Hey guys, Keir Weimer coming to you live here. So, today we want to talk a little bit about a pretty important topic. We all encounter the same kinds of problems. both new agents and those that are becoming more seasoned, that are really growing their real estate brokerage practice, that are starting to scale up and produce more and more volume. And that is, as agents we wear so many different hats in this business; from marketing and sales to advertising and accounting, to management, to objection handling, to operations, to all the other different things that go into the behind-the-scenes production of a busy real estates agents business, we find it difficult to focus on the really important work.

When I look back at my experience, when I was a single agent just starting out about five years ago, before I started this team, and really grew it to be the number one team at our company several years over in our region, I was encountering the same things as well; meaning, I was working harder and harder, I was working more hours, I was living in the pain of having to manage all these different needs. 30 clients, another 20 to 30 buyer relationships, all those different hats I just mentioned, and working 80, 90, 100 hour weeks. I was starting to get burned out.

And that time for me came about 18 months into the business; at that point I really knew that I needed to do something. I needed to free up my time, so I could focus more energies on the relationships that truly mattered to me; my friends, my family, and my business relationships and clients. I needed a solution.

Your first hire

I needed to hire my first employee. I needed to start to delegate and outsource some of the things that go into my day and allow me to really step back and focus on some of the key revenue producing activities that agents should be focused on.

Today let’s talk about that because I know a lot of people feel the same pain, which is, who is that first hire? When is the right time to make it? And how do we give up the control and also take on the expense, right? So we’re getting over the fear of bringing in our first employee.

The first employee should always be an admin or and assistant. For me that first hire was an Executive Assistant, her official title. She came on after about a year and a half in the business as a single solo agent. And it changed the trajectory of my business and my practice. What it did was allow me to really focus on the three to four key activities, the things that would really allow me to scale and grow my business. And that was focus on building the list of inventory; more appointments, more at-bats, if you will, with sellers, signing up more clients.

Two, it allowed me to focus more on being a really high level marketer. So I could focus on, at a problematic level, marketing my clients properties in a very effective way.

Three, it allowed me to focus on negotiations; bringing parties together. Writing, negotiating, and closing on contracts; whether we’re representing buyers or sellers.

Now the first decision again, to hire that assistant was a tough one. I was bringing on a salary now of $35,000.00 a year. I was giving up control in some of the areas that I had always been responsible for in the details. And for me it was challenging because I am very type A, very high detail oriented. I liked to be in the details and in the trenches. But I knew that if I wanted to continue to scale and grow I would have to do this.

You see, we have to. We get to a certain point where if we don’t, we’re going to burn out or we’re going to reach a ceiling. There’s only so many hours in the day and the week and we’re not really able to scale and consistently maintain a level of service and marketing results for our clients unless we do this.

It’s really critical and what I recommend you do is write a really effective advertisement. When you get to that point when you’re starting the anxiety and the stress of this business, when you’re being torn in so many different ways, when you can’t do past a certain amount of transactions a year without feeling like you’re simply on that hamster wheel, right? On the treadmill. This is and should be your first major investment in yourself, in your business and your future; and that is hire that admin, hire that assistant.

Typically, depending on your market, the salary is going to range anywhere from the low end of say about $30,000.00 to the high end of about $50,000.00, $55,000.00; again, depending on the market and the level of experience of the candidate and the general job responsibilities of what they’re doing.

So, again, you’re going to want to consult a few different sources. I’m happy to share what I did, my job description, some of the terms of employment, what the employment offer looked like: job responsibilities, duties, et cetera. If you’d like, just drop me a comment below or send me a private message; happy to share with you a resource.

But remember, that first hire should not be another agent, that’s usually your second hire. It should always be an admin or an assistant to take off some of the back office Admin duties. The paperwork, the MLS entries, the data input, the transaction management, the putting together listing packets and CMA’s. We need to streamline the workflow. Focus on what we’re really, really good at, which as a top producing agent, it’s marketing, sales, and negotiations. Right? Those should be our focal activities.

Again, if you have any questions, please drop a comment below, shoot me a message, or just reach out directly here on our Facebook page or on our website as well, which is www.keirweimer.com.

Again, I’ll talk to you guys soon. Have a great rest of the week!