By Carole Hawkins, [email protected]
A broker, a marketing specialist and an accountant – the year would start off much better if every Realtor got to consult with each one of these.
Those who attended the Women’s Council of Realtors’ January business lunch got to do just that. A panel of professionals — Selby Keiser of The Legends of Real Estate, Alaina Batts of Beson4 Media Group and Billy Morrow of The LBA Group — fielded questions from members at WCR’s first meeting of the year.
When do you start and how far you take out a business plan?
You should’ve started about this time last year to get to this year. Because, you have to keep evaluating all the time — where your business comes from, how you marketed yourself last year, what paid off, what didn’t pay off.
With us, most of our business is personal referrals, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t do any marketing. We market our listings and ourselves all the time because we don’t manage to touch our sphere of influence on a daily basis.
But find out where you got your business last year and put that into the mix, because that’s what you need to focus on.
How often do you look back at your goal plan during the year?
It depends on how busy I am. I’m just being honest here. If you’re really busy, you don’t have time to look at that.
But, when things start slowing down and you’re having that nagging — oh, I need to be doing something to get it going again — look at your plan.
Chances are good you’ve neglected or forgotten something that you’ve done in the past. Or, look around for that new thing that you need to be doing.
– Selby Keiser, broker, The Legends of Real Estate
What is the hot new inexpensive trend in marketing for businesses?
Everybody knows it’s social media. It can be done on your own, without spending any money. Or, it can be made even better by spending a small amount of money.
For real estate, Facebook is a great way to be in front of potential customers.
Create a business page and photo albums of your listings. Name the album the address of your property, upload all of the photos and share it with everybody that you know. The great thing about Facebook is the interactions. You can see exactly how many people see it without spending any money.
If you boost it for $20, you can select exactly what zip code you want, what demographic you want and what specific interests people have. You can do that with a daily budget or for a lifetime. For example, you could be boosted for three days and see what $20 gets you. It’s really great to kind of experiment with it. But Facebook, that’s a no-brainer.
What is the biggest mistake that’s made in marketing?
Not knowing your brand and not having a cohesive look and feel for everything that you do.
For example, you may have four or five different avenues of marketing that have worked for you in the past, but they’re not cohesive. A person may see all five of those ads, but they don’t connect them all, because one has a black logo, another has a green design.
– Alaina Batts, marketing consultant, Beson4 Media Group
Financial strategies
What is the benefit of working with a CPA instead of doing it yourself?
Most people come to us because they’ve encountered a really significant problem, either in their business or through a taxing authority, usually the IRS.
Or, they were in a conversation at a Christmas or New Year’s party and they realized they hadn’t been doing things right for years. The industry is very complicated and it’s gotten more and more complicated. You need to work with somebody can simplify the tax rules.
What is the biggest mistake Realtors make with taxes?
Not taking advantage of deductions for using personal property for your business — home use or vehicle use.
Also, I think people are missing out on a deferral opportunity afforded through the 401(k) deductions. Selecting the right plan gives you the ability to take a good portion — up to $50,000 in profits — and defer them into retirement plans.
Also, if you’re under 45 and not putting some money into a Roth, you’re missing out. You don’t get a tax deduction, that’s true. But all of the growth is tax-free.
– Billy Morrow, CPA and partner, The LBA Group