ePOWER CONTEST: (full story)
We Have A Winner! ...
Our winner submitted not one, but two "killer"
ideas for the most creative use of a VA contest!
And this online pro walks his talk because he's
already implemented one of them. Read on to see
exactly how he is transforming his business
using VAs and how you can, too.
Both submissions from Lee
Bittinger (broker/owner
RE/MAX Classic in Detroit, MI) stood out as
the most well thought out and unique from all the
others. He has already implemented one of his
ideas (don’t you just love people who take
ACTION!) —and here is what he did:
Avoiding End-Of-Year Chaos
Using A Virtual Bookkeeper
This is not an idea that is
hard to implement. Most agents are trying to get
their day-to-day real estate activities done. One
area we don't let our assistants touch is our
financial accounting. We just don't want them to
know how much money is coming in and out of our
accounts.
The accounting is what always
gets put off and we end up cramming at the end of
the year to get all the stuff input into
Quickbooks.
This year we hired a VA to do
just that. She is connecting into one of the
computers that are hooked to our network by "gotomypc.com".
The receipts and other documents are scanned in
and e-mailed to her. She inputs all our expenses
and income in the proper location. She is expert
in QuickBooks so we set up a chart of accounts
that we all understand.
Now it is a pleasure because
our books are kept up to date and we can open
Quickbooks and see where we are financially as
well as run reports anytime we want and be sure it
reflects accurate information.
Because this function is not
a nuts & bolts function you have to have to sell
real estate, most agents wait until the end of the
year and give a shoe box of bills and receipts to
their accountant. Instead they could set this
system, up and be totally updated every year for
tax purposes. This would likely save them money
too because they could run reports or have VA run
reports if they don't know how to use Quickbooks
and know what to bring to their accountant to make
end of year adjustments.
I truly think this is one of
those ideas that is easy to set up and has big
payoff for the agent.
Now just take a moment to
fully absorb the “gift” that Lee has given you
here. He essentially laid out a step-by-step
process (and the reasoning behind it) to
completely eliminate an otherwise end of year
headache and “production robber”.
Lee, being who he is, didn’t
stop there. He also submitted a very clever idea
on how to use a VA for the specific purpose of
helping clients to seamlessly switch of all of
their utilities and other vendor services involved
during their move. This a terrific (and original)
value-added service idea that will help Lee and
his company stand out from the crowd. Just
CLICK
HERE to see the full text of his idea in Word file
format.
(NOTE: depending upon the browser you are using,
you may need to "right-click" to save this Word
file to disk before opening it.)
Leaders Lead...
Frankly, I’m not too
surprised that Lee won this contest and in fact
did much more than asked –a sign of true
leadership. It is also not too surprising that
Lee’s company is the farthest along with my new
ePOWER! Groups program. He is using it to create
an unbeatable Internet marketing “Delta Force” of
elite Internet-savvy agents within his company
–another sign of leadership.
(NOTE: If you are a
broker/owner or trainer for your company,
CLICK HERE to learn more about the very
powerful ePOWER! Groups program).
Leaders lead (and most often
by example), it’s that simple. IMHO, Lee
Bittinger is the best example in the industry that
meets those criteria. So many talk the talk —Lee
walks his!
Lee can contact via e-mail at
leebittinger@remax.net or by phone at
734-459-1010. In addition to being a great leader,
he’s a great human being and I’m sure he wouldn’t
mind touching base with you. |
