What was the most pressing matter as you got to work today at your Lettings Agency?
What was it that demanded such focused extraordinary, singular and distinct attention from you .. a job only the MD could sort?
.. and here is another question .. how important was it?
Really?
I see it all the time with the owners of Agency’s .. especially Letting Agents.
Many agency owners get sucked into sorting an issue with the leaky drain - or the issue with a s.8 notice – or the deposit dispute… they love to dive straight into doing the hectic work— sort those issues – the hero who can sort the problems
.. but I would ask, what if you were on holiday, would that issue get sorted in your absence?
99% of the time yes
So why do you get involved when you aren’t on holiday?
You need to question yourself, why it was worthy of your extraordinary, singular and distinct attention at that moment?
Would you pay someone what you pay yourself to sort a deposit dispute out?
No ..
So why pay yourself?
Your staff, your colleagues will do a good a job sorting the issue out
They might not be as awesome as you .. but I bet they bl**dy close?
… and surely, why have these staff – if you do the job for them? (I mean.. have you heard of the saying, “You don’t have a dog and bark yourself” – do you?)
The staff .. they will love you more for letting them get on with their job and let you lose on the important things .. the real issues .. the big issues that require your extraordinary, singular and distinct attention.
My intuition tells me, the better you are at taking a step back, allowing yourself to plan, review and give priority to the day to day issues (ie working on the business and not in the business) .. the more successful you will be?
.. because by jumping in, head first, every day to fire fight the small fires, you as the boss are less able to see the dirty great big forest fire behind you.
You wouldn’t expect an Army General to jump in a jeep every 5 mins if any of his hundreds of platoon under his ultimate control came under enemy fire .. but that is what a lot of agents are doing.
What to do?
Go to the photocopier and grab a plain sheet of A4 and write down on that piece of paper, the biggest issue that has the most importance to your letting agency today.
What did you write down?
Quid says it isn’t that deposit dispute, inspection, serving a s.8 notice, spending hours checking every box is ticked on your lettings software?
I bet it has things on like .. stay afloat, plan for tenant fees ban, increase turnover, increase profit
When was the last time you spent some serious time looking at those matters?
Quality time .. working ‘on’ the business instead of ‘in’ the business
I have learnt that as a person, you and the success of your agency is fashioned by choices we make.
Being self-aware of our strengths and weaknesses
The success happens when we are honest about affiliating our actions with our really important issues .. issues that matter, like growing the business, paying everyone’s wages and ensuring the business is still here in a few years time.
That’s your job .. it’s a tough one .. I know it is .. I run my business .. You run your business… but if it was easy .. everyone would be doing it… would they?