COACHES CALL: (full story)
Managing Your Business From Anywhere ...
Blizzards do not make for easy transactions!’ -- a
successful veteran REALTOR® informed me while
stranded at LaGuardia Airport in the April
snowstorm! I tend to agree, while reserving one
exception: Virtual Transaction Management. I am
sure that our conversation was parallel to many of
the passengers from the 300 flights that had been
cancelled – subject: how to work on the current
business task from afar.
Our discussion began with the
usual woes of the stranded passenger, and steadily
moved into the arena of problem, solution. I will
refer to this particular REALTOR® as Mary R.
Agent, since she was not sure if she was
comfortable with her level of panic being
shared—fair enough. Mary was in the middle of
negotiating a whole house inspection, a Radon
test, and finalizing the HUD’s and particulars for
two closings the following day. Mary was pretty
savvy with technology, but had yet to enter the
‘Virtual World.’ In addition, Mary wore all of the
hats in her business. All of these are feasible
to-dos unless you are several states away with no
immediate time you will be returning. Mary was
distraught and her battery level was nearly
non-existent on her cell phone.
I asked Mary to tell me about
her business practice and what plans she had to
achieve what goals by the end of 2003. Her main
goal was to double her business and secondary,
perhaps hire an assistant or a buyer’s agent. In
order to accomplish this goal, we agreed that she
needed to streamline her business, and outsource
the transaction management piece. Her concern was
that something would fall through the cracks,
which was understandable. (Remember, Mary wears all of the
hats). Growing a business requires some risk, and
can be accomplished in small stages.
Virtual Transaction Management
was a topic that Mary had thought she had heard
mumblings about, perhaps at a seminar or trade
show, but really was not clear on what was
involved. Not intending to rub salt in her wounds
of her tasks at hand, I asked her how much she
thought her business could benefit from being able
to track all necessary steps of every transaction
from anywhere – in the world. She was speechless,
and finally quipped that she would probably double
her business and not be quite so panicked right
now.
Mary was intrigued with the
possibility of being able to manage her
transactions from anywhere outside of her office,
and of course wanted to know more. I suggested
Mary investigate potential partners for her
business’s transaction management piece on the PREVA Network site, (Professional Real Estate
Virtual Assistants Network), as well as
recommended a few contacts to assist her with her
outsourcing needs. Mary was ready to take the
first step to move her realistically toward her
goals.
Mary’s business will increase
this year, simply by going after her goal with the
guidance from an outside source. She had never
considered teaming with a business coach to access
and advise ways to retool and streamline her
business. Her parting comment was that she not
only was motivated and had a targeted vision, but
she had greater confidence with the realization
that some of her toughest time constraint tasks
would now be accomplished outside of her business,
and she can still manage her transactions from
anywhere!
In the end, only a handful of
flights left LaGuardia, the rest of us were left
to our own devices and scheduled to fly out the
next day; which if you remember, was Mary’s
deadline day. I know you are concerned with Mary’s
plight and how in the world did we accomplish her
immediate needs…simple: sometimes membership pays
in the airlines ‘clubs’—Mary was able to nearly
virtually exchange documents with her clients and
finalize the next days closings. Result for Mary:
problems met solutions.
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