. Freedom and Flexibility = Discipline

If you want free time, then be disciplined with how you use your time. If you want more money to spend freely, be disciplined with how you spend your money.

If you want to take more vacation time be more disciplined when you’re at work.

Discipline isn’t such a “bad” word after all is it?

2. Freedom and Flexibility without Discipline = Bankruptcy

As you’ll discover, and probably agree, one of the keys to success in real estate is doing what is necessary instead of doing what you like.

It’s truly a great feeling to end the day knowing that you did everything you could do to generate more business. Isn’t it a lot more satisfying to have a healthy business than it is to get your nails done at 11am?

You can see how if you have discipline you have freedom, flexibility, and profits, can you not?

Check out this short video to really understand the importance of these two equations to your bottom line:

Eventually, most agents realize they need to use a business plan to keep them focused on bringing in enough cash every month.

Use the link below to get a free customized business plan from my company so that you can have the freedom, flexibility, and cash you need.

But don’t act too quickly. A business plan is no use if you’re not committed to using it. Make sure using one is the right decision for you…

GET YOUR FREE BUSINESS PLAN

Dedicated to your success,

John Alexandrov

CEO,

At an event last week I asked a group of agents if they ran a monthly profit and loss statement. I was greeted by silence and blank stares as everyone shook their head. If I had asked them whether they were making money every month, only some would know.

Now this is something that really worries me about most agents. It seems like most agents haven’t even heard of a profit and loss statement, never mind seen one. When you got your license or got initial training from your real estate company, were you trained on how to run one? I didn’t think so.

If you don’t run a profit and loss statement each month (a “P&L”), you simply are not being a good business person. By ignoring this simple report, you can go bankrupt in the next year.

Why Run A Profit and Loss

The simple is that a profit and loss statement shows you the numbers so you know if you are making money. If it shows that you’re not making money, then you need to to know that so you can adjust. If you are making money, that’s great, but you can always improve.

Going a little further, a P&L will show your monthly expenses so you can work on reducing or eliminating some of them (of course you need to know what your expenses are each month).

A P&L will show you how much it costs for you to work with a client. I’ll go into more detail on the formula for calculating how much it costs in a later blog post, but if you don’t have a P&L you won’t be able to calculate whether your not you are spending your time wisely.

For more on this formula you can watch the video below at your convenience…

What To Do If You Don’t Have One

If you don’t have a P&L…get one!! Without it you won’t understand your expenses or whether or not your are profitable.

If you don’t know whether you are profitable, you probably are not, which means if you continue on that path you will go bankrupt.

I know some agents who were selling over 200 homes a year. They were also losing $225,000 a year. They didn’t even know because they were not running a P&L. They were not being good business people.

An easy way to learn how to run a P&L every month and to BECOME PROFITABLE is to speak with one of our coaches for FREE.

Sign up to talk to coach who knows what it takes for you to become profitable by acting like a smart business person by clicking here —-> Schedule My Free, No Obligation Call

Please take advantage of this so you can proudly answer “yes” the next time I ask you if you have a P&L.

Dedicated to your success,

John Alexandrov

YES!

If you’re super excited by that answer then I have bad news.

Of course you CAN avoid lead generation on the phone, but you simply won’t be a successful as you want to be.

Now, I understand how important having a web presence is. Quite frankly, its indispensable and my company is designing some systems to help agents manage and improve their on-line presence. But at the end of the day, its main function is to support your face-to-face and over-the-phone lead generation and prospecting.

For some reason, people look at the internet as magic bullet. The telephone was probably looked at the same way a hundred years ago right?

The internet is barely 20 years old. When the telephone was 20 years old do you think people gave up using letters? Of course not. And we still use letters today. Just because there is a new technology, even if it is really helpful, it does not mean you can avoid making phone calls and meeting people face-to-face.

Maybe in 40 or 50 years we will look at phone calls like we look at hand-written letters today. We probably will. The internet and whatever else comes along will be the centerpiece of our communication.

I recently asked our Director of Coaching Services, Michael Friedman, if he thought agents could rely more on the internet than on the phone. Watch the short video below to see his (unsurprising) response:

I like the point that Michael makes about “hope.” A lot of what we do on-line might result in a conversation and in an opportunity to do business. We hope that it will, and sometimes it does. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you are also doing the things that will result in opportunities on a daily basis.

Don’t you just feel more in control when its you picking up the phone to call someone?

That should be encouragement enough to not give it up just yet.

Dedicated to your success,

John Alexandrov

CEO

In my last post I talked about how my company is designing customized spreadsheets for our clients to track their specific promises.

If you are not one of our clients, we’ve created something for you (a lot our clients use this too).

But first…

Why Is Tracking So Important?

90% of the people who read this will immediately be turned off by the thought of tracking their success on a weekly or monthly basis. That’s OK…let them run away from the CEO mentality. You all know agents (or maybe you are one) who just wings it. Or maybe you track your numbers only when you are doing well. You will eventually go bankrupt.

If tracking your success excites you, you will universally be more successful in the real estate profession than those who are afraid of it. Tracking your numbers allows you to:

1. Adjust to what’s working – “Hmm…maybe I should spend more time contacting past clients”

2. Eliminate what’s not – “I don’t have enough listings, I need to schedule more lead gen time”

3. Feel good about your progress – “I’ve reached an important milestone in fulfilling my promise!”

4. Be accountable to your team or coach – “I’m on the same page with my peers and secretly love being known as the smart one around the office.”

It is simply a fact that people who track their promises are more successful than those who don’t want to face the facts (good and bad). I see it every day with agents across the country.

In this short video, I discuss the roll-out of our FREE Success Tracker with Michael Friedman, our Director of Coaching Services and how it can help you today as a real estate professional.

To sign-up and start using the REIC Success Tracker just click here to get your password and get started right away.

Are their any agents out there who don’t track their success, but are still successful? Do you think by measuring your hours prospected, calls made, contacts with past clients, listings taken%, etc, you would accomplish more than you have without tracking?

The excuse I know you have:

“But I don’t have time to fill this out.”

Then either you don’t care about succeeding in this business or you it’s not a priority in your life. If that’s the case, then you might want to looking at getting out now.

If you haven’t been tracking your success but you care, and real estate is a priority for you, sign-up today and book your calender for 15 minutes a week to spend on this. You’ll be ahead of 90% of the crowd!

Thank you for reading…off to West Palm for a great Client Appreciation Event! Hope you can make it to the next one or any of our upcoming events in Detroit, New Orleans, Boston, Vancouver, etc. (become a friend on facebook to access a list of our upcoming events).

John Alexandrov

Quick, who can name the six income producing activities that agents should be doing every day?

If you’ve got them built into your schedule you must know them by heart. Lets end the suspense:

We will talk more about promises and goals down the line as well as the other methodology we use to keep people on track with their schedule, but I think its important to first focus on those six activities…and how simple they really are.

1. Lead Generation – simply the main way to get business
2. Lead Follow-Up – simple if you are lead generating
3. Going on Listings – simple if you are doing #’s 1 and 2 effectively
4. Working with Qualified Buyers – this is hard for a lot of people, but we make it easy by only working with buyers who will sign a contractual commitment to work with us.That way we know they are serious and we don’t waste our time…which gives us more time to led gen, etc. I do this in my own business and it frees me up to pursue people I know are serious about improving their business and their life.
5. Negotiating Contracts – easy if we are working with qualified buyers
6. Taking price-improvements – easy if we are doing what’s best for our clients

The things that are not simple that we do during the day are things like responding to fives emails at a time, or avoiding these six steps. One thing I know from watching and coaching people in this business is that it’s 50 times harder to NOT do the 6 activities above than it is to just do them.

If you’re a committed real estate professional, and I know most of you reading this are, take a fresh look at your schedule in 2010 and commit to doing these 6 activities every day. Like Staples says, “that was easy!”

John Alexandrov