For Alex Whitlock, director at Momentum Media, “good housekeeping is critical for any business”. A little discipline in the new year can set brokers up for success.
Broker coach and mentor, Jason Back, agrees with this sentiment, providing an analogy on the importance of solid housekeeping.
“I flew in recently from overseas and on the way home from the airport I dropped into one of my properties because tenants have moved out and I’m about to probably put it on the market. There’s a bit of gardening to do now and stuff [has] overgrown and it’s something that wouldn’t have taken, maybe on a weekend, 30, 45 minutes. [It] is probably going to take me a few days now,” said Back.
So that’s the metaphor we’re working with here, is that if we let things go, if we let things get overgrown, if we let them sit on a shelf, that’s when the dust gathers, that’s when the grass dies off.”
Bringing this mentality into 2025 can ensure brokers are starting the year organised and prepared for any hiccups along the way.
However, despite the importance of remaining diligent, Back urged brokers to still keep a balance between the mundane work and the more enjoyable aspects. This can help prevent early-year burnout.
“How do I maintain the rage through the year so that I don’t get overwhelmed? I don’t have to end up with these massive projects or I don’t [need to] sit there and get analysis paralysis, it’s just too overwhelming. I don’t know where to start, so I’ll do nothing. Which is what a lot of brokers do when it comes to marketing, lead gen, processes and systems reviews of their CRM. It’s all too hard,” he said.
“It’s the old going back to how to eat an elephant. It’s those tiny little bites every day versus trying to bite off huge chunks and getting indigestion. So, if I was to look at myself and my business and what I’d be recommending to brokers is if you want to get good at this, stack the motivation for change. Work towards a goal of knowing that if you do this, you’ll get rewarded.
“I had a client of mine a few years ago who said when he reached a certain goal he was going to buy himself a new car. So I go, perfect, nice goal. Or it might be from the risk side of things. If I don’t do this, then this is the risk associated, this is the penalty I’ll get in my business or my life. So, if you really want to change the habits, if you really want to set these things up, find out what drives and motivates you.”
Whitlock provided his own experience with poor housekeeping practices, which can come back to bite.
“I love property investment. I’ve loved it for 30 years and I’ll get really granular when I’m looking at performance of properties. I’ll look at the interest rate and the rental income and what the deductions are. But I’ll tell you what I don’t do. I don’t know any of my tax planning and then I get this massive storm cloud nightmare when it comes to tax and I don’t want to do it and guess what, when it comes around it is such an ordeal and I feel so ill doing it,” he said.
“But if you know to do the things you don’t particularly enjoy doing on a regular and sustainable basis, first of all, it absolutely diminishes a horrific nightmare at any given period of time. And there’s no one thing, everyone tuning in will have their own things that they really enjoy doing, they’re really good at. They will also have aspects of their business that they feel that they’re not so good.
“And there’s usually a correlation between feeling that I’m not very good at something and not enjoying doing it. [It’s important to] build some disciplines and I’m going to go away and do this.”
In Back’s closing remarks on the upcoming Business Accelerator podcast, he noted how the beginning of the year is prime time for sorting out the fundamentals. The technical aspects of broking can wait. Early year should be about maintaining discipline and motivation.
“The technical side of the businesses for me is really easy. [The hard part is] stacking the motivation, getting people clear on their vision, [and] getting them to get the right habits in place. So these aren’t just little one tricks [or] wonders that happen over a week or a month or a quarter, but they’re built in for sustainable success … habits and business structures that can last a lifetime,” concluded Back.