How can one agent like Phil Herman close more than 400 transactions in one year? How can an agent's work grow his or her business year after year while not driving themselves crazy in the process? How do experienced agents avoid burn-out?

The answer to all of these questions is as simple as one little word: systems.

Systems are consistent methods of executing tasks that are necessary to your success as a businessperson. They are designed to simplify the process and relieve key personnel from the day-to-day operations that keep your business operating and growing. Without systems, there is only so much one person can achieve. There are only 24 hours in a day and a limited amount of energy to expend on your business -- that is, without running yourself ragged and into deteriorating health.

How Would You Franchise What You Do?

The key to developing systems is to think about your business as if you were turning it into a franchise. With a franchise, you cannot rely solely on the talent of a chef to make a perfect hamburger every time, and you cannot rely on hope to get all the other myriad details handled every day. That's why franchises have elaborate systems for doing everything. Think of how they assemble a sandwich at a Subway restaurant: everything from the way they cut the bread to how and when they apply the condiments is dictated and taught from a system developed by Subway management.

This is the approach you need to take about every aspect of your business. Start by focusing on one particular aspect of your business and think through the entire process. After you have thought it through, you write it down. Then work through any problems or exceptions that you can think of, and write down a plan to deal with the exceptions. As you write, weave the reasons you are doing this into your plan so that every time you read through it you are reminded of what your values are.

A Blueprint For Your Business

Your goal in creating systems should be that once you complete documenting systems for everything you do, you would have a complete blueprint that you could hand over to someone and they could run your business without your involvement. Of course, in practical application, there will be training involved, but creating that "master plan" should be your goal. Having such a document is a powerful thing, too: the clearer your vision for your business, the stronger businessperson you become. That also leads me to another important topic that agents need to face.

Avoiding Burnout

Is "burnout" the inevitable result of doing well in real estate? In my opinion, the answer is no. The reality is that burnout is a direct result of failure to systematize your real estate business so that you can control it -- instead of it controlling you.

Best of all, systematizing your business is not that hard. All it takes is a little bit of discipline, but the payoff is huge. Systems will not only make you more productive, but help you enjoy your life and your career -- and isn't that what it's all about anyway? So let's take a look at the systems you need to put in place to avoid becoming a shooting star.

Set Your Schedule and Stick to It!

The first, and one of the most effective, burnout reducers is to develop a systematic plan for your work time and your time off. One of the most insidious parts of being a Realtor® is that it can consume you 24/7. There is always something more you could do and soon you find that you have no life. When you are getting started, there is so much to do and learn, it seems overwhelming. But unless you spend some time thinking about how to use your time most effectively now, you will drive negative patterns of behavior into your mind and sooner or later they will come back to bite you.

My best suggestion is to start by committing to your days off. You need to take at least one full day and one half-day off per week and at least one three-day weekend per month, as well as at least two weeks of vacation time per year.

Put It in Writing!

Now you have a system that you can put in place and follow. If you just think about it and tell yourself you are going to operate this way, it will never happen. You have to write it down and implement it. The good news is that using this basic process, you can systematize anything. Best of all, once you have systems in place it becomes easy for you to train an assistant how to follow them. It is also much easier to work on and improve your systems over time.

The challenge is that it is mentally exhausting to think through and write out a system, and in the short term it will take you longer than just doing it. The downside to growing your business is that you have to keep it all straight in your head, and I guarantee you it will start stressing you out and eventually, no matter how brilliant you are, it will create service failures and burn you out.

How Systems Create Peace of Mind

Unfortunately, many agents believe that if they systematize everything they do, it will stifle their freedom and creativity. Top producers like Allan Domb, who close over 1,000 transactions per year, understand that it's the systems that they have in place to handle the routine, ordinary transactions that give them the ability to be creative when the need arises -- as well as to be able to go home every night knowing that everything is under control, instead of trying to deal with that nagging thought that something has been forgotten.

The bottom line is that you must become a systems master. The key is looking for repetitive patterns and streamlining your business around them. You need to look for how to take yourself out of the equation. Everything from your listing service to your marketing can be systematized. It took me years of regular refinement and thought to develop the listing service system that I now teach. Agents use this as a starting point to develop their own personal listing service system. My payoff in making every client happy and being able to go to sleep at night knowing my business is under control is priceless. Hobbs/Herder research shows that the more systems an agent has in place, the happier an agent is, both personally and professionally.

Published: October 10, 2006

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