Be honest, nobody
really knows the right answer, nobody knows exactly what will happen, nobody,
not even EasyProp, eMoov or House Simple with their millions can produce the
future they want, on demand.
Now I know some people are better at speculating than others
... but not by much.
The people who are supposed to know rejected James Dyson
when he peddled his vacuum cleaner, Hewlett-Packard
and Atari both rejected a couple of chaps called Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak when they presented their home computer to
them. Decca rejected the Beatles and just about every record company rejected
Ed Sheeran because he was slightly chubby and ginger.
Even Warren Buffet, the billionaire entrepreneur made a $100
billion mistake in the late 1960’s by buying his insurance business through the
publically listed Berkshire Hathaway instead of his own investment partnership
hedge fund. Had he bought it the other way,
he would be worth $170 billion not the $70 billion he is worth today.
I am of the opinion that if you mistakenly believe that
there is someone who knows, you are prone to decide that whoever that person it
is, it is probably not you.
And if it's not you, what a great reason to dither to dilly
dally and hold one’s horse .. to wait and see.
I set up my company with my wife (and dog .. Joey) because I
believed there was a different way for letting and estate agents to market
themselves, to attract new business, get landlords to swap letting agents and
vendors to use one agency over another. I didn’t invent the system, I just saw
a handful of agents doing something different (that appeared to work) , and I
thought, what they were doing could be systemised. I could have sat on it and
wondered for the rest of life, or just gone for it. The hardest step is the
first.
So, if you are thinking of starting your own agency, and you
believe you have what I takes to be successful, to be different, then I say go
for it.... no one knows if it will work or not.. nobody knows if you will be
the CEO of the UK’s largest agency in 10 years or saddled with bankruptcy . You
see the gap isn't between the people who know and those that don't. It is
really between the people who turn up day after day, month after month, year
after year, with their very best work OR those people that hold back.
What are you going to do?
Your choice.
PS .. my thoughts on the title of the blog post .... not until the online'ers stop banging on on about cheap fees and start to add value