Looking back and looking forwards

I want to start off today by congratulating Stephanie Porowini for her success in achieving the # 1 position in the Rate My Agent awards for the Northland region. Success is driving more success and Stephanie is running a great business out of her hometown of Whangerei.

Stephanie and I both faced the same kind of attitudes when we started what we are respectively doing. We had some fans who thought that it was a great idea and offered up kind support. There were also a lot of negative voices on the sidelines.

I don’t think any of our detractors would have thought that anyone in a remote working, boutique branded business could achieve an industry award. The sentiment would be that you would be spending so much time burdened with extra admin, there would be a lack of brand awareness and scale, and so therefore you would not be able to perform at a high level.

So, I guess the next question really is how are we really going?

Beyond the recognised results and healthy pay runs, I know Stephanie works very hard and offers amazing service. She has stuck to her brand standards and she has maintained a healthy commission structure. She invests into her business. She experiments with ideas and is quick to improve or remove if the ideas need tweaking or don’t work. She is not offering a discount service and she is not a discount salesperson. Her results are to her credit.

As for Independent Agent, I knew that I would need scale to make the business work financially. If you are a real estate agency collecting 40% or 50% from a salesperson, you are going to need less salespeople and less deals than we need. Even though we are office free, we still have staffing and marketing and AML and the myriad of other things any real estate office needs to spend money on.
My initial calculations did not factor quite how bad the market would get, and so I overestimated the number of deals that an individual salesperson in the residential market might make each month. Optimism was essential. Recruitment and efficiency necessities.

As we step into the next financial year, we proceed with an awful lot of learning behind us. I know our numbers and what we need to do. We have a growth mindset. We have a great offering that is serving more salespeople every week. Independent Agent is maturing and doing and thinking about things that you would expect a business that is developing from a start up to a more established business might be doing if they intend to grow.

We are getting better at doing better.

And so, on that note, if it’s been a while since we chatted, I would welcome a conversation. We have a clear strategy to offer the best support in the boutique branded, distributed working real estate agency space, and if your plan is growth too, I would love to talk.

Welcome back Stuart White. I have always said Independent Agent isn’t for everyone. I can add to that, that our way of working might work for someone at some times and not at others. Stu and I kept in contact after he left us for a period with an office to go to and a street-front presence. Stuart has now decided he is ready to proceed with his vision for his real estate business. I am super thrilled to have Stu back, working in the residential market in Hamilton. We wish you and your team all the best.